Dog health question--vets?

[MotherGoose]

Hi

I have a 16 1/2 year old dachshund. He's had two back surgeries for IVDD and is in a wheelchair. Last night he awoke me having a seizure. He's never had one before but I've seen people have them, and he had the same symptoms--frothing at the mouth, urinating, uncontrollable movement. He seems fine this morning, and has a vet appt on next Monday. As I recall from people seizures, they aren't inherently harmful, as long as you aren't hurt while having one. Is this just another symptom of old age? Any reason I should take him to the vet sooner?

[RoughCollie]

I would take him to the vet today.  At the very least, I would call the vet to discuss the situation.  My vet would tell me to bring the dog in.

[Isabella]

I really have nothing to advise, as I'm not familiar with seizures in dogs, but I wanted to give you a hug! :grouphug:  It seems like this little guy is a trooper! 

[rmtzc2009]

I've heard our vet give the advice that a dog should be seen within 6 hours of the seizure so that specific tests can be ran.

[MotherGoose]

I called the vet and am awaiting a return call. It's been more than 6 hours, happened around 1 AM.

[SewLittleTime]

Just reading this tonight. Any update on how your dog is doing?

[kroe1]

When my dog had her first seizure, I took her in quickly to make sure it was not an electrolyte problem that could be easily corrected.

[Suzanne115]

How is your dog?  I have been thinking about him.  In December, I lost my boy that had a lot of health problems including seizures.  I took him in right away after his first seizure.  None of his tests were ever conclusive so it didn't really help him. 

 

I hope your little guy is doing better!

Suzanne

[MotherGoose]

Thanks so much! He's his normal rotten self! Vet said I didn't have to bring him in unless it happened again before next week. He's eating and drinking fine. I'm very upset about his decline though--16 years is a long time to have a dog.

[Paige]

My dog is a shepherd mix and about the same age as yours and he has had a few seizures too. I took him in after the first one but not after any of the others. The vet said that there is nothing he would recommend for a dog that age for seizures. He said that if he were younger, he may run some tests and consider putting him on medication to control the seizures if they became frequent. The medication requires frequent monitoring, however, which would be very stressful for him, it's expensive, and may or may not help. He said the medication is highly controlled so he could not give it to us unless we committed to bring the dog in for blood tests that confirm he is actually getting it and we aren't using it or selling it. I'm not sure if he said we had to bring him in weekly or twice a month, but it was more than monthly. Maybe that is a state law and not true everywhere.

 

My dog has had 1-2 seizures where afterwards he was a little wobbly and disoriented, but most of them he seems completely fine afterwards. He started having them about 6mos ago and will have some days where he seems to have 5-6 seizures one after the other and then he may go more than a month with no seizures. His first one was the worst and the rest look like mini strokes. My dog is very healthy other than that and still runs around like a puppy. To be honest, I kind of hope when he passes away it is sudden and from something like one massive seizure at the end of a busy day chasing squirrels instead of from a slow and painful decline full of normal diseases of aging.

[MotherGoose]

I'm not interested in him being on more meds either. The stress of having to take him into the vet so often would not be good for him. He sleeps most of the time, but seems content. And he loves to snuggle :)