Vets or Dog People: Question For You

[Reefgazer]

My sister is bringing her dog to the vet about this for answers, but I was just wondering:  What maladies can cause cluster seizures (every 6-7 hours) in dogs?  Dog is an 8 year old Husky, seizures started every few months several months ago and have increased in frequency, dog is otherwise acting normal (eating, playing, drinking), no history of medical problems.  What are the possibilities here? 

[Pen]

Epilepsy

Toxic exposures

Bad reaction to medicine or vaccination 

Brain trauma or tumor

...

 

[Pen]

Is anything preceding it even if not immediately like visit to groomer or monthly flea med, etc?

 

[Lori D.]

Valley Fever, if living in (or dog traveled through) the U.S. Southwest. (Diagnosed through an expensive blood test.)

The fungus that causes Valley Fever can attack many parts of the dog, presenting in many different ways:
- lungs = a dry "horking" cough / pneumonia / mass in the lungs
- bones = causing limping or hunching pain
- eyes = causing flinching/squinching or loss of sight
- brain = causing seizures

Edited March 14, 2019 by Lori D.

[Shoeless]

10 minutes ago, Pen said:

Epilepsy

Toxic exposures

Bad reaction to medicine or vaccination 

Brain trauma or tumor

...

 

Add liver disease, renal failure, low blood sugar to the list, although you would likely notice other symptoms of those conditions in the dog, not merely seizures.  The vet will still want to run labwork to make sure it's not any of those things.  If all those are normal and physical exam is normal, I would expect the vet to recommend starting on phenobarbital.  Your sister will have to give the anti-seizure meds daily and bring the dog in for periodic lab work to make sure the drugs are at a therapeutic level in the blood stream, and also to check that the pheno isn't having a negative effect on the liver.    

Edited March 14, 2019 by MissLemon

[Reefgazer]

3 hours ago, Pen said:

Is anything preceding it even if not immediately like visit to groomer or monthly flea med, etc?

 

No, my sister can't correlate it with anything.

[Reefgazer]

3 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Valley Fever, if living in (or dog traveled through) the U.S. Southwest. (Diagnosed through an expensive blood test.)

The fungus that causes Valley Fever can attack many parts of the dog, presenting in many different ways:
- lungs = a dry "horking" cough / pneumonia / mass in the lungs
- bones = causing limping or hunching pain
- eyes = causing flinching/squinching or loss of sight
- brain = causing seizures

They are not in the southwest, and he seems normal otherwise.

[Pawz4me]

So many things can cause seizures. Unfortunately, in middle aged/older dogs it's usually not idiopathic epilepsy (although sometimes it is, just not usually). As already mentioned, I'd want kidneys and liver checked--I assume any vet would want to do a CBC and chem panel as a basic first step. Also maybe check for diabetes, although I'd think other symptoms of that would have been noticed. It's not impossible that the trigger is something in the dog's environment (like mouse bait or something used on the lawn), but probably not likely since the frequency is increasing.

In the last dog I had who developed seizures in middle age, they were caused by a rare disease called granulomatous meningoencephalitis (GME). It's a horrible, heart breaking diagnosis. I'm not posting that to scare you--it's extremely unlikely that it's your sister's dog's problem--but just to point out that there are causes of seizures that most of us have never heard of. 

[Lori D.]

8 hours ago, Reefgazer said:

They are not in the southwest, and he seems normal otherwise.

Whew! I am so sorry your sister's pet is seizing, and hope they can quickly find out why, and successfully treat.

[Reefgazer]

9 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

So many things can cause seizures. Unfortunately, in middle aged/older dogs it's usually not idiopathic epilepsy (although sometimes it is, just not usually). As already mentioned, I'd want kidneys and liver checked--I assume any vet would want to do a CBC and chem panel as a basic first step. Also maybe check for diabetes, although I'd think other symptoms of that would have been noticed. It's not impossible that the trigger is something in the dog's environment (like mouse bait or something used on the lawn), but probably not likely since the frequency is increasing.

In the last dog I had who developed seizures in middle age, they were caused by a rare disease called granulomatous meningoencephalitis (GME). It's a horrible, heart breaking diagnosis. I'm not posting that to scare you--it's extremely unlikely that it's your sister's dog's problem--but just to point out that there are causes of seizures that most of us have never heard of. 

These are the kinds of things my sister is worried sick over.  She has a vet appointment tomorrow afternoon.

[Reefgazer]

 Update:  My sister brought the dog to the vet and blood work showed nothing abnormal; so they don’t really know what it is causing his seizures.  They speculate either barometric pressure changes (which apparently is a thing with dogs) or a brain tumor.  That gave her meds to stop the seizures, but really she just has to watch him overtime and see what develops. 

Edited March 16, 2019 by Reefgazer

[Pawz4me]

I hope the medication helps!

[ktgrok]

Just FYI, the seizure meds like phenobarbital can make the dog sleepy initially, but then they adjust and go back to normal. so if she's noticing side effects like that don't panic, they usually even out after a while. 

[Beaniemom]

Also you can get the phenobarbital prescription sent to a regular pharmacy and have it filled.  It was much cheaper for us to do it this way.