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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 317
Location: Idaho | So I have a blue heeler that will be two in September and he had his first seizure (that I had seen) about a month ago. It only lasted about a minute and a half or so but seemed like forever. Then he had a second one two nights ago. When he has them he still listens and stays calm and when I ask him to lay down he does and just kind of lets himself come out of it....it's like all of his mussels tense up and he looks like a new born foal trying to stand up...then when it's over he shakes for about 2-3 minutes and then is fine and acting like nothing happened. My question is should I get him put on medication or is he getting into something that is causing these? We've been staying at a friend's place for about a month until we get our place and he never did this until we started staying here. I haven't seen mouse poisoning out anywhere but I know they have it in the tackroom and stuff, and I know if he gets into that it will kill him, but if he ate a mouse that had eaten mouse poisoning would it cause him to have seizures? I've never dealt with a dog having seizures and I feel so bad for him! Just hoping he doesn't start having them more frequently... |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 322
| dashofdust - 2015-04-15 10:37 AM So I have a blue heeler that will be two in September and he had his first seizure (that I had seen) about a month ago. It only lasted about a minute and a half or so but seemed like forever. Then he had a second one two nights ago. When he has them he still listens and stays calm and when I ask him to lay down he does and just kind of lets himself come out of it....it's like all of his mussels tense up and he looks like a new born foal trying to stand up...then when it's over he shakes for about 2-3 minutes and then is fine and acting like nothing happened. My question is should I get him put on medication or is he getting into something that is causing these? We've been staying at a friend's place for about a month until we get our place and he never did this until we started staying here. I haven't seen mouse poisoning out anywhere but I know they have it in the tackroom and stuff, and I know if he gets into that it will kill him, but if he ate a mouse that had eaten mouse poisoning would it cause him to have seizures? I've never dealt with a dog having seizures and I feel so bad for him! Just hoping he doesn't start having them more frequently...
My blue heeler has seizures too. He freezes up as well for about a minute no more than two minutes, but he never shakes. He will try to walk to me, but you can tell his muscles wont let him move. It's sad cause you can tell all he wants is to get to me. I will sit next to him and talk/pet calmly through it... It does feel like forever each and every time. I took him to the vet a few times and they said the side effects of the medication were worse than the seizures he was having. He was probably having one a month. I did quite a bit of research and found an article (too bad I didnt keep it) that linked grain in dog food to seizures.
Once I put my heeler on a quality grain free dog food hes maybe had 1 or 2 seizures a year. Of course I'm not with him 100% of the day, but I can usually tell by his demenor that day if he had one or not. I am no medical/vet professional and by no means telling you if you do this he will be fine, but this is what has worked for me. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 317
Location: Idaho | Mis_Trev - 2015-04-15 9:10 AM dashofdust - 2015-04-15 10:37 AM So I have a blue heeler that will be two in September and he had his first seizure (that I had seen) about a month ago. It only lasted about a minute and a half or so but seemed like forever. Then he had a second one two nights ago. When he has them he still listens and stays calm and when I ask him to lay down he does and just kind of lets himself come out of it....it's like all of his mussels tense up and he looks like a new born foal trying to stand up...then when it's over he shakes for about 2-3 minutes and then is fine and acting like nothing happened. My question is should I get him put on medication or is he getting into something that is causing these? We've been staying at a friend's place for about a month until we get our place and he never did this until we started staying here. I haven't seen mouse poisoning out anywhere but I know they have it in the tackroom and stuff, and I know if he gets into that it will kill him, but if he ate a mouse that had eaten mouse poisoning would it cause him to have seizures? I've never dealt with a dog having seizures and I feel so bad for him! Just hoping he doesn't start having them more frequently... My blue heeler has seizures too. He freezes up as well for about a minute no more than two minutes, but he never shakes. He will try to walk to me, but you can tell his muscles wont let him move. It's sad cause you can tell all he wants is to get to me. I will sit next to him and talk/pet calmly through it... It does feel like forever each and every time. I took him to the vet a few times and they said the side effects of the medication were worse than the seizures he was having. He was probably having one a month. I did quite a bit of research and found an article (too bad I didnt keep it) that linked grain in dog food to seizures.
Once I put my heeler on a quality grain free dog food hes maybe had 1 or 2 seizures a year. Of course I'm not with him 100% of the day, but I can usually tell by his demenor that day if he had one or not. I am no medical/vet professional and by no means telling you if you do this he will be fine, but this is what has worked for me.
Thank you! I'll have to look into that. |
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 Texas Tenderheart
Posts: 6715
  
Location: Red Raiderland | First I feel for you having to watch it, it is so scary, you feel helpless for them. As long as he isn't up on the bed or anything I wouldn't ask anything of him while he is seizing just make the room dark and quiet and wait it out. My girl does the same as yours and acts completely normal a few mins after she is done with one. Second, get him to the vet and see what they think. I have a Dachshund that had her first one at 5 yrs old (same type your boy is having, lasting about a min. or so) and didn't have another for a year then six months and then every few months. Last summer she started to have them quite often and I finally took her to a nuerologist, per my regular vet, because she also has high liver enzymes so she couldn't just be put on the phena. The neurologist put her on liquid Keppra ad when we finally got her dose adjusted she has been perfectly normal(normal for her-lol) She has not had a seizure since March 5th which is a big deal. They tell me that seizures are very common in dogs especially Dachshunds but of all the Dachsies we, me and my family, have had we never had one with seizure disorder. Anyway, don't get too worried until you get a chance for the vet to take a good look at him. I'm sure he will be just fine once you get him adjusted on meds.
Believe it or not my girl just had a seizure while I was typing this. It lasted about 3 or 4 mins. She's done and acting normal.   |
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 Heeler Hoarder
Posts: 2067
 
| He probably needs placed on phenobarbital. Pretty common in little dogs we have had two on it and I worked at a vet for awhile. Take him in for a vet visit and let them check his levels maybe even X-rays to make sure it's not a tumor etc. causing it. |
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Heeler Hoarder
Posts: 2067
| Also if he has another like mentioned above put him in a dark room with no noise and just sit with him trying to keep him calm. I know you can give Valium to help calm them. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 317
Location: Idaho | When he had his seizure the other night he tried to run and hide like he could feel it coming on and he didn't make it very far before he tried to get back to me and I got him to lay down next to me then we put a blanket over him so that it was dark and he seemed to come out of it shortly after we did that. Looks like a trip to the vet is in order. Thank you all for the advice! |
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 Expert
Posts: 1392
Location: Central Texas | One of my Danes started having seizures about a year ago. They were bad...gran mal seizures...absolutely horrible to watch and they were getting worse. We ended up putting her on Pheno and she hasn't had one since. We take her to get her pheno levels checked every 2-3 months. So far so good. The first couple of weeks on the pheno I had serious doubts. She was not herself and seemed miserable. We were warned about the side effects but now that we have her levels correct she has returned to the happy playful dog that she was before all the seizures. |
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