Thread: epilepsy in dogs?

Originally Posted by tomo

Have been informed by our vet that our vizsla either has a brain tumor or epilepsy, we are going to get some test done to establish what it is, just wandering if anyone has a dog with epilepsy and how hard it is to manage and how hard it is on the dog?

How old is the dog? Epilepsy is most often diagnosed in young adult dogs, if the dog is older, it may be more likely to be something more sinister. As some others have mention low blood glucose is a separate issue - sometimes due to an insulin secreting tumour in the pancreas. Blood work is often done to rule out some other electrolyte abnormalities/liver disease etc. Heart failure is another rule-out for a fitting dog: eg fainting under excercise can easily be mistaken for a fit.
As far as actual epilepsy:
There are various medications for epilepsy, some of which have a sedative effect. Epilepsy isnt always medicated, only if the dog is fitting mutliple times a week or for longer than few minutes each time. "true" epilepsy has 3 phases, an initial time when the dog might looks a bit off, then the true fit which might be localised trembling or a whole body loss of consciousness, then the time afterwards when the dog is again not quite with it. Picking these phases can help with the diagnosis - there isnt any one test for it otherwise its an elimination of other possibilities.
Triggers for epilepsy in an affected animal are anything that creates excitement in the brain - heat, excercise loud noises, flickering movements and so on. A working or hunting dog that fits occasionally isnt always a big deal but frequent fits can be problem and there is always a risk of falling down a bluff (have heard of this happening)or even drowning if they fit at a bad time. Not ideal in a gundog.