My only advice is not to let your vet lable it 'epilepsy' without some heavy duty testing. The knee jerk reaction is to put a dog on pheonbarb or KBR. But unless you've ruled out TBDs, bacterial infections, brain tumors, that med route will just mask symptoms without getting at root cause - which may be treatable.

What's TBD's?

We had an Aussie mix that suffered seizures. I think he had them before we took him in, from a family with a new baby. The phenobarb did wonders for him, for a year or two.

Then, there was a day when we couldn't get him to stop seizing. After two hours, he had brain damage, and had to be euthanized.

Do get all the testing you can, to see what can be done. Shaking her head while playing is common, and doesn't lead to seizures that I know of. Our Aussie would have his spells in the early evening, and would seek me out, to sit in my lap until it was over.

Also, make absolutely sure your baby is not getting into chocolate, or anything else toxic. It can lead to seizures.

I have a friend with a dog that has epilepsy. The vet was having trouble getting them under control until my friend changed her food to Canidae. The company makes no claims about that, but it has made a world of difference for my friend's dog. And I think there is at least one premium dog food that is formulated specifically to help dogs with epilepsy. Don't assume that Science Diet is the best thing out there just because it is heavily advertised to vets.

When my older dog was having focal seizures and I finally detected them, I wished it was epilepsy, but hers was a brain tumor. Dogs that start having seizures at a young age usually have epilepsy, which is much better than a tumor.

She had another about 5 hours after the first. I just happened to be talking to my DIL, who works for a vet when it started. She timed it and it was just over a minute. We got in touch with our vet and he had us bring her in (on Sunday) to do bloodwork. FOR NOW, he has put her on Phenobarb until we get the results back, then we will go from there.

She has a sibling here in the household and he is fine. We went through all the possiblities for toxins with a list from my DIL. We couldn't come up with anything at all that she would be exposed to and he wouldn't. Since the first one was so early in the morning, she hadn't had time to get into anything that morning outside as DH was with them when he let them out to potty.

The only thing she does differently is that she catches lizards, but doesn't really eat them. She doesn't bother toads anymore since one jumped back at her when she was very little.

I feed them Nutro and I know some people don't like it. We have had no problems with it, our last dog living till 14 on it and the dog before to 18. If it seems a change will help, I will certainly check into it. We did throw away all the bags we had open and the treats too. Cleaned their bowls and the bin we keep the food bags in with diluted bleach water.

I appreciate everyone's help. I can't imagine going through this with a child, its terrible with our puppy.
During my years of teaching kindergarten, I had three kids who had epilepsy. Each one was different in the way the meds controlled the seizures. For one it was just barely managable and the poor child could not retain any info long term. One whose seizures were more frequent could actually learn and retain. Strange to think that it could be the same with Andi.

If anyone else cares to chimne in, please do so.

Hypoglycemic seizures are also a possibility. They are caused by plummeting blood sugar levels. My old (16+) girl is going through this. The probably diagnosis is pancreatic cancer, but we are not pursuing any additional tests for her, since she's got some other health issues, and has lived a long and happy life.

We've been able to manage her condition extremely well by feeding her small meals (canned dog food mixed with cooked brown rice) every 4 hours. We've modified the overnight feeding so that she now eats at midnight and 6AM, so we are all sleeping a bit better :o) She thinks that eating 6 times a day is just BRILLIANT!

The complex carb (brown rice) is designed to give her some steady fuel to burn, to avoid blood sugar peaks and valleys. Seems to be working well so far.

I thought of the possibility that the seizures might be blood-sugar rather than brain-based when you said that the first seizure occurred in the early morning. I had noticed that my girl was starting to seize often as I was preparing breakfast, and realized that she probably needed something to carry her from her normal 6PM feed through the night. Since we've added the late-night meal and the early-morning feed, she has not displayed any morning symptoms.

If the seizures are related to blood sugar levels (and not "brain" epilepsy), you will probably be able to bring her out of it if you feed her a little Karo syrup before the seizure progresses too far, before she is not able to swallow anything. This has worked really well for us, but you do have to catch it early. I work from home, which lets me keep a close eye on her for brow twitching and head shaking - her signals that a seizure is starting.

My friend who has a diabetic brother recommended using a tube of white cake icing instead of the Karo syrup. The icing is much easier to squirt into her mouth, and MUCH less sticky and messy than the Karo syrup.

Hope this helps.

Susan

Thanks, I might get some to have on hand. But I have been warned to keep my hands away from her mouth. As ridig as she was yesterday, if she clamped down, you wouldn't get loose.

She had a dose of Phenobarb about 5 yesterday, another at 11 and then at 7:30 this morning. She won't get another till 7:30 tonight and that will get her on a 12 hour cycle. She hasn't had another seizure, actually went from noon till 5 without any yesterday afternoon before the meds.

She is about at her weight limit, 25 lbs, but I have noticed that the last couple of days she has seemed really hungry. She keeps going in and looking at the dog food bin and sniffing it. Yesterday morning after she had eaten what she wanted of her morning food, I picked it up and I noticed she would stand on her hind legs sniffing the counter. She gulped what was left last evening when I put it down for her. But then again so did her brother.

I don't know what I could wish the problem might be. I would hate to know it is a brain disorder - tumor or such, or like yours pancreatic cancer. Then again, epilepsy doesn't sound good either since she is so young. I think I would rather it be "fixable" and not something that she would have to take meds for the rest of her life.

I am scared to let her out of my site right now. She did sleep in her bed last night, which is in the laundry room. I didn't sleep well, always listening for anything that soundsed like her moving around. Luckily she tends to follow me around all day anyway.

My toy poodle also has seizures and I can relate to how scary they are to witness. The first one I saw made me cry. I felt so bad. It seemed to last forever.

She was about 18 months when we got her and saw her first seizure. Her diagnosis is epilepsy... I am not sure what tests were run on her. I was just relieved to find out it wasn't a brain tumor.

She gets phenabarb twice a day and gets her blood levels checked every 6 months. We keep her on the lowest dosage possible. She's 3 now and so far so good.

The most important thing on phenabarb is to make sure she gets her pill 12 hours apart, every day and night. For me it means never sleeping in past 7:30 again, but it is worth it.

My dog will have what is called a break thru seizure every 3 or 4 months, but they are much "easier" on her - they don't last very long and usually she just gets the shakes for a few minutes, nothing like her first few where she went rigid and writhed around on the bed. The second one we saw she actually fell down the stairs before we could get to her. :(

Hang in there. It is tough and scary to see your baby suffering but the medicine will make it better if your vet determines she does have epilepsy.

Sher

Give her a little snack before bedtime. Don't know how it works, but it could help even though she's already on meds. I was wondering when I answered initially if - given the 'back to bed' on Sunday routine you have- if her breakfast was late. A little food before bed may help. Doesn't solve the underlying issue and lack of food didn't cause the problem, but it does help some dogs.

If she has to be on meds the rest of her life, count yourself lucky. I mean that, the alternative is a shortened and less rich life.

Actually I had gotten in the habit of feeding them later in the morning, closer to 8:30 or so. I have moved that up now cause as with humans, I thought the meds would work better with something on the tummy.

So far so good today. She has been a little more sleepy than normal but the vet said she would adjust to the meds after a few days. She has played and done her Lizard Patrol as usual.

I should get the results back tomorrow from the lab work.

The following link is a very good list of reasons for seizures with good explanations as to what each one is and how to test.

Here is a link that might be useful: Why is my dog having seizures.

If you've read through the posts on here, then you've likely read some of the things I've posted about my dog, Mocha, and his seizures.

I can't recommend highly enough the "Epi Guardian Angels" website about dog seizures. They were a tremendous help to me when Mocha first started seizing at 2 years old. I know first hand how frightening that can be.

He is now 5 and doing wonderfully. He started with one, then 2 weeks later another, and then a "cluster". It became a monthly or every two week ritual of panic for me.

With medication, Mocha is down to 1 or 2 seizures a year. That's fantastic considering that aussies are EXTREMELY hard to gain seizure-control with.

Below is a link to the Epi Guardian Angels site. They discuss diet and the various reasons why a dog may begin having seizures. Best wishes!

Here is a link that might be useful: Epi Guardian Angels

We got her bloodwork tests results back and everything was normal. So far she is doing fine, no more seizures on a fourth gran of Phenobarb two times a day.

I take her in for bloodwork late next week to see how the Phenobarb levels are doing.

I contacted the breeder. He was concerned of course, but he suggested it might have been brought on from a tick bite or from her licking a Bufo Toad. I am not going to get into an arguement it at this point but I know for a fact that she doesn't have ticks and that we watch her closely when she is out and we have never seen a Bufo Toad in our yard. They are in parts of Florida though.

I will send him a copy of her doctor's visit and tests results. I checked out our Health Warranty and to keep it in force, I needed to contact him and I certainly wanted him to know in case there may be a genetic problem. He hasn't bred the parents since the litter our pups came from and hasn't heard of any problems from the other buyers.

I am just keeping my fingers crossed that we can manage this.