10 sec seizure - Page 1

Hi, I know this is a GSD site, and I do love GSDs very much, but my Standard American Eskimo, Frosty, just had a 10-second seizure or something.. At around 9:10pm EDT my 14 year old, spayed female Eskie fell to her side (not a hard, straightforward fall though), her head was going in slow circles and her eyes were 'spazing'; her gums were normal however. It lasted for about 10-20 seconds, and I got her to snap out of it and she stood up and walked around, she even walked down our cellar stairs with no trouble..
Before this she was panting I believe, but not heavily, and she did drink some water too.
She's fine now from what I can tell..

I have no idea what caused that, she has never done this before.. Any ideas?

I will be taking her to the vet tomorrow to see if anything's up.

At that age I think it could be a lot of things. Don't panic and wait to see what your vet says. I have a 13 year old that has focal seizures now and then. She gets a faraway look in her eyes and her head shakes. She's had  blood work and an EKG, all were within normal range for her age. Sometimes old dogs have seizures due to low blood sugar, so it wouldn't hurt to feed her mulitple small meals throughout the day.  She may have had one or two seizures before that you could have missed or this one could have been the first and only.  Good luck at the vet's.

gsdlova,
I found a website that might help you with the problem that you have with Frosty :) I hope it helps you.

http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/Why.html

I can tell you what my vet said about a similiar occurence.  She said that a seizure can be caused by several things, and could be genetic, and may occur again and again, or never again.  The seizures could start to occur more frequently or once a year, or once a month, or five times a day.

Got all of that?

Bottom line is that the causes are usually not known, and that they may never occur again or may start to occur often.

You will be told to keep a record of the frequency of "them" and if they occur at a certain rate, then medication will be prescribed, but will not be prescribed from just one occurence.  You should also be told that when one occurs, do not panic and frighten the dog more.  Stay calm and just let it run its course, and when it is over, console the dog and it will probably be very thirsty and frighten, as it will not understand what has happed to it (falling and not being in control of it muscles).

If you witness the occurence, you will want to help and do something.  You will be frightened that your dog is dying.  Stay calm, console it afterwards, keep a record of frequency of attacks, and consult your vet now.

I hope the best for your dog and I would bet that "it" may never happen again for a very long time, if ever.  She is a very old dog and age may play a big part in your dogs problem, so it is not exactly like mine, which was less than 1 year old at the time.

I am not a vet and this is just from my experience of a similiar occurence (which has never happened again to my dog, to my knowledge, for almost two years now).

At that age, I'd think it more likely was a mini-stroke, or TIA * as they're called in human medicine. It's a result of a small blood clot temporarily blocking blood flow to part of the brain. When the clot dissolves, or moves on, everything returns to normal. They're usually pretty harmless, but can be a warning a full-blown stroke is just around the corner.

(*stands for Transient Ischemia Attack)

Thank you everyone, I've read all your responses and they're all very helpful. Thanx again!

~Lauren

I had a dog have a seizure before, it was the only time this ever happened to me.
She was only about 5 yrs. old at the time.

I brought her right to the vet & he checked for lots of things, and 
it actually turned out to be a food allergy, I had recently switched 
her food to lamb & rice, I was happy it was not anything worst,
I had also started giving her those chewable dog vitamins, so I
stopped giving her both those things, and she never had another 
seizure.

My GSD seized about a month ago, this board was correct in advising me to get her to the VET ASAP, One of the posters also gave correct educated guess. It was caused by lack of calcuim. Blood test showed this and VET had me supplement her ASAP, or it could cause a heart attack. So my advise to you is get her to the vet and run the proper tests. My girl is doing well and will be with me a while longer. So I do not recomend the "Wait and SEE game". I LOVE THIS BOARD, even the jerks, because when push comes to shove it is about the dog.