having a dog with epilepsy can be a really scary upsetting thing especially
when you're watching your dog having a seizure well in this video I'm going to
give you nine facts about epilepsy in dogs that I believe every owner should
know and hopefully they'll just put your mind at ease that your dog will be able
to live with this condition and will live a healthy happy life Hi I'm Dr Alex
from ourpetshealth.com helping you and your dog to live a healthier happier
life so if that's something you're interested in then consider subscribing
and hitting that Bell notification down below so my first fact about epilepsy is
that what we call idiopathic epilepsy or true epilepsy is a condition in dogs
that we don't actually understand why it happens in the first place
so we don't know the underlying cause but what the epilepsy results in is
abnormal electrical activity within the brain and it is this electrical activity
which results in the seizures that we see in our pets so despite not knowing
the underlying cause the second fact is that in some cases it does appear to be
genetic so certain breeds do seem to be more prone to developing epilepsy and
certain lines as well within breeds appear more prone to developing epilepsy
so this is definitely something to consider if you're looking at getting a
dog whose parents have had epilepsy or if you've got a young dog with epilepsy
and you are wondering about whether to breed from them but certainly the
suggestion would be that that might not be the best idea because their offspring
their puppies may be more likely to also have epilepsy in the future right number
three is that epilepsy in dogs develops between about six months of age and
about five years of age so that is when we typically see dogs who are going to
develop epilepsy have their first seizure if we've got a dog who's
very much younger than that or if we've got an older dog who is having seizures
then the chances are it's not truly epilepsy and they're fitting and having
seizures for another reason fact number four is that the treatment
that we give our pets to reduce their seizures is doing just that its aim is
to reduce the frequency and reduce the severity of their seizures it's not
designed to completely eliminate them entirely and there are a number of
reasons for this the main one being that
if we give really high doses that are needed to completely stop seizures then
that will increase the risk of side effects and potentially quite serious
side effects in our dogs that's not to say that the dog on treatment will have
seizures a small proportion will actually be seizure free once they're
taking that medication but just because your dog is on treatment doesn't mean
they won't be having seizures and if they are having the odd seizure then
that doesn't mean the treatment is not working now those seizures should not be
at a really high frequency and they shouldn't be too severe so if your dog
is epileptic and is having really frequent fits or if those fits are
lasting a long time they're taking a long time to recover from then
definitely a change in treatment plan may be appropriate but the actual
presence of seizures in the dog with epilepsy who's being treated isn't
necessarily anything to worry about so step number five is that the drugs that
we give to treat epilepsy in the early stages when we're starting treatment can
take some time to start working so that's something to bear in mind and
obviously your vet will discuss that with you there are different options
that we have for epileptic treatment they work in different ways and they
come at different costs and your vet will discuss with you the most likely
best option for your dog and that will be based on how bad the fits that
they've started to have are and how frequently they're having them and then
at number six is that depending on the drug that's being given very often at
the start of treatment the incidence of mild side effects is quite common so
that can be an increase in thirst drinking more or urinating more it can
also be a real increase in appetite so they just seem hungry all the time they
can become ataxic so kind of quite wobbly on their legs as though they've
had a bit too much to drink and they can also sometimes be a bit sedated in the
vast majority of cases these side effects actually wear off pretty quickly
once your dog's body becomes used to having the drug in the system if high
doses of drugs are needed to control the epilepsy then the risk of side effects
does become a little bit higher so some drugs can
affect liver function and can cause damage to the liver and it's for this reason
that we'll often recommend blood testing to check that everything's going
on as we would expect without any adverse effects as drug dose needs to
increase it may also be that a treatment plan needs to be changed so additional
drugs may need to be given or one drug stopped and another one started okay so
my seventh fact about epilepsy in dogs is that seizures are actually only an
emergency if they're lasting for more than about five minutes or if your dog
is having several seizures in a row and they're not really recovering properly
in between those seizures so those are definitely emergency situations we would
term that status epilepticus which is basically the the electrical activity in
the brain has got to such an extent that it will potentially start to cause some
damage but a short fit the vast majority lost maybe between 30 to 60 seconds
maybe up to a couple of minutes and that seems like an awful long time when
you're there watching your dog it can be very upsetting but if the seizure has
only lost in that short length of time then it's not a true emergency now if
you're wondering how you can help your dog when they're having a seizure I've
actually done a separate video about that that I'll link on here and down in
the description as well so my eight fact is the fact that stopping or missing a
dose of medication or several doses of medication can actually precipitate
seizures in your dog so if you miss a dose if you decide that your dog hasn't
had seizures in a while and you're going to try stopping the medication then that
can actually cause fits so that's definitely not something to be
recommended unless your vets discuss that with you and you're going through a
specific plan to reduce their dose to see if they can be weaned off that drug
but in general once an epileptic dog is deemed to need medication to control
their seizures and that's something that they'll need to be given for their life
and stopping by yourself or missing doses is definitely not a great idea and
then my last fact about epilepsy and dogs is the fact that when surveyed the
vast majority of owners consider that their dog still has an excellent quality
of life and this is really important so very often when epilepsy is diagnosed we
become anxious and worried about what their quality of life and what their
life span is but for owners of living with an
epileptic dog then they generally consider their dog to have an excellent
quality of life now that's not to say the owner themselves is not without
worry and there certainly is worry about how seizures will affect their dog about
medication and about side effects and that kind of thing but when it comes to
actually the well-being and the welfare of their pet then they consider that
their dog has an excellent quality of life and that's fantastic and that's
certainly something that we would expect to see so apart from epilepsy if that's
the only problem that your dog has then in between seizures they should
generally live a completely normal healthy life so those are my 9 facts
about epilepsy and dogs I hope you found them useful I hope you found them
interesting and maybe especially that last one gave you some encouragement
that your dog can still be happy and healthy despite being epileptic now I've
got that video like I mentioned all about how you can help your dog when
they actually have a seizure and that's definitely something that's worth
checking out for any owner of an epileptic dog I've also got a separate
owner about some of the causes of seizures so epilepsy is just one cause
of seizures and in my other video that I'll link up here and down in the
description I talked about the other major causes of seizures and dogs so I
hope that's interesting if you've got any questions if there's anything you're
not sure about then please just leave me a comment down below remember to
subscribe share this with any friends that you know with that pelagic animals
and until next time i'm dr. alex from our pets health because they're family
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