Hi all,

My Jack Russell has been living with epilepsy for about 9 years now. He was fine before, but smashed on the head by a drunken woman with a beer bottle and he's had fits ever since. He's regularly at the vets for check ups, but the fits have never been regular enough tp warrant him going on medication.

Who else has a dog living with epilepsy and how do you cope with it?

When I first went to a vets with him about it they told me to just leave him in a room on his own to have the fit...ha ha...well the way he thrashes about that's just not possible plus he will cry for someone to be with him. When I worked voluntarily in vets they never just left them to it either.

So what do you do when yours has a fit? How are they doing if they are on meds?

Thanks

Nat x

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oops sorry this should have been in the dog health section....could a mod move it please....thanks

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My dog has only recently begun to have seizures. She has had blood tests and scans and just been diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy. The neurologist specialist that I saw, said that a hypoallergenic diet in some cases have helped, also things like skull cap and valerian (You would need to research further on this too see compatability with drugs his on etc as even though it is "natural" you would need to check) When started the fits I also knew of the link to underactive thyroid and seizures, and had her thyroid panel checked. Results werent back at time of going to see the specialist but he confirmed the link. Her results have came back yesterday and the results are seriously low for a 2year dog so at the moment I am trying thyroid medication only no other drugs, as in dogs with hypothyroid have been known to stop seizures in some cases and been drastically reduced in others.

My previous dog had minor seizures 3 months approx apart, she was never put on epilepsy drugs, as they were more minor and not frequent. Howevby pure fluke I started putting RA oil in her food that is a joint oil supplement and also good for the heart. She had been having seizures for at least a couple of years, they stopped completely. Until a few years later when I went on holiday and forgot the RA. She was off it two weeks, had a seizure and again haasnt had one since with was over 4 years ago. My young one who has just started having seizures is on it too in her food, sadly it made no difference to her. So it may or may not work with yours, but something that you could possibly try you may be lucky as I was with my other. The specialist when I told him certainly didnt look at my like I was mad.

A good site that gives lots of info and suggestions including the home made hypoallergenic diet is www.canine-epilepsy-guardianangels.com

Idiopathic epilepsy just simply means seizures cause unknown, and you certainly havent got anything to loose by looking for causes and trying uninstrusive things that may help or at least lessen the type of seizure and frequency.

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I am sure there was a member on here who had a GSD called Max that was epileptic, can't remember their name though but they did used to post on his progress quite often.

If you haven't already, you might want to take a look here Canine Epilepsy Website which seems to have some useful advice.

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