My Sheltie has seizures

L

ldwaustin

Forums Novice
I am new, just signed up. I have always owned Shelties, but never had one that had seizures. Shelly began at age 3, and has had them regularly for the last year. She is not on meds for this, as I use the valium protocol. I am just curious if you guys talk about this or if there is more information somewhere that you might recommend.

Otherwise, I am looking forward to knowing all of you and finding more out about my Sheltie and her problems. Also hope to help some as well.
:smile2:
 
Welcome to the Sheltie Nation Forum.

I have not experienced seizures in Shelties, but I do think that we have a handful of members that have experience with this. Hopefully, they will chime in!

I can't wait to hear more about your Sheltie!

Thanks for joining!

Dani
 
What a daunting forum topic I... was hoping to never see. I lost my sheltie to cluster seizures a few months back. If you have any specific questions or just some one to talk to, PM me and I'd be more than happy to help if I can. I wish you all the best <3.
 
April has been having them for about the last 6 months now. She's 6yrs old. Hers are I think, relatively mild (<1min) for the convulsions, but then she goes into a phase where she doesn't blink for a while. Haven't timed that. After she starts blinking again, she's more or less herself, although she tends to be restless for an hour or more.

Vet didn't want to put her on med due to it being hard on organs. She's been having one about every 3-5 weeks.
 
We had one on Phenobarb that we eventually lost to a massive seizure. He seized through the first shot of valium, and was still twitchy through the second. Despite my vet swearing they could stabilize him and change his meds to a very nice $600 a month human med, we decided to put him down. He was 11 1/2 Dogs are never the same after that kind of huge seizure. He didn't start until he was about 8 years old, and we have no idea what caused them.

He had those scary thrashing type seizures. My landlords poodle has nice quiet seizures, where she politely lays down, drools a little, then stretches her legs out for a while, then she's done. She went on the liquid stuff (sodium bromide?) after a cluster of two in two days last month. The second one was bizarre, and lasted most of 25 minutes. She has been seizure free since.

I know, kidneys and seizures. And that's from the well bred dogs! The back yard bred/Amish dog is 14 and other than being mostly blind is still going strong! And my landlords commercially bred/brood bitch is ten and still runs the yard.
 
My Pixie had seizures from the time she was a puppy, around four months old, until she was nearly 3. We believe her seizures were vaccination induced, since she had coccidia at the time. I did not want to put her on chemicals, so I went to a vet who practices both holistic and mainstream medicine and she had bionutritional blood tests. They prescribed several holistic meds for her, and she is now almost 6 and has been seizure free for two years.

In doing research, I also found that seizure dogs do best on a duck-based food. The tryptophan in chicken and turkey foods can exacerbate seizures. We feed Pixie Go! duck based kibble, although there are several others on the market as well. Eagle Pack makes one too.

She was having seizures at her peak maybe once a week. They were mild, and would last 5 to 10 minutes, and then knock her out for the day.

We were very lucky finding a vet -- who is now my full time vet for all my animals -- to work with us and find an alternative solution.

You'll find a number of threads here on the Forum on the topic of seizures. We've had numerous members whose dogs have had the problem. Search Diseases and Illnesses and you'll find more information. Good luck, and welcome to the Forum!
 
Our 7-month old sheltie, Coby, had a seizure two nights ago. He was just hanging out with us when all of a sudden his back legs stopped working and he couldn't stand. He was confused but apparently not in discomfort. Within a few minutes he was back to normal, but tried to jump on the bed and didn’t quite make it (a few minutes later he did). Earlier in the day he had twice spit up a little, which he had never done before.

We took Coby to the vet immediately. We were told there are a number of conditions that can cause seizures, but given his age most were unlikely. The most likely cause is epilepsy and we were told a range of symptoms to expect if that’s the case. We were told it’s unlikely to go away but that seizures might be as infrequent as 12 to 18 months, or much more frequent. Apparently there are a number of tests that can be given, some pretty expensive, but they only rule out other causes, they do not confirm epilepsy. The vet did not recommend them at this point. We were told that when a seizure happens, we should stay calm (it can be traumatic to watch) and keep Coby comfortable. Apparently darkness helps, so we could put a blanket over him. The seizure should be over in a couple minutes and he should be back to normal in about 20 minutes. If they start happening frequently, we should return to the vet and Coby might need to be put on medication. Once on medication, he would have to stay on it for life.

Obviously we are very concerned for our puppy’s health. We’d like to hear from anyone who has had similar experiences with their shelties. And of course we’ll search through the messages here as well.

You can see pictures of Coby here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantripp/sets/72157625280887674/
 
Sheltie Epilepsy

My Sheltie girl Peanut has epilepsy...it started the day after she turned 2. My husband heard something and jumped up out of bed to find her flopping around on the floor...I didn't know what it was but I jumped up and held her as hard as I could so she didn't hurt herself. The next day we went to the vet (that morning she'd had 3 more) he told us it was "early onset epilepsy" which could start as early as 2...anywho...she is on medication (zonegran 150 mg/2x day) and hasn't had a seizure since we got her medicated. (it took about a month to get her to where she had no seizures) She is checked out every few months (blood work) and she is just fine now...with no damage to any other organs. She also has a non metastasizing cancer...it grows in the form of a fatty tumor on her hiney...they took it out...but there is still a chance it could come back...we have to be clear of tumors for 2 years before we can say she is cancer free! But I tell you what...she is the most loving and sweet little girl in the world! She'd do ANYTHING to make you smile or laugh! I pray this gives hope to anyone who has a sheltie with epilepsy!
 
I know two dogs that have had siezures pretty regularly. One is a cocker, the other is a miniature American Eskimo (my grandparents dog). The vets did not want these two on meds, because they felt they weren't having them often enough, and the side effect of the meds was too risky for (lack of) how often the siezures were occuring.

The cocker owner let me know she was trying this :http://www.nativeremedies.com/petalive/easesure-nervous-system-dogs-cats.html
and surprisingly (I thought it could be a gimmick) she started having less and less siezures, and now hasn't had one in about 2 years! Pleased with the results, I sent some to my grandparents to try with their dog. She hasn't been taking it for very long, but so far, so good! :smile2:
 
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