My dog had some sort of seizure yesterday morning. I took him to a vet here (I live in Germany) and after drawing blood and giving him the once over, she called today and said she couldn’t find anything wrong with him. Obviously, I’m not too pleased with that result as it’s the second time he’s had one (that I’m aware of – he’s home alone during the day). The last one that I witnessed was just under a year ago. Both times they occurred within about 10 minutes of him waking up in the morning. He’s conscious during it but suddenly just falls over and appears to lose all motor control. He’s “floppy” for lack of a better word. He’ll try to walk but can’t control his limbs. I did notice that his jaw was locked this time but he wasn’t all stiff like another of my dogs who had epilepsy. Both times the seizure lasted about 1-2 minutes and afterwards he was completely fine – not tired or disoriented or anything. I won’t be going back stateside until Christmas so I can’t get him to a US vet until then. Any suggestions from the Doper vets?
Forgot to add - the first time he had one, I took him to a different vet but it was the same story. So I’m 0 for 2 with German vets at this point.
Thanks, astro. That was very enlightening. I didn’t realize it was so common. Ramush is definitely conscious during the episode unlike described in the article and there’s no lingering affects - he’s immediately fine and his peppy self afterwards. Maybe he’s not actually having a seizure, maybe it’s some other weird thing. Sigh.
A friend of mine has a dog who has seizures if she’s not medicated. She gives the dog one pill a day and that controls it very well. The dog seems to be leading a very happy, healthy life. She says they still happen every once in a while but it’s rare and the dog seems to recover from them perfectly well.
I can’t imagine what your panic must have been when you saw him go into a seizure for the first time. I would have totally freaked.
Another possibility that somewhat resembles a siezure is idiopathic vestibular syndrome. Something in the inner ear goes whacko and the dog loses all sense of up/down, left/right, etc.
When our dog had a bout of IVS, she would sort of lock up for a moment while her brain tried to make sense of things, then she’d either collapse or tip over.
Yep, I pretty much flipped out. We had just moved to Germany about a month prior and I don’t speak very much German. It happened at 7:30 in the morning and I called a co-worker in hysterics because I didn’t have a even phone book yet to try and find a vet. Altho it turns out that they have “on-call” vets 24 hours here and who don’t even charge outrageous prices for after hour visits. Of course, I still don’t have an answer to what’s wrong. I was much calmer this time but still worried sick.
gotpasswords, I don’t think that’s Ramush’s problem because he doesn’t topple over and seems to know what’s up and down (as much as he ever does). He just can’t get his limbs to work. It’s kind of like watching a cow with mad cow disease try to walk.
Here’s a picture of the little guy (giving me the evil eye) and one from his puppyhood. He’s a street dog that I picked up during my tour in Kosovo. I found him on the streets when he was just 4 weeks old.
Where in Germany are you? If you are in a big city, and two vets have failed to find an explanation, you might try the local university vet clinic - they should have a broader rang of experience.
I’m in Hamburg and I don’t believe the university her has a vet school but thanks for the idea.