My dog, Zoe is a six-ish rescued chihauhau/terrier pup. Basically she looks like an overgrown chihahua with the big bat ears and the bug eyes too big for her face.
The other night, we were on our evening walk around the neighborhood when, just after bending down to sniff a bush, she lurched forward like she was going to jump over a rock or something, turned right over and fell on her back with her legs in the air- not straight up but straight out. I believe her eyes were open, and she seemed as rigid as could be. In the amount of time it took me to say, Holy Shit - Zoe what’s the matter, and kneel down to grab her, it was over. She rolled back up and sat down, but I could tell she was a little shakey. We carried her home.
It reminded me of last year when my 90 year old mom went all exorcisty at the dinner table. We were having supper talking when, all of a sudden, her head went up and back, her eyes started rolling around, her hands were up in the air - I jumped up and grabbed her to keep her falling out of the chair. And just that fast, it was over. She was fine . Finished dinner. We talked about it.
She got a pacemaker out of the deal. And a brain scan. Dog’s not going to get a pacemaker. Or a brain scan.
I think this is more MIMPSMS than anything because I don’t really see an answer coming, but I did ask a question. So, anybody?
Also, this reminds me of the “fainting goats” that have that neurological condition where if startled they will “faint”.
Since, this is a dog and I am a dog owner myself, I would take notes as to when/where/etc it happens to see if there is a correlation to any type of external stimuli. Then avoid it. But, my many years of experience are telling me that this might be some one-in-a-million chance of the two breeds, at the genetic level, interacting and creating a seizure prone dog. Although frightful for you the dog may have no idea what happened. And, unlike us humans, dogs really can live in the moment and if you carry on like nothing happened then as far as the dog knows, its OK. That is what is awesome about dogs.
You say it was rescued, how long have you had her?
I had a cocker/springer mix that had epileptic seizers. They didn’t bother him too much, we would just calm him and pet him through the ordeal. He was prone to them during times of stress so we had a prescription for downers for all things like haircuts, vet visits, and when we went on vacation without him. Keep track of when they happen if they become more noticeable. Our dog probably averaged 1 every 4 months without the drugs.
Yeah, it sounds like an absence seizure to me, too. Other than medicine, I’m not sure what you can do. Just keep her where she’ll be relatively safe when it happens. It almost certainly will happen again.
Your dog’s age (6ish) is also about the right age for when dogs can get idiopathic seizures.
OTOH:
You mention she lurched, are you sure she didn’t choke on the collar or something? Syncope could also look like a seizure. Especially since you said the dog came back to her normal self relatively quick.
Check the collar first, make sure it is comfortable and in no danger of choking her. Then record what happened and from now on, keep tabs on your dog. Note especially exercise intolerance or changes in breathing. Mention what happened to the vet, see if you can just talk to her/him over the phone, perhaps he/she will suggest something that does not require bringing the dog.
It may have been a one-time thing if she chocked. It may be she has some early heart disease, or it may be epilepsy. For the later two, there are plenty of medications, and in some cases, I’ve seen dogs treated for epilepsy with a single pill at a very low dose and keep on living happy lives for years.
I would also have her heart checked. You might not get her a pacemaker, but there are relatively inexpensice medications. My first Papillon had an enlarged heart, and until we got him on the proper medication, he would faint, just keel over. Never on his back like Zoe, but it was frightening as hell. Seizures is another good possibility.
Dogs have seizures once in a while, and they are quite scary. Sometimes once and never again. Sometimes increasingly frequent. I would have the vet check her. He might or might not find anything. There are several causes, some of which can be diagnosed, and some not. Some of them can be treated. Your vet is the best place for information.
A couple of our 21 puppies had one. Both lived to be 13 years old, and I know the one was stilll working as a dog guide. The other I never heard.
When that started happening to my dog, it was heart-related fainting (aka “syncope”), not seizures. Her treatment was a relatively inexpensive medication called theophylline.
My now-departed Boston Terrorist had seizures due to syncope (from Congestive Heart Failure). She had a heart murmur from a leaky ventricular valve. She lived with those seizures for years before she finally died (of a laundry list of ailments until I finally put her out of her misery). While the underlying cause of seizures might not be treatable, all seizures cause brain damage but can be controlled or treated. What you want to avoid is something called “stasis” where the dog just throws seizure after seizure and never really comes out of it. That is a life threatening condition. Seizures can be controlled with phenobarbitol and stasis can be stopped by popping a rectal doggy Valium in the dog’s bum. (Yes, I have done this. Put on a latex glove, popped that sucker up in there… and stopped the dog’s seizure. She was able to rest and recover and did fine.)
Usually, vets don’t prescribe phenobarb until/unless you’re right at the end anyway. It’s hard on the liver and kidneys, IIRC.
While it can cause liver damage, phenobarbital is not necessarily prescribed “near the end”. What a veterinarian would want is to control the seizures with the least amount of phenobarbital required. That requires bloodwork and adjustments, but I’ve seen dogs that have lived for years on low doses or unchanging doses of phenobarbitol, with routine bloodwork, and do just fine.
OTOH, if it is at the point where you have status epilepticus (stasis) and need to have on-hand Valium enemas to control it… THAT is “near the end”.
Our miniature schnauzer, at 5ish years old, did something similar. She was on the couch with me, then went rigid, fell over on her side, and started SHRIEKING. I mean, yelping nonstop but it was definitely the doggy version of a shriek.
Poor pup. We rushed her to the vet, who no doubt charged my parents a small fortune (and the poor guy clealy had to leave a party - he was wearing a tux). He gave her an injection of something, a sedative I guess.
It never happened again. Really a one-off thing. I don’t remember whether the vet said it was a seizure, but in hindsight it’s the only thing that fits.
We got Zoe when she was about six months old from a local (So Cal) rescue group, Hearts for Hounds. They specialize in little dogs. They had her for a while and she had a cherry eye which they paid to remove. She has been healthy, but is subject to allergies. This spring, when the vermin count in general was particularly high her flea allergy finally got her itching to where she was getting some hot spots. She had never been that bad before. We use Advantage to control the fleas, and we don’t have carpet, so there isn’t a whole lot more we can do. But she was distressed so I let the vet give her a prednisone shot. That was over four weeks before the incident, so I don’t see much of a correlation there.
When we walk, I have her on a choke chain, mostly for her security in case something scares her and she tries to back out of her collar. She is very good on it and doesn’t ever pull. When this happened, she was sniffing in some bushes, turned back around to the sidewalk and, blammo. My first thought, from the way she acted, was that she looked like a fainting goat. It did occur to me to wonder if she had sniffed some insecticide or something on the ground, but that’s something I’ve never run across before.
But thanks for the replies. I’ll keep an eye out and check with the vet. I used to have another pooch who was on Pheno to control very bad seizures. I sure hate to go down that road again.
I had a dog that did this a few years ago. The seizure lasted about 10-15 seconds, and she got up like nothing had happened.
She died about six months later, poor thing. I really think she died from heart worms.
Please have you pooch checked for this. It can be cured, and can be fatal.
Our ten year old Jack Russel had a single seizure about two months ago. She (the dog) was laying down. My wife brushed her with her foot to make her get out of the way. The dog got up and had spastic movements long enough for her (the wife) to call me over to see them. She (the dog) hasn’t had them before or since but they looked like a seizure to me. We took the dog to the vet but they didn’t find anything. But now the dog has a record of seizures.
The later ramifications have been interesting. Our son asked us about the seizure. My wife and I both imitated the spastic motions of the dog to show him. He then told his sister that asking about the dog’s seizure prompted hilarious actions from her parents. So she asked about it also simply to see her parents do silly stuff.
But now because the dog has a record of seizures, the vet will no longer give us doggie downers to drug the dog on July 4th and 1 January when fireworks make her crazy.
