Partical/focal seizures??

Submitted by BossMansMom on July 10, 2011 - 7:42pm

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Anyone had experince with a partical or focal seizure in their bully??? Boss had has a little head shake going on since early this week, just 2 times and it will last for abt 5 min... Vet said eventually he will have a full blown seizure (age 3-5) and will need seizure meds... I feel so bad for the poor guy, if its not one thing its another! :(

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Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras

no experience

Submitted by Shannon and Winston on July 11, 2011 - 10:50am.

but if I remember correctly, there is someone on this site who has hands on experience with this. I'm sorry your buddy is dealing with this, hopefully you and your vet can come up with a pro-active treatment plan to help keep everything in balance for Boss before things progress.

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Shannon and Winston :)

My swimming bully buddy!

It may not be a seizure

Submitted by LynnKing on July 11, 2011 - 12:22pm.

if it only involves his head shaking, that's pretty common and does not progress to having to use meds. It seems to be caused by stress, over exertion, empty stomach, too long of a period between meals.

I've had several Bulldogs experience "head shakes", haven't had them tested by I believe its from low sugar. A little peanut butter, Karo syrup, ice cream etc., stops the shaking. I also feed my dogs twice a day and the ones that have "head shakes", I give a treat before bed. Problem stops.

Good luck

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Lynn King CPDT-KA

Interesting...

Submitted by BossMansMom on July 11, 2011 - 3:18pm.

we feed him twice a day and he gets several treats throughout the day.

The blood work we had done came back below normal on a thyroid test... the vet is doing a more specific thyroid test today and we will have results tomorrow... IF it is hyperthyroidism, then our vet feels that his previous skin problems, and these head shakes are b/c of that... I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on what we find out! THANKS!!

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Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras

I totally agree with Lynn...

Submitted by Kathy Chester N... on July 11, 2011 - 5:36pm.

head shakes can be from low blood sugar. Next time it happens, try the ice cream or karo syrup, something with a lot of sugar in it. It always worked for us.

Gluten free diet

Submitted by BossMansMom on July 11, 2011 - 6:16pm.

What if we are on a gluten free diet???

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Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras

A person who used to post here

Submitted by LynnKing on July 11, 2011 - 6:20pm.

switched his dog to a grain free diet, shortly after his dog started to have "head shakes". He switched to another food and the shakes stopped. I wonder if it is related to the lack of carbohydrates/sugar.

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Lynn King CPDT-KA

I wonder if fat has anything to do with it?

Submitted by CathyandAudrey on July 11, 2011 - 6:46pm.

dogs are designed to get their energy from animal fat, not plant based carbs. Dogs have no dietary need for carbohydrates at all.

I wonder if some of the grain free or gluten free foods have failed to add enough animal fat into their food to compensate for the carbs they took out?

I know many people mistakenly think their dog's nutritional requirements are similar to their own and they would steer away from higher fat, but that's exactly where dogs get their energy from. If a dog food normally adds carbs for energy and keeps the fat minimal,(and it SHOULD be animal based, not vegetable based) they would need to add more fat to the grain free to give the dog adequate energy.

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Cathy and Audrey

I just went through this with

Submitted by dmcreynolds on July 15, 2011 - 7:51pm.

I just went through this with my bulldog. Sometimes it was only a focal seizure and other times it would start as that and turn into a full body seizure. He has never had a seizure before and randomly one week he had two within 72 hours. We took him to his vet and she said the same thing yours did. He was put on medication and didnt have a seizure for 2 weeks then he had 5 in a 7 day period. We went through this 3 times trying different medication and everytime after a few weeks he would start having them again. It turned out he had a brain tumor and the medication would only work until the tumor grew larger and started to affect other parts of his brain. I hope from the bottom of my heart that this is not the case for your bully. After about 2 months and many many vets visits later we had to put him down. He has started to develop severe personality changes and was not longer mentally aware of what was going on around him. Our regular vet kept telling us it was only epilepsy but in our hearts we knew it was something else. If you have any other questions or concerns please feel free to ask.