Another seizure for Pereg

Pereg had a Grand Mal seizure at just gone 6am on what should have been Day 40 since her last GM. She has had two long [2-3 hours] Psychomotor seizures since then but thankfully neither ended up with a GM.

It is 10 days since the final planned reduction in her Phenobarbitone - which I started doing on 25 November - and both Ram and I are certain that the reduction has had made no difference ie she has not had more frequent seizure than when she was on the higher dose, so I am not going to start increasing it again unless something drastic happens.

The plan had been for another blood test on 27 January which is three weeks since this last, final, reduction, to check whether her blood Pb levels had gone down, and if this morning's seizure is a one off then we will go ahead with the blood test on that date, even though Ram prefers to wait two clear weeks following a GM before another test. If Pereg does her sometimes two or three within 24 hours then the blood test will have to be postponed, so fingers crossed that it was a single seizure.

She was diabolically post-ictal and it took Food, Food and yet more Food, plus a total of 30mg diazepam before she finally settled.

The bed had to be stripped, as usual, and the duvet cover and bottom sheet have been washed and are now in the dryer, but luckily it did not soak through to the undersheet or quilted mattress cover. My duvet is draped over a chair outside in the sun to dry - it is far too large to go in my washing machine but I am not bothered about yet another stain on it from her loss of bladder control during a GM as it dries with no odour from the wetness.

I guess 40 days is not too bad, especially when compared with previous episodes, but oh how I hate this epilepsy - I will now be on even more aware seizure watch than I have been these last few week.

Fingers crossed that it was just a one off...

Really hope it is a one off(( hugs)) poor girl
Just interested to know Malka.The post-ictal behaviour regarding food,is that because she's all disorientated or is she genuinely hungry following the seizure?

Sorry to hear this Malka certainly not a good night for you.

Ahhh... so sorry miss Malka. I hope she settles down and you two can get some rest. I know this might not be the best time for this... but I was very much hoping you could link me to some articles about canine epilepsy.

I had no idea that the dogs were affected in other ways besides seizures. You speak about her brain telling her she is hungry when she is not etc. etc. I didn't know epilepsy went beyond seizures.

I feel ignorant beyond measure the more I hear you speak about this, which is why I wish to learn more and I know that if anybody can point me straight to some very good reading, it would be you.

Also, I had an epileptic cousin R.I.P. (poor girl also had sickle cell disease) who had mostly petit mal? (I think that's correct) seizures where she liked stared into space and she didn't always have convulsions.

Do dogs only have grand mals? Or is that just Pereg? I'm very sorry for burgeoning you with questions, and of course you don't have to answer if you don't want to... it's just becoming very obvious that I don't know as much as i'd like to about canine epilepsy.

Poor Pereg, although of course she has no idea what has happened, so really it is poor you having all this happen to you. Hope she settles down today and you get some rest and she does too.

So sorry she's had yet another one - I really admire the way you cope, whatever is thrown at you.

Poor girlie sending lots of furry hugs and kisses to you both xx

Trying to explain this simply - epis are definitely not hungry but the "crossed wires" in their brain that "short circuit" causing seizures "tell" their brains that they are hungry. Pereg is like that during a Psychomotor seizure as well. Also the drug Phenobarbitone causes excessive hunger which is normally controllable, except following a seizure.

Thanks Lynn - it certainly did not start off very well, did it.

There are different types of canine epileptic seizures, just as there are in human epilepsy. Grand Mal is the type of convulsion seizure most people think of, when the dog crashes down, totally rigid, legs "paddling", head and neck arched backwards, drools thick white sticky foam, frequently looses bladded control, sometimes bowel control, and sometimes [but not that frequently] also expresses their anal glands. Some epis are also vocal during a GM making a horrible noise that I cannot explain - Pereg's first one was extremely vocal but mostly the only noise she makes now is a desperate attempt to gasp as during a GM dogs tend to virtually stop breathing.

Petit Mals and Absence seizures are very much the same as in humans.

Psychomotor Seizures [sometimes called Behavioural Seizures] are Complex Partial Seizures, when the dog thinks it sees and hears things that are not there and is terrified of them, rushing about, suddenly stopping and leaping backwards away from "it". Some of the descriptions also include the symptoms of Focal Seizures [head bobbing, fly-catching, biting at parts of their body] in their description of Psychomotor Seizures but Focal Seizures as such are not Psychomotor ones, which can, and do with Pereg, go on for hours, with no Focal Seizure activities.

As Ram says - just as nobody knows exactly what causes most epilepsy, so there are varied descriptions of some of the types of seizures. The only one that is definite in description is a Grand Mal seizure. You can look up "types of epileptic seizures in dogs" and get dozens of descriptions, and apart from GMs most tend to vary somewhat with regard to the other types.

All epis are different and even though the main seizure activities may be the same each dog reacts differently with them and to them. Some epis have GMs that only last 10 seconds - Pereg's usually last two to three minutes, and it takes her another few minutes where she can breathe OK but is still rigid with the paddling gradually slowing down. It then takes her another few minutes before she is really aware of anything.

She used to have great difficulty getting up and would then stagger around crashing into things as she could not really see or hear anything but she has not been like that for a while now thankfully - once she is up she is aware of where she is and is responsive. And then the diabolical post-ictal nagging, barking, screeching, leaping at me, gimmee gimmee gimmee munchies start.

I am extremely lucky in having a Vet who actually does know exactly what he is talking about - and who will discuss everything with me. He is unlucky in that he himself is epileptic but that has made him all the more interested in canine epilepsy and knowledgeable about it, and right from the start he has explained things to me and taught me a heck of a lot.

Sorry if I have rambled on a bit but I actually do know what I am talking about, thanks to Ram.

Thank you Malka. I will look up canine epilepsy, as well. I have never had or seen an epileptic dog, or a dog seizure up close for that record (hope this never happens) but at least I'll know about them.

Oh no, fingers crossed it's just this one time and that she recovers well.
Sending good vibes over to you and Pereg!