Discussion
My Collie, who is nearly 3, has been diagnosed with epilepsy. He had quite a severe fit on the 39th Sept and another a week and half later. After having all the bloods come back negative, we saw the neurologist yesterday. He had an MRI scan and also a Spinal fluid tap. Turns out his brain is fine etc, so they diagnosed epilepsy.
Looks like he now has to be on tablets for the rest of his life with trips to vets to test liver and to see if the dosage needs to be increased/decreased.
He’s too bloody intelligent for his own good and the tablets are bound to turn into a nightmare once he realises what is in the treats we are giving him. We struggle with worming tablets. He will take the treat and separate the tablet and spit the tablet out.
At the moment he is feeling very sorry for himself after yesterday’s ordeal and he likes to take himself off to a dark room. Hopefully he will be back to normal soon.
Anyway question for any of you with epileptic dogs…… How do you give yours dogs(s) the pills twice a day?
Oh and here’s a picture of my boy a couple of days before his scan looking a bot sorry for himself.
Looks like he now has to be on tablets for the rest of his life with trips to vets to test liver and to see if the dosage needs to be increased/decreased.
He’s too bloody intelligent for his own good and the tablets are bound to turn into a nightmare once he realises what is in the treats we are giving him. We struggle with worming tablets. He will take the treat and separate the tablet and spit the tablet out.
At the moment he is feeling very sorry for himself after yesterday’s ordeal and he likes to take himself off to a dark room. Hopefully he will be back to normal soon.
Anyway question for any of you with epileptic dogs…… How do you give yours dogs(s) the pills twice a day?
Oh and here’s a picture of my boy a couple of days before his scan looking a bot sorry for himself.
Aww bless, poor boy.
A friend of mine has a dog with Epilepsy, she might be willing to share some of her experiences with you. Send me a message with an email address and I'll see if she's willing to pass some info on. Her dog is medicated and she has to monitor his behaviour etc.
As for tablets, our Springer had an auto immune condition and had tablets for months, we gave them in butter - the tip being to give the tablets in a lump of butter whilst also holding something nice in your hand that they can see - they tend to gulp the first bit of food so that they can get to the next treat.
This time around because Springerdog had pancreatitis we were supposed to limit fat - she picked the tablets out of everything we tried until we got to pate - she loved that and it smelt strongly enough that she couldn't pick the tablets out of it.
Good luck with him, I hope you get his medication sorted and he starts to look a bit happier
A friend of mine has a dog with Epilepsy, she might be willing to share some of her experiences with you. Send me a message with an email address and I'll see if she's willing to pass some info on. Her dog is medicated and she has to monitor his behaviour etc.
As for tablets, our Springer had an auto immune condition and had tablets for months, we gave them in butter - the tip being to give the tablets in a lump of butter whilst also holding something nice in your hand that they can see - they tend to gulp the first bit of food so that they can get to the next treat.
This time around because Springerdog had pancreatitis we were supposed to limit fat - she picked the tablets out of everything we tried until we got to pate - she loved that and it smelt strongly enough that she couldn't pick the tablets out of it.
Good luck with him, I hope you get his medication sorted and he starts to look a bit happier
When I was a child our lab was epileptic. He didn't take medication but had 3 or 4 fits a year. It was very frightening and he was very disorientated afterwards - this meant we had to be very careful as we were never sure how he would be when he came around. Sometimes he used to bark a lot.
He had a long hapy life and died of a tumour aged 11.
He had a long hapy life and died of a tumour aged 11.
Can you grind the tablet up and mix it with a lump of peanut butter? That is what my wife does, works every time. Dogs love peanut butter.
We used to put tabs in with their dog food, but they'd inhale the food in two nanoseconds, then slowly and carefully drop the tablet on the floor in front of us, like we'd lost it or something.
We used to put tabs in with their dog food, but they'd inhale the food in two nanoseconds, then slowly and carefully drop the tablet on the floor in front of us, like we'd lost it or something.
Piglet - PM Sent
King Herald - Dogs are supposed to love peanut butter, except this one. He is very picky with what he likes. He always gives a "you are trying to kill me" look with certain foods.
One of the big negatives with him being epileptic is that we have been told that he cannot go swimming any more. He loves a swim. It seems such a shame.
King Herald - Dogs are supposed to love peanut butter, except this one. He is very picky with what he likes. He always gives a "you are trying to kill me" look with certain foods.
One of the big negatives with him being epileptic is that we have been told that he cannot go swimming any more. He loves a swim. It seems such a shame.
I had a rough collie who was epileptic. I took her off the medication after a while because she was more unhappy with than without. After a couple of years, her fits got less severe and further apart. She would come and lay near me when a fit was coming on and coped much better if I held her during the fit and for 10 mins after.
All the best
All the best
e320dave said:
Piglet - PM Sent
I've replied.I've never tried peanut butter for tablets - I can't bear the smell of it!
Butter works well as does pate as you can wrap it around the tablets nicely. The add on of another treat lined up to encourage the dog to focus on what is coming next was always a winner with a dustbin of a Springer!
My dog (i've just put pics of him in the 'show us yours' thread) possibly has epilepsy. He's had two seizures/fits since i've had him, they were 4 months apart so we are monitoring him and if it turns out he has 2/3 a year then we're not going to give him any medication because of the risk to his liver.
I had never known of a dog to have a seizure before mines did so had no idea what was happening. Horrible, horrible thing to see.
I had never known of a dog to have a seizure before mines did so had no idea what was happening. Horrible, horrible thing to see.
Our Retriever has been having fits every few weeks for almost 1 year now & they havn't diagnosed him with anything. He is also on 2 tablets per day & they seem to reduce the fits to maybe 1 every 5 or 6 weeks or so. We ususlly put his tablet inside a chunk of chicken & this normally does the trick.
Mine had 2 fits less than 2 weeks apart and the vet classified them as severe as they lasted 2-3 minutes and his legs were thrashing a lot. We have been given Diazepam suppositories in case he fits again.
Unfortunately we haven’t had much luck with either of our dogs. Thought we could use the Collie for agility, but he has a weak chest muscle which causes him to limp every now and again. He’s had that since a pup and now this. Our springer, we found out, her rear legs are a bit John Wayne (bowed). We have been told the way her bones are, it is likely that she will do her cruciate ligament, so we can’t really do agility with her either, even though the vet said just let her get on with it. If they go , they go and they'll them fix it.
Oh well. We wouldn’t change either of them as I guess that’s just the way they are meant to be.
Unfortunately we haven’t had much luck with either of our dogs. Thought we could use the Collie for agility, but he has a weak chest muscle which causes him to limp every now and again. He’s had that since a pup and now this. Our springer, we found out, her rear legs are a bit John Wayne (bowed). We have been told the way her bones are, it is likely that she will do her cruciate ligament, so we can’t really do agility with her either, even though the vet said just let her get on with it. If they go , they go and they'll them fix it.
Oh well. We wouldn’t change either of them as I guess that’s just the way they are meant to be.
My old Choc Lab used to have fits constantly. Throwing up was the pre-curser and then he'd go through a fit once every couple of months. Basically the back half of his body stopped working and his spine looked to twist. Horrible to watch, especially the first time!
Lived to 13 years old though and it didn't effect the rest of his life. It was the fatty lumps appearing (unconnected) that got him in the end.
Could never work out if there was a trigger for it or not i'm afraid to say.
Lived to 13 years old though and it didn't effect the rest of his life. It was the fatty lumps appearing (unconnected) that got him in the end.
Could never work out if there was a trigger for it or not i'm afraid to say.
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