Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire dog siezure question

So I have a registered lab with strong blood lines. He had a seizure this summer but the frequency in recent weeks is increasing. Tomorrow I will be at the vet, and I am looking for info from others on what to look for and ask. He has not gotten into anything that I can see. Someone suggested holly berries. He is 4 years old. I just called the breader and she confirmed that his great grandfather was brought in from England and subsequently seems to have seizures and has thrown some pups with seizures. Not sure how it wouls skip around, but just looking for more info. A search seems to lead us towards epilepsy.

Yep, thats probably it...seizures are usually genetic in origin and sadly all too common with breeds that have undergone extensive breeding due to their popularity...

I think it's really common in Labs. My daughter had a black Lab that had seizures. When he'd have one and come out of it he actually looked embarrassed. He was, without a doubt, the smartest dog I've ever seen.

A friend has a good hunting lab that he had to start leaving home for this reason. There is some medication to help prevent it, but it's apparently not a sure thing. I enjoyed watching that dog working pheasants a great deal, probably almost as much as he enjoyed the work...tough deal.

My bud's hardcore lab does the same thing and it's been increasing. Hard to watch.

Yea, the kids get pretty upset. We were going to breed him, but not any more.

Had a room-mate in college that had a cocker spaniel mix of some sort in the apartment. Dog wasn't on meds, probably because my roomy couldn't afford em. Poor dog was mid-life when he got him. Kirby knew he was about to seize and about 30 seconds before he started, he'd try to crawl in your lap. Seemed to be very traumatizing for the poor dog.

He'd seize for probably 5-10 minutes and then start coming down from it. When he was coming down it seemed that he was totally exhausted from the seizures. He'd just sit and pant for hours sometimes. It was painful to watch.

After college, my roomy moved off, never heard what happened to Kirby.

KY- did you take him in after the first one and has he been on any meds since then?

Vets often use phenobarbitol to control seizures in dogs. It seems to work pretty well, just have to give it every day.

BTW, the difference between in-breeding and line-breeding is the price of the animal...

The best traits can be concentrated, but at the cost of bad, recessive traits showing up.

DF

I had an all black german sheppard that was bread for the strain. ended up having to put him down. Not saying this is what happened to you, but too much inbreeding to keep a strain going is a bad thing and sooner or later it will backfire.

I've had two huskies that were prone to seizures. In my case, it almost always happened after or during early season runs. It was metabolic. Hypoglycemia. A good sugar fix did wonders. Check out "canine epilepsy hypoglycemia". It is truly weird to watch but not too big a deal as long as they don't choke on their long ol' tongue.

They make a toothpaste kinda thing for field trial dogs that is high in sugar. You can rub it on the gums during a seizure and that seems to help, as does preventive sugar loading.

Forgot to add what it looked like. The dog lost control over the rear legs and then would fall over. After ten or so minutes, they'd get up and finish the run.

his is not an in-bread dog, but one from strong lines. His grandfather showed 4th at westminster, his father showed and was a field trial champion. My in-laws raised labs for 30 years and my FIL taught animal science, has a PHD from LSU in Animal Science and helped check the lines before we bought. We tryed to be one from my in-law's line but none weere available when the wife wanted one for the kids.

Whtail: I took him to the vet after the first one. The vet was unsure of the cause or if it was a 1-time thing. He was fine for 6 months, but they seem to be increasing now. No meds issued. I will also look into the hypoglycemia.

time for the hot dog treatment.

KY- PM sent.

I have a four year old rescue golden, that started having seizures last summer. After the first one, per vet instructions, nothing was done until you could see as to frequency of the seizures. He went quite a while, then seemed to start having them more regularly. Instead of pheno barbitol, which was the old way to treat them, he is now taking a bromo type pill. Since being on that pill, hasn't had any more. It is pretty scary to watch them have one of these. I don't think that the reason for seizures has ever been totally established, but it isn't uncommon, and it is treatable. By the way, my dog is a confirmed epileptic.

I had this discussion with the vet. pheno is and was used to controll the seizures, but it can have long term bad effects on the liver. There are newer drugs available.