dog had seizure
 

Today my dog had a seizure. She started foaming at the mouth and was on her side straight as a board and shaking for a good 3 -5 minutes. What would cause it?

Rabies

Epilepsy.

Seizures can be triggered through a variety of reasons involving head trauma(strokes in particulate).

Has your dog been outside in the heat for long quantities of time?

Ate a prescription pill.

Your dog is a Chiefs fan? Seriously, likely epilepsy. See a vet pronto.

I had a dog that this would happen too. Vet said he was allergic to flies and when he was eating his food and he ate a fly on accident, this shit would happen and he'd be laid out for like 24 hours. I had to feed him inside and make sure no flies were around. At first i was like shit, this dude has parvo, but he would still eat. He wouldnt get up, but he would eat and drink.

Looks like lots of things......

I'd make an appointment with the vet.

Yeah, maybe you should stop consulting the luminaries on ChiefsPlanet and take your dog to the ****ing vet.

Not trying to scare you but brain cancer can cause this as well. Our beagle had lymphoma which spread to his brain. Once he started having seizure we knew it was time to let him go.

I hope that is not the case here and it is something like epilepsy that could be managed with medication. But as others have said; get him to your vet ASAP.

Thoughts to your family and your pup.

Is your dog a lab? They have big problems with seizures.

One of our dogs developed epilepsy about two months ago. I took him to the emergency vet that night and he examined fine.

In many cases epilepsy is a diagnosis of exclusion, which means that they'd have to perform a CSF tap (a spinal tap, but at the base of the dog's skull) and/or an MRI to exclude diagnoses like a brain tumor, meningitis, or certain tick-borne diseases.

In our case the vet started our dog on phenobarbital while also giving him doxycycline.

The thought was this: The doxy would take care of any tick-borne diseases that would cause the seizure. If the seizures stop completely, it was likely due to that. If they don't, then the phenobarb should control them, and if the phenobarb doesn't, it's probably something more serious.

Watch out because vets approach phenobarb differently. Some will start on a loading dose to get it into the dog's system quickly, as it normally takes a few weeks to build up a sufficient blood level.

Our vet started him on a low dose, and as he had successive seizures (although further apart), we slowly moved him up.

He started out on 1 grain (64.8 mg) 2x/day and is now on 2 grains 2x/day. It's done a good job of managing his seizures.

An additional tip: the next time your dog has an episode videotape it so that your vet can see it. It sounds like a classic Grand Mal seizure, but it's always worth having video evidence.

The Phenobarb is pretty affordable. It was just under $40/month for his current supply.

I'm sure that he is not trying to save a vet visit. People love their dogs. To some they are like family. Lighten up Francis.

Other things: the vet will have to check your dog's phenobarbital levels occasionally, as it can be somewhat toxic to the liver in high doses. If your dog doesn't tolerate it well they can use potassium bromide in conjunction with phenobarb or move to human epilepsy medications (although those are quite a bit more expensive).

Feel free to PM me with any other questions.

I agree.

However, the beauty of posting questions such as this is the wide breadth of responses one can receive

Oh, and phenobarb will increase the dog's thirst and appetite, which means more trips outside.