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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.
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"When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”--Abraham Lincoln
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