Have any of your dogs had them?

Michigan had one yesterday. as she threw up just beforehand, I wasn't certain if she was choking or not...as such I had my fingers down her throat to make sure she got  everything out and that nothing was blocked. Just as I figured out it was a seizure and that I should get my fingers out of her mouth prontoburgers...chomp. I ended up at the hospital, no stitches as apparently the risk of infection is too high. my left hand is mangled, though, as her molars closed right on the knuckle of my naughty finger...cut, bruised and swollen.

Anyway, my old shorthair Andy used to have little seizures if she got too excited, but nothing serious it seemed. Is it common? I know they are very excitable and that hunting dogs can have seizures if they get too excited. We were playing and things were pretty exciting shortly beforehand. That said, she was also out on the balcony just before and she did throw up some grass or plant matter so perhaps it was from something she got into.

We're making a vet appointment today.

I've never run into that.  Just wanted to say I hope your dog is OK!  Let us know what the vet says.

thanks. she seems fine, was her normal self the rest of the day...and is doing a lot better than me. I've had a look at some stuff on the interweb, we just have to keep an eye on her, really.

Dwayners,

Here is some Web Links that may be of help to you:

Linky 1

and

Linky 2

There are a lot of things that can cause Seizures from recent application of Flea and Tick treatment, to Tickborne diseases, Liver Shunts, Meningitis, head injury/trauma, toxins/poisons and the list goes on. Your Vet at a minimum should do a full blood workup (CBC), Urine Analysis,  a Full Tick titer panel for Lyme, Ehrlichia and RMSF; Bile Acids assay, Thyroid panel and then work away from there depending on how far you are willing to go to try and evaluate the cause.

Do you know if there is a history of Ideopathic Epilepsy in the lines behind your dog? Talking to your Breeder would hopefully give some honest insight to that possibility.

thanks AlmostHeaven. I saw Linky 2 earlier in the day but Linky 1 merits some investigation.

I was away for the better part of this weekend but my wife said she was acting strangely on Saturday afternoon. We also started the dogs on Revolution (Heartworm Preventative) just over a week ago, but as she vomited right before the seizure I'm leaning towards toxins more than anything. She is from rescue we have no idea about her bloodlines. My wife has likely made a vet appointment already so we'll have some idea soon.

no. we picked her up from the shelter in December, where a she had tested negative. as we're in Canada we've only recently entered mosquito season so no test was required.

Hope Michigan is doing better as well as your hand. Summer is hard with people spraying for weeds and insects and then there are always toadstools. So many things to look for. They poisoned the prarie dogs in the park and in the aftermath killed the fox and her kits. So many unintentioned consequences.

Michingan is doing ok. The Vet checked her out yesterday and said she appears fine. He did some standard neurological tests and she passed with ease. My finger is in a lot worse shape than she is, lol, but the horse pills I'm on seem to be helping and plenty of advil has helped reduce the swelling. fingers crossed that this doesn't happen again. thanks for the well wishes, folks.

Glad to hear you are both doing well.  Take care of that finger!

So, a bit of an update is in order as I have some questions perhaps some of you can help me with.

Michigan had two more seizures over the summer for a total of three, at irregular intervals. I have connected two of the seizures to us visiting a particular off-leash park (one seizure occured while we were in the park) and there is a distinct possibility that the first one occured after a morning visit to this same park, although I cannot confirm it. In each case, she vomited grass up immediately before the seizure. During the two known park visits, she spent an inordinate amount of time with her nose to the ground and nibbling the grass in certain spots.

This leads me to believe that the seizures were in fact caused by environmental factors rather than epilepsy. I did some research and noted that there are a few plants than can cause seizures in dogs but as I am not a botanist, I can't just go to the park and pick out the plants. There were other visits to the same park that did not result in seizures but not as much sniffing and grass consumption.

For now,  we don't visit that park anymore. It's been about 5 or 6 weeks since the last incident. After 8 weeks of not visiting said park I think we'll know for certain that it was caused by environmental factors. Any ideas? Could it be something animal or worse, intentional poisoning?