Dog Seizures Symptoms
Top Signs of the Symptoms for a Dog Seizure
A brief guide on how to tell and identify dog seizure symptoms that could be life saving and what to do in an emergency.
A seizure is when the body begins to experience muscle contractions – shaking aggressively and uncontrollably. Often times there is no known cause of a seizure. Your best defense is to understand the dog seizure symptoms listed below. If you know your dog well enough, you should be able to tell if he or she is acting out of line or different.
4 Common Dog Seizure Symptoms
A dog will experience a seizure when something in the brain triggers the neurological system. The dog may experience the seizure any where from a few moments to several long minutes. The seizure is a disorder of the brain. This is not caused by any sort of virus or disease you may think your dog contracted. Many times a dog seizure occurs due to epilepsy, which dogs can experience.
1. Your dog may begin to defecate, urinate or salivate uncontrollable
2. Experiences hallucinations
3. Excessive barking, gnawing at limbs or paws
4. May become non responsive to you and your commands
5. Involuntary contractions of the muscles – whether this is isolated to a certain body part or the entire body.
Your dog may experience only one of these symptoms or any combination of them.
Is the dog in harm’s way during the seizure? As long as your dog is lying on the ground, he should be okay even if his body is having convulsions. A dog’s tongue will not block his airway. He can breathe okay. There is no point putting your hand down his throat to try and clear his airway so he breathes. You only run the greater risk of your dog accidentally biting you.
Action to take: Call your local vet right away. Do not try to self diagnose the problem. This requires immediate attention from a professional who handles this type of issue on a routine basis. Being aware of dog seizure symptoms certainly can help you save your dog’s life, but please do not play the role of a vet if you are not one.
Keep a local phone list of more than one veterinarian if you can. Identify one or two local emergency animal care centers in your area as well. Be sure to have those numbers posted alongside your veterinarian’s phone number and address. On a sunny day it wouldn’t be a bad idea to drive to the local animal hospital just so you know where it is in case your dog ever experiences a seizure.
Once at the veterinarian, your pet’s doctor typically will prescribe some kind of medication to help keep the body stable and relaxed. This treatment may be anywhere from one to two weeks. Or it may mean going as far as treating the dog for the rest of his life. This type of medication would need to be taken on a regular basis. A veterinarian usually does not go this route – medicating a dog for life – until the dog begins experiencing seizures on a routine basis.
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October 13, 2008 under 
Dog Health Care
Tags: dog care, dog health, Dog Health Care, dog health problems, dog seizures symptoms, symptoms of dog seizures
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Thank you for this very good advice. I once had a dog that had a Grand Mal Seizure. Your description is correct. The vet did say not to hold her down (with that type of seizure she flopped around), as holding her body down could cause her to her herself, but otherwise everything you have advised is spot on for what the hospital advised.
I do try to keep the local veterinary hospitals contact information with me whereever I go- even when I travel I look them up ahead of time.
Scary stuff for our furry friends.
I actually never thought of dogs getting seizures.
Glad someone has put together some helpful advice here.
Best,
Joshua
My dog has these strange episodes where she becomes very skidish, wont come when called, wont eat or drink anything, shakes uncontrolably as though shes extremely cold, sometimes she’ll whimper, and acts scared. I’m not sure whats causing it but theres times when she doesnt come back to her normal self for up to 4 to 5 hours and I dont see how thats normal,do you have any ideas or can you shine some light on the subject for me lease???
Sincerely,
Angela Carson
Well i am really very glad to know about the Dog Seizures Symptoms, this is really a nice post to know about the dogs problem. Anyways keep it up and keep continue.
It is interesting to read your description of seizures in dogs as we had a chihuahua that experienced them quite often.We did as you suggest and contacted our vet.Along with medication he also suggested a diet of lean protein such as turkey and chicken.
Of course our dog loved that!But unfortunately in his case it didn’t seem to help.The medication did seem to lessen the severity but it did not eliminate them.He still had the distant look , muscle clenching and salivating.
I agree with Joshua,it is pretty scary if you have never seen one happen.
Very Informative Post. You made some good points. I especially liked it. Keep up the good work.
Thanks
with regards
Thank you so much for this information. I too own a Chihauhau and I would be absolutely in shock if my little Max starting showing signs or symptoms of these terrible seizures. I have printed out the top signs of the symptoms for a dog seizure and I will certainly watch for them. Cheap Edmonton Hotels
Thanks for the information on seizures. Our Springer Spanial had 3 seizures at home Monday so we took her to the Emergency Clinic where she had another one. So, they kept her over night on an I.V. and the next day we picked her up and took her to our own Vet. He decided she should be on medicine now so she is getting better. What a horrible experience!!!!!! Whew!!!!! Thanks again!!!!!!!