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 incase 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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