Need Info on Epilepsy Detection - Page 1

Not too long ago, I was excited to find an article stating they can now scent-train dogs to detect an epileptic seizure before it happens. Previously, this was not a trainable task: the dog either alerted on its own, without being trained, or would not alert. Needless to say, inducing a seizure in a human being for the purpose of training a dog is not an option!

Researchers discovered the chemical given off by the body prior to a seizure is the same one LEO's have been using for a number of years to train dogs to track figuitives through areas where the scent trail has been confused by the passage of many people. It is the odour that the human body give off under stress. This odour can now be bottled, and used in the training of dogs.

If anyone can give me a link to this info, I'd be very grateful. I've searched the web for it without success.

Hi Sunsilver,  I have heard of this.  Acquaintances of mine with an autistic child that goes into seizures has a constant dog companion.  When the child does go into a seizure the dog has a red button in the child's bedroom that it pushes to alert the family.  I don't think the dog is capable of alerting for oncoming events though. 

Sunshine, I respectfully disagree. Not only can they alert oncoming seizures from epilepsy but also panic attacks and diabetic states to name a few. By oncoming I mean before there are any outward manifestations.

Dawgs,

I may be wrong but I believe sunshine was saying that specific dog does not detect upcoming  seziures. While some dogs can detect seziures, panic attacks etc, before they happen. not all do. In general they tend to be more reactive dogs such as the type you would use for hearing work although some others can do the work as well.

I see what you mean. I thought sunshine meant that detecting upcoming seizures wasn't possible and was making the point that it is. Sorry if I misunderstood your point Sunshine.

If you can come up with an article reference please email a copy to blindbucket@yahoo.com. I am very involved in the assistance dog community and to my knowledge this is NOT yet a trainable task.

There are a lot of scam artists who take advantage of very vulnerable people and will claim anything and charge anything. I am not saying this can not be done - there are very well documented cases of dogs doing seizure alert BUT the true ones I've known of has been something that the dog did instinctually.  Then we have the cases that involve ( like w/ dogs) superstitious behavior. Example - my dog does this - means I may have a seizure so I will pop a pill - no seizure - ergo the dog alerted me. Ah NO! But you wouldn't believe how common that scenario has been sold - the dog has never ever actually alerted to an event that ended in a seizure but it's labeled a seizure alert dog.

VKFGSD, see the above thread on 'Scent in Police Training Dogs?'  Apparently, some epileptics, can't say for sure it happens in all of the, produce a lot of adrenaline before a seizure. I'm sure they do so during a seizure, too. The dog can be trained to alert to the scent of this very powerful hormone, and police departments have trained dogs to alert to this to catch criminals on the run.

VKF, I read most of those links when doing a search for information on this. If you notice the dates of the articles, most of them are pretty old, whereas the information I came across appeared in a local paper a couple of weeks ago. I am NOT making this up! Who know, further study may show it doesn't work, but at least they are looking into it.

The point is they HAVE been looking into it for quite some time- more than two decades. I would think that if there had been a real break through it would be front page news and easy to find.