Seizure in 5year old GS - Page 1

Last night my 5 year old Sheperd went into a seizure.  He was sleeping and suddenly awoke trying to stand eyes twitching

up and down, completely disoriented, legs stiffening to keep his balance.  He started to recover after the three minutes episode and was completely back to normal after 15 minutes.  He had never had a seizure in his life.  We took him to the emergency clinic and their diagnosis was  "vestibule" mispelled.  Early this morning he had another seizeure but much less severe than the one earlier. (two seizures in less than 12 hours to a dog that had never had one)

We took him to our own Vet this morning at which time we found a tick embeded in him.  It had been there for awhile.  He is presenlty at the Clinic under going test.  We live in Northern KY not exactly a hotbed for lyme disease or rocky mountain spotted fever.   I am wondering if the tick bite could have induced a seizure even though it might not be carrying lyme or rocky mountain spotted fever?

He ate some grass and what looked like weeds an hour and a half prior to the seizure and I am thinking this could be related.   He did throw it up.

 On the other hand his behavior the last six month has changed somewhat as noises especially fireworks bother

him much more that the use to and he paces and he takes a while to calm down.

We are very worried.  Thanks for the help!

The best answers for this problem will come from your vets, not from us. That being said, yes, if the dog has a tick transmitted infection it absolutely could be the cause of the seizures. However, there are other possibilities as well. Work with your vet to discover the real cause and then treat it. As a minimum, they will do testing and probably treat empirically for a tick borne infection to start with.

Good luck.

I'm not saying that this is what it is, but the below link is good to bookmark for reference.  I hope all will turn out fine for you and your dog...

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/

Ticks themselves can cause paralysis:
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/102600.htm

Good luck, I hope it was just the tick and not something more serious!

Baxter,

In my personal opinion, I would say, (If it was my dog).....

That the seizure was definately from the tick.

But that's just my opinion, and of course you have visited the vet,
so they will probably fiqure it out.

I would think that it's not epilepsy cause that would have probably showed up sooner,
than the age of 5.

Adult onset epilepsy can begin at any age,  a first seizure at 5 years and older is not unheard of.  Many, many things can cause seizures in dogs including low blood sugar, epilespy, a brain tumor, something the dog has eaten or absorbed via the skin. Some dogs seizure a few times and never again and sometimes the cause is never known.

Elvis hunk of burning luv update

The Vet put him on doxycycline (which is used for veneral diseases in humans) and the recovery has been astonishing.  We had not put frontline on him as we had planned and we did him a great disservice, never again.  He is a longcoat and we think the tick was on him over a week. Indications are that it was the tick which caused the problem but of course we won't know for sure for a couple of days.  Thank you all for the support.

Blitzen,

You are right, and it could even maybe be a brain tumor, if the dogs personality has changed.......

That's something to think about, that's good imput, that's why it's good to hear other peoples
points of view, it enlightens us.

So come on, people>> that are just reading this stuff, let's hear from you!

(Also I had a GSD that was 5 years old & she had a seizure for the first time in her life & it was cause she had a
food allergy to lamb & rice.

Also, at the same time she had got a rabies vaccination, who knows what could have triggered a seizure.

I stopped feeding her that & she never had another one, after she had had about 5 altogether one weekend.

We did a blood test to confirm a food allergy.

Elvis hunk of burning luv update

The Vet put him on doxycycline (which is used for veneral diseases in humans) and the recovery has been astonishing.  We had not put frontline on him as we had planned and we did him a great disservice, never again.  He is a longcoat and we think the tick was on him over a week. Indications are that it was the tick which caused the problem but of course we won't know for sure for a couple of days.  Thank you all for the support.

Baxter,

The heck with Frontline,

Use Advantix, I have not had fleas or ticks for six years!!!!!!!!

Also I am glad to hear he is doing much better!

Good Night!