What You Need To Know About Canine Epilepsy - Part 1

Epilepsy is a kind of condition that causes seizures to occur. You’ve probably heard of it happening in humans, but this brain disorder can affect pups as well.

It’s an incurable disease, but it can be managed well with the right medical care and understanding. It’s a good idea to understand this disorder, so here’s a brief crash course on epilepsy.

There’s no direct understanding of what causes epilepsy. Breeds such as Schnauzers, Collies, Cocker Spaniels, and Basset Hounds are thought to be more susceptible to the illness, and repeated seizures are the most common of its symptoms.

However, epilepsy is only diagnosed when all other possible reasons for these seizures are ruled out. You may need to have a video recording of the event, and you may need to talk to your vet about injuries or toxic substances that may have caused the seizure before your pup can be diagnosed. Physical and neurological tests must then be conducted, which may involve taking blood count, X-rays, CT scans, and other examinations.

If your pup is diagnosed with epilepsy, treatment can begin. With that being said, treatment rarely happens as a result of just one seizure, and is often only administered if these seizures are severe, increasing in frequency, or occurring in clusters – or if your pup’s breed is susceptible to them. This treatment will aim to reduce the severity of seizures and often needs to be carried out for the rest of a pup’s life.

Treatments involving phenobarbital or potassium bromide are the most common, although new medicine has brought in anticonvulsants borrowed from human medicine. The latter, however, is much more expensive. Pup-specific medication may come with side effects like sedation – especially in the beginning period of treatment – and an increased appetite and thirst.

If you’re concerned about epilepsy, you should also understand the types of seizures that a pup can have. But that’s an article for another day! Stick around for that one, and in the meantime, to like and share this one!