Seizures, aspirin and dog demise
Posted By: TeriD on 2007-02-08
In Reply to: It all depends on the dose and how often given. An occasional - IT MOST CERTAINLY WILL
Okay, here's my offering of a summary. In answer to the initial question, yes dogs can have seizures. I had a dog that had them for several years. Extremely scary, but they basically didn't harm him. He shook and was stiff for about a minute, then was fine afterwards. The vet didn't see a need to do testing, and I agreed, as he was already 9 or 10 years old at the time, and he lived another 5 years after that. (The dog, not the vet, ha!) Of course other owners and other vets might decide to do testing and such. As for the aspirin debate, I will now agree with the person who says aspirin can kill a dog. A dog given small doses of aspirin every day of its life will indeed die - most likely in anywhere between 13 and 17 years! Let's lighten up, everybody! 
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I may have caused my former cat's demise by feeding Meow Mix dry (sm)
It is higher in certain minerals that can make it easier for cats (esp. males) to develop urinary crystals. I had a perfectly healthy 4-year-old male Persian who had only recently gotten Meow Mix just as a hand-fed treat, and he developed crystals, complete urinary tract blockage, and eventually complete renal failure, resulting in euthanasia. His total bill came to over $5,000 - which I am STILL paying off 6 months later. I learned 2 important lessons:
1) NEVER feed Meow Mix, and
2) Buy pet health insurance!
aspirin and
If you start feeding your dog a baby aspirin a day for arthritis, make sure you have some Tums in the house. Aspirin can upset their stomach and you can give Tums without overdosing them.
BTW: The hint that the aspirin is bothering them and they need a Tums is eating a lot of grass and throwing up.
ASPIRIN will kill a dog
Please tell her to stop! She must be able to find a vet somewhere that will treat the dog and let her make payments!
And yes dogs most certainly have seizures.
ASPIRIN DOES NOT KILL A DOG
Worked for a vet, have a 16 year old dog on two aspirin a day. Works better than the expensive NSAID's. My dog had seizures also. Don't know why this has become so much more prominent lately but has. My dog is part chow/lab mix. She began with the seizures after being on prednisone -- I say that had something to do with it -- they do not. Very bad seizures. Age 6. Had her on medication - not phenobarb but something else that a dog neurologist said to put her on. She took it for almost a year - no seizures, slowly tapered her off of it and she did have little ones now and then -- 2 to 3 a year but over the past 7 years has not had one to my knowledge. She is 16 and quite healthy, except for being quite deaf, hip dysplasiad and arthritis and takes aspirin for it. I am sure her end is near but we still walk a mile a day and she chases her friend our cat every now and then. But her birthday is Valentine's Day -- was actually born on that day and she will be 16. Go on line and read about seizures. A neighbor has a chow that just had hsi first one -- age 4 to 5 also. So it is more common than one would expect. Good luck. Actually the visit to the dog neurologist was cheaper than my regular vet and he spent a lot of time with us. So it was well worth the money. Patti
Disagree on aspirin
We used to prescribe Ascripton all the time to dogs with arthritis. My dog has been on one to two a day for several years now. Also my neighbors dog has been on aspirin for his arthritis. Just like people you have to watch for bleeding or hemorrhage but when she had a benign growth removed last August her blood work was better than that of an 8 year old dog. Again you have to watch for the signs of GI bleeding but it is not as potentially dangerous as the NSAID's are to the liver. Read about those side effects. I have been given hand outs on the use of aspirin by several vet's. So again -- I disagree with you.
All about dogs and aspirin
Aspirin has the same problems in dogs that it has in people. It can cause gastrointestinal upsets and ulcers if the GI signs are ignored. It can cause renal failure if overdosed. It causes an increase in clotting time. This usually isn't a serious side effect but it does occur. Despite these shortcomings it has a lot of beneficial effects and it is inexpensive. The currently recommended dosage of aspirin varies a little from publication to publication but it is between 5 and 15mg/lb every 12 hours. Since there is a range I usually pick the middle of it and go for about 10mg/lb every 12 hours. This works well and seems to be pretty safe. That works out to an aspirin tablet per 32 pounds of body weight twice a day. I have to admit that I rarely advise giving more than 2 aspirin twice a day despite the fact that some big dogs could obviously take more based on the per pound calculation.
Aspirin for dogs
You didn't say if you and your GF live near each other. If so I would venture a guess that it is arthritis and both dogs have it. Before all the anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, etc. came out they used to give people aspirin for arthritis as common practice. So my guess would be it is helping the inflammation/pain and thus they are acting fine.
Keep in mind that dogs will not show their pain until they are really in alot of pain. It is the animal inistinct that pain shows weakness and in the animal world it gives the impression of not being able to defend themselves. So just because they are acting like nothing is wrong does not mean that they are fine, it could be that the severe pain they were experiencing is less now. I would certainly follow-up with the Vet.
Just FYI on in-laws dog taking aspirin
My mother-in-law has been giving the dog one aspirin every day for about a year now. It is a bigger size dog, probably about 45 to 50 pounds. The dog definitely has something wrong with its brain because of the way it acts. I worry he will turn on them one day. Anyway, apparently aspirin doesn't kill dogs, at least this one anyway.
Tylenol (acetaminophen) is dangerous, not aspirin
Patti is right - aspirin can safely be given to dogs. It's Tylenol (acetaminophen) that is dangerous to give to dogs, and I believe also to cats. (Anyone with doubts, please call the nearest veterinarian, but I know several vets have told me so, I've had probably 20 dogs in my life, and though I love cats, I'm allergic to them  ) The animal livers can't handle Tylenol like human livers (and it's also very dangerous to our livers in overdoses) Chocolate is also bad for dogs, by the way.
Two Tylenol (not aspirin or Advil or Aleve) with anything citrus..
And the "navel" in the fuzzy navel doesn't count!!!
Be safe and happy 2008!!
My dog had seizures too,
He had them from around 10 weeks old and for the rest of his life, but not very often because my vet put him on phenobarbitol tabs. I had to give them to him twice a day, but it was worth it. He died two years or so later, but I think he ate something that killed him, it wasn't a seizure. My vet only observed him for 24 hours before putting him on the meds, he did bloodwork to make sure that was what was happening. Good luck, give your doggy a hug for me!!
Anybody with a dog with seizures?
Do they run tests to determine if it's indeed seizures or what? Katie, our springer, has been having what appears to be mild seizures. They only last a couple of seconds and she's not out of it when it happens. She's due for her shots so I'm gonna ask about it but thought someone here might have some experience.
Seizures have many causes
A dog I adopted from a local shelter, who had been a stray and was skeletally thin (14 pounds), had seizures which the vet said was probably due to malnutrition. In the beginning, the only thing he could keep down was baby food (ground meat). After a couple of weeks, I started mixing the baby food with regular dog food and soon he was able to handle a regular dog food diet. When he finally got to his normal weight, he was almost 40 pounds!
His seizures took the form of shaking, like some dogs do when they are frightened. Phenobarbital helped to keep them to a minimum, but he still had them. All we could do was hold him and talk soothingly to him until the seizure was over.
He was the sweetest dog....I miss him so much.
My in-laws have a dog who has seizures...
This dog seems to being having grand mal seizures because it urinates on itself and they last a least a minute. The dog has had this several times but they haven't taken him to the vet because of the cost involved. My mother-in-law gives him an aspirin and puts "cold packs" on him when he is seizing. I'm not sure why but she is a little strange. I would take the dog to a vet. They can probably do test to see if she is indeed having seizures. Good luck!
Seizures in dogs. sm
It really varies. My chihuahua sustained a brain injury at the age of 4 (baseball); and she started having seizures. They were terrible. They only lasted about 5 minutes but felt like hours. I finally got a vet to put her on phenobarbital and she never had another seizure the rest of her life. The vet said some dogs respond, others do not. As mentioned, she had brain injury and vet was skeptical, but it worked for us. Good luck.
Seizures in dogs. Anyone have experience with sm
this? My poor little Cocker-he's 1-1/2 has been having seizures for about the last 6 months. The first time was last summer, around June. He stiffened up, weak on one side, fell down, neck spasmed literally all the way to the side for probably less than a minute and then he was fine. We didn't see anymore for about 3 months and boom, another just like the first. Then he had a couple of staring spells. I called the vet and he said to just observe and see if it happened again. Well, all was well for another 2 months and then he had the shivering episodes, 2 in 3 weeks that I observed. He would fall down and shiver real bad, not know anyone, unable to walk and this lasted for about 1-2 minutes. Then he was fine. I called the vet again and he said to "observe" for now. Today, he had another just like the first only it lasted for close to 3-5 minutes and it took him about another 15 minutes before he totally came out of it and was able to walk. In all of these seizures, his pupils were just huge-as big as the iris itself. I'm going to call the vet back on Tuesday again. What I want to know is, I wonder if it would be wise if I firmly asked the vet to please put this poor dog on antiseizure medication even if he wants to just "observe" again? Do they grow out of this or does it get worse? He told me that he prefers to wait before using medication as they sometimes outgrow it, but I don't think it is going to happen. He doesn't bite and is not incontinent during these episodes. He doesn't bite his tongue either. They aren't the classic grand mal seizures. I had a dog when I was young who had the classic grand mal and these aren't like that. My concern, and this is what I told him, is how many seizures is the poor little guy having that we haven't seen? I mean, I'm with him all day, but he sleeps by himself at night (on the couch-he's so neglected) and then there is his playtime in the fenced in yard. Any suggestions? I'll check back later or you can email me. Thanks!
My poor old doggy had seizures
and died from one. He went to the vet that day and she put him on medication. I called her and told her he was having more seizures and she said to double his medication. That night, he had a seizure and did not come out of it and died staring at me. I felt so helpless that I could not do anything to help him. I loved him so much.
Now I have another doed that is only 2-1/2 and he is having seizures about 1 every 3 months. He gets very scared and I have to comfort him. He wines and gets under my feet, can't stand up, drools, shivers and goes stiff.
Update on my poochie with seizures sm
He had another last night right before I went to bed. Of course I couldn't sleep all night worrying about him. I called the vet promptly at 8 a.m. this morning and we are starting him on phenobarb 1/2 grain twice a day for starters. I sure hope this brings it under control. I felt so bad for the poor little guy. Otherwise today, he is great. Thanks for all the support. 
Poor thing, with seizures and all.
Some cats don't care about mice. I have two. LIke I said in the other posting, one loves to catch mice. The other one? Well, I've seen a mouse literally run right past his nose and he just didn't care.
My husky Cara had seizures, she was never on medication though - sm
She only had them about every 18 months or so, granted I don't know if she had others when I was at work during the day, at night she slept in our bed with us. I believe the seizures contributed to the shortening her life though. She died days after her 8th birthday (cancer) in 2003. She never bit her tongue either, and the seizure was a few minutes and then after 15 or so minutes she started to get back to normal, but she would usually sleep for a long time after having a seizure. Since your dog's seizures seem to be getting worse I would opt for the medication. If you vet gives you a hard time then you might want to think about going to a different vet. Good luck.
My friend's cocker spaniel had seizures too. SM
The vet claimed it was due to emotional issues, seperation from her, if she traveled, etc. He lived to be 15, though. Is it unique to spaniels?
My daughter's cat also had seizures. It is very traumatic to watch it. She would call me up crying because the cat was seizing. The vet said rare in cats, but he put the cat on phenobarb, which daughter got from regular drug store. Very funny seeing prescription from Walgreens with Sgt. Pepper on it.
I reallly assume it is more traumatic to watch, than actually a danger to pet, because daughter's cat is 17.
Seizures are fairly common in Springers.
But what is the age of onset? Usually if age of onset is after 5 years, it is something other than epilepsy. But in a very young dog, it probably is epilepsy. A friend of mine has a Australian shepherd (named Major) that was having multiple grand mal seizures a day. Medicine helped, but what made a big difference for her was changing the dog's food to Canidae. Of course it's not in place of medication, but the dog went from multiple seizures a day before medication to 1 seizure a week with medication (may have had to add a second med, not sure), but then changing to Canidae improved him to 1 seizure in 6 months! She also has a Pembroke corgi (named Minor) who alerts them to each seizure before it hits their Australian shepherd.
She named her dogs Major and Minor - what a nut. :oD
Dog owners - recognizing partial seizures
After losing Misha to a brain tumor, I decided to post this to help others with dogs (sorry cat lovers - I did not research cats). Seizures beginning when a dog is young are almost always due to epilepsy, and it is very treatable. Unfortunately, seizures that begin when a dog is 5 or older is almost always either a brain tumor or some sort of serious infection in the brain. Either way, recognizing it early will help you have the confidence to insist on early treatment for the comfort and health of your pet.
Everybody knows the signs of a tonic-clonic seizure, but subtler seizures can confuse even vets. Know the signs of even focal/partial seizures:
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/CanineEpil.htm
he's not a loser because he has seizures, he's a loser because
we have to pay an exterminator to keep away the mice. He doesn't like to be petted. He pees and poops on things when he has seizures. I'm not saying he is a loser because he has seizures but because he pees and poops on things and the other things I mentioned. If he was your cat, I'm sure you would just kick him to the curb.
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