Seizure, a seven letter word that has the ability to scare people so badly causing greyhounds to stay in foster homes or kennels forever waiting for homes, mostly because people don’t have a good understanding of what exactly seizures are and how to treat them, and they can be treated.

Stated simply, seizures are short circuits in the brain, causing the brain to misfire if you will. To give you a good example as to exactly what happens when a seizure occurs, I’m going to rely on my own personal experience. I have a seizure disorder, Epilepsy if you will. I had my first seizure when I was 24 years old. Both of my children have seizures also, but the three of us all have different forms of seizures. I have grand mal seizures, without the convulsing and thrashing about that most people associate with seizures. I was so afraid to tell my neurologist that I see a vision before my seizures, a lady in a white flowing dress, and then I go out like a light. My son on the other hand has grand mal seizures. He has the most severe form of Epilepsy where he convulses and thrashes about, sometimes biting his tongue. My daughter on the other hand has Petite Mal seizures. She just spaces out and is able to continue doing normal everyday things while seizing. If you didn’t know she had Epilepsy you would never notice her seizing. From personal experience I can tell you seizures are not painful, with seizures all of your senses shut down, you can’t see, hear, taste, feel or smell.. You aren’t even aware that you’ve had one until you regain consciousness. I tell you all of this because having all this experience under my belt is the reason we adopted our beautiful seizure greyhound Saint.

Saint started having seizures while he was in the racing kennel. His trainer informed the adoption coordinator of the group we adopted from that he would seize, almost every night between the times of 10:00 – 11:00 p.m. He told her he could set his watch by Saint’s seizures. Saint was brought over to the adoption kennel and I was informed that he was there. He happens to be the brother of 3 of our other pups, Arrow, Valentino and Heart. My husband and I went out to see Saint and after looking into his eyes, we knew his chance of getting a home were slim to none so we decided to adopt him and bring him to our home. We had to wait a bit because his seizures were so bad that the vet had to start him on Phenobarbital right away. I remember the day I received a call from the kennel. Saint had just had an awful seizure and collapsed a crate on top of his self. I told them to call the vet and have the vet increase his meds immediately. Finally the day came when we were able to pick him up from the vet and take him home.

Saint wasn’t home two days when he went into cluster seizures in the middle of the night. We immediately took him to the emergency vet where he spent the rest of the night until we could get him to our vet in the morning. We brought him home that night with valium suppositories in case he went in to cluster seizures again. We spent the next four weeks battling seizures with our sweet boy, each time raising his medication level. Finally after the vet had put him on as much Phenobarbital as he dare he added Potassium Bromide to his daily regimen. After about 4 weeks on the Potassium Bromide Saint quit having seizures and has been seizure free now for a three and a half years.

The first time you see a seizure it can be quite unnerving. They can be terrifying to watch and the feeling of overwhelming helplessness leaves a person in shock. The range of symptoms is so varied that it can be something as simple as staring off into space. Not responding when spoken to, stumbling, the loss of balance to violent thrashing about, gnashing of the teeth, biting the tongue, losing control of bowels or bladder, vomiting and actually hurting themselves by throwing themselves into walls and furniture.

Diagnosing seizures can be very complicated. First have the vet do a complete blood panel, including a thyroid panel. You can also request that tests be done for TBD’s (tick borne diseases) and thyroid disease. After ruling all of those things out you can, if you choose, to have an EEG and an MRI or CAT scan done on your pup. A lot of people are under the misconception that seizures must come from some physical source, such as a brain tumor or such. If your hound is a senior, these tests may be helpful in ruling those things out. Canine epilepsy usually occurs between the ages of three and five. Some can develop it earlier and some a little later. Most seizure disorders have no known origin though and in those cases the diagnosis of Epilepsy will be made.

If you have a greyhound that suddenly starts to seize, make sure the pup is in a safe place so as not to cause injury to himself. Our first instinct is to try and comfort the pup. You can provide no comfort while your pup is seizing because he’s not feeling any discomfort. Please be aware that in coming out of a seizure your pup will be quite disoriented and may unintentionally snap or bite you. It’s best to stand back and let the seizure run its course.

Keep a journal of when, where, how long and the symptoms your pup exhibits. This will give your vet a good idea of what’s going on when your pup seizes and how often the seizures occur. Some greyhounds, like my Saint, develop a pattern to their seizures so that they happen at the same time every time.

When your pup comes out of a seizure, let him up and walk along side your pup. He may be uncoordinated and stumble into things, don’t try and make him lie down. A greyhound’s temperature rises sharply while seizing and this is your pups’ way of trying to cool off. They may want outside, only to walk directly back in again and repeat this several times. You can cover him with a damp towel if you wish to help him cool down.

Their blood sugar drops dramatically also while seizing so having some all natural ice cream around to give to your pup when he becomes awake and alert will help to stabilize his blood sugar.

You will know when your hound is back to normal because he will probably be ready to go to bed. I would walk the floor for about an hour with Saint after each seizure before he was comfortable again and tired and wanting to sleep. Let him take his time. He knows when he’s ready.

Once it is established that your pup does indeed have epilepsy, and if he is seizing more than 2 or 3 times a month, your vet will probably want to start your pup on medication. If your pups seizures are minor he may be started on Potassium Bromide. If you have a pup with grand mal seizures and they are severe and happening daily, your vet will probably start him on Phenobarbital to try and get some control over the seizures immediately. Potassium Bromide takes about 4 weeks to reach maximum strength to control seizures. Your pup may experience some clumsiness, may bump into the walls and such for a short period of time. At times they act like they’re drunk. These symptoms will disappear as their bodies adjust to the medication.

Your pup may develop a weakness in his back legs from the medication, but it’s a symptom that can be dealt with. Usually some strength training like running in the yard will overcome the problem.

Working closely with your vet and following his instructions is a must. Your greyhound is depending on you to care for him in this situation. He can’t care for himself.

One thing you must be aware of, if you have other dogs in your home, you may find that they try and attack your seizure dog while they are seizing. We have 8 hounds in our home and as a precaution they are all crated when we leave the house or at night while everyone is sleeping. I have, on two occasions, had to physically put myself between Saint and my other dogs because they tried to attack him. It’s called pack mentality. If you’ve ever been in a kennel when another pup screams or cries out you will find that instinct sets in and dogs will try and attack the injured dog. If you have more than one dog, please be aware of how your other dog reacts. The only other things we do, if we go to greyhound events or on vacation, we NEVER leave our pups alone in a hotel room with the others. The risk is too high that Saint may seize from stress and we would come back to find he was no longer with us. It’s a minor adjustment to us and we wouldn’t change a thing to have Saint with us. It’s your responsibility to protect your seizing dog at all times.

Here is a wonderful website for anyone interested in learning all they can about seizures http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/

I learned when adopting Saint what a challenge overcoming seizures can be and we also learned how rewarding it can be. I wouldn’t trade one sleepless night that I spent walking the floors with Saint. The bond that Saint and I formed while battling his seizures is amazing. He is my miracle baby and I love him dearly. He is a very happy boy. He has such a joy for living that you see just by looking in his face. It’s almost like he understands he beat a formidable opponent and won! He is a happy go lucky boy who treats every day as if it is a gift to him. His epilepsy is not curable but it is controllable!

Saint lives happily with 3 of his littermates, Arrow, Valentino and Heart and with our other hounds, Emmy, Andy, Gee, Bullitt, Pistol, Sammie and our little JRT Jilly Bean.

Saint has now been seizure free for 3 ½ years. Here are pictures of our happy go lucky boy, living life to the fullest!