[rdpalmer]

We have a brother and sister team of year old pups now. They are Blue Heeler/Australian Shepard mix. Mika (the female) has had 3 epileptic seizures (petit mal). We rushed her to the vet and had the tests done and originally thought it was hypoglycemia. But this last episode we were able to eliminate that and zero in on epilepsy. Moki (the male) walks around stiff….as if he’s stove up. They just turned 1 year last month. We are beginning to wonder if the dog food might be an issue. We are currently feeding them Purina Healthy Morsels. Could these issues be from food allergies? I hate the thought of having the drug Mika for the rest of her life to control the epilepsy. I’m already giving them Pro-Sense glucosamine and daily vitamins. Anyone have any ideas?

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi rdpalmer –

I can’t say for sure that the food is the issue, but I can say that Purina Healthy Morsels is an extremely low quality product. Have you read the review? The food contains several “red flag” ingredients and has only received a 1 star rating. There’s nothing “healthy” about those morsels. I would highly recommend you switch to a better quality food. There are several 3 and 4 star foods that won’t break the bank – Pure Balance, NutriSource, Fromm Classics, 4Health, Diamond Naturals, Chicken Soup, Whole Earth Farms, Healthwise, Eagle Pack, Pro Pac, Professional, Premium Edge, etc. Most of these foods are under $45 for the largest bag (~30 – 40 lbs.). The glucosamine is good for the dog with joint issues – you may also want to add chondroitin and MSM in addition to a natural anti-inflammatory like Boswellia or Turmeric. I would not recommend giving your dogs vitamins, balanced commercial foods contain all the vitamins and minerals your dogs need – more is not necessary better as many vitamins and minerals can be toxic when consumed in excess. Changing to a better quality food may help the issues, if not you’ll need to discuss the options with your veterinarian.

[theBCnut]

When my dog was diagnosed with epilepsy, the first thing my vet told me to do was to make sure my food had no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. The second was to look for sources of MSG such as natural flavor, broth, citric acid, brewers yeast, etc. The third thing was to eliminate chemicals he could come in contact with as much as possible, insecticides, fertilizers, and cleaning chemicals. The fourth was to eliminate or mitigate stress as much as possible. Every epilepsy dog has a threshhold level, when they are pushed over their threshhold, they seizure. The trick is to reduce the things that keep them near their threshhold so it takes more to trigger a seizure.

[InkedMarie]

I know someone who had an epileptic dog and one ingredient she could not have was rosemary.

[rdpalmer]

Thank you all so much for your information. The food is the first thing we are going to change. I appreciate your input. We will see what kind of results we have in a month. Mika, (the epileptic one) has only had 3 seizures in 6 months, but 2 were in the past 3 weeks. Hopefully I will have alot of positives to report.
Thanks again!

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