[Christine A]

I’ve been attempting to do my research on seizures in dogs for some time now. The vet will cost a fortune to run tests, so I’m just out here looking for similar situations.

My dog, Zeus, is a ~70lb pit mix (possibly with hound/boxer) at (approx.) 3 years old. He has now had 4 observed grand mal seizures this year between May and Nov. with a 12 week break after his first 2. All lasting about 2 minutes from the time it was caught.

I was determined it was the Interceptor heart worm prevention since the first 2 this year happened exactly 1 week after the dose was given. After I switched the heart worm preventative to ProHeart6 in July, we had about a 12 week period without a seizure. He then had 1 in Oct. and then one 7 weeks later.

Some things I have observed about him and these seizures:
– The first 2 (May & June) seizures occurred while eating Pure Balance wild & free grain-free salmon & pea (walmart) after wanting more convenience and switching to Chewy.com, I switched to Taste of the Wild grain-free bison & venison, July-Sept. I then made a personal decision to switch back to a grain food, Purina pro plan Focus sensitive skin & stomach salmon & rice in Sept. His 3rd seizure happened in Oct. and 4th in Nov.
– The 2 times that I have witnessed the episode, after he has relaxed for a few minutes, he immediately begins eating his food. He’s not a big eater and will eat about once a day.
– He does eat his dog brother’s feces (and we have tried nearly every additive to the food to prevent this – now were down to frequent clean up/muzzle). We found him as a stray at approximately 1 year.
– The first 3 occurred while he was outside (which also made me believe that he was getting into a weed or poisonous fungus/plant). The 4th one occurred while he was sleeping.
– The 4th one was the only seizure I have seen from beginning to end as it happened when waking up in the AM. He began to try to vomit and then began running round, stopped, peed and grand mal for ~2 mins.
– The 4th one also occurred while on doxycycline & vetprofen for a spider bite infection. He’s been on antibiotics before for a surgical ingrown hair removal
– Common demonstrators: warm weather (St. Louis), Salmon flavor (possibly other similar ingredients)

Questions I have for myself: Was I not allowing him to eat the feces during these times? Is he eating it because his body needs something in the feces? Is it the Salmon? He likes it! Has anyone else had similar situations?

Now obviously the vet won’t prescribe anything until they last more than 5 minutes or are occurring more frequently. I’m sure he would if I demanded something. I would rather choose a holistic route.

[Rosemary L]

the vet won’t prescribe anything until they last more than 5 minutes ? Why is that the deciding factor ? One of our Heelers starting having seizures at about age 6. She’s now 12. She is on Zonisamide and Phenobarbitol, both twice a day. She may still have 3 or 4 seizures per year but nothing like it was in the beginning before the vet analyzed her. One day she had 13. 4 or here, 2 in the car on the way, and 3 in the exam room before the vet could to us. He had to put her in an induced coma to get her brain quieted down. We were concerned she would have brain damage, but she returned to her self afterward.

I have often wondered what brings them on. The vet says the brain short-circuits. I asked about the possibility of ingredients in food but he didn’t think so.

[Susan]

Hi Christine,

I would stay away from all dog fish dry/wet foods they have been found to be High in Heavy Metals, Toxins & Contaminates..
The Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach Salmon formula has been on the 1 star high in toxins/heavy metals list. The company list changes every 3 months when they re test 299 most popular Dog & Cat Wet, Dry & Treat foods..
Google dog foods Contaminates, Heavy Metals, Im not allow to post the link…

Can you feed him a home made fresh raw or cooked balance diet ? this will be healthier diet then dry kibble… or start adding fresh whole foods to his kibble & reduce his kibble amount, buy tin Sarines in Spring water drain water & add 1/4 of a can to 1 meal a day, also Salmon drain water add 2 spoons to his meal, broccolli, peel/de seed apple, mussels, egg, fresh whole foods, left over after you’ve cooked dinner foods will be healthier then the dry kibble, I buy the Freeze Dried Mussels & give 1-2 mussels a day as a treat depends how big the mussels are you can also buy frozen mussels…

Pitbulls Staffys are known to suffer with stomach problems so keep that in mind with his poo eating..
He might be suffering with stomach problems if not, then after eating his brothers poo this isnt healthy.
My Staffy a rescue has IBD & when I first got him he was eating poo,
He needed to fix his gut bacteria get it healthy again, I put him on a dog probiotic powder add 10-15ml water with the recommend amount of probiotic powder, swirl water around in bowl to dissolve the probiotic give in morning on empty stomach as a treat…or buy Kefir give as a drink in the morning for breakfast, Bone Broth it’s very healthy for the gut aswell.

I do no give my Staffy any Heartworm meds, my Boxer was given the yearly heartworm injection, after 1 of her injections when she was 7yrs old her gums went white she fainted & became very unwell & had to be rushed back to the vets, so the next time the vet reduced the heartworm dose, then I stopped giving them to her after I learnt she had cancer, she had Mast Cell cancer so keep an eye out for any weird type worts, lumps, skin tags etc especially around back legs.
I don’t live in a high heartworm area there hasn’t been any cases now over 30yrs I asked my vet the other month cause Patch was getting his wierd wort/skin tags all removed & the vet wasn’t concerned about Patch not being heartwormed, she said they dont see any cases these days, But I live in Australia, so no need to give him posions to kill heartworms he probably doesnt even have, also the Mosquito has to bite an infected dog then come along & bite your dog then infect your dog, this take 6months to become a heartworm….

I do not use any flea chews etc they are very toxic, they attack the flea & ticks nervous system & paralyze the flea & tick causing neurological problems with some dogs.
If you have to use a flea product just use “Frontline Spot On ” or the “Frontline Spray” Frontline only penitrates 2 layers of the dogs skin & doesn’t go into their blood system like the other flea products, you can also make natural sprays aswell.

Follow “Rodney Habib” he is always posting short video’s
https://www.facebook.com/rodneyhabib
also follow
“Dr. John Robb – Protect the Pets” do not over vaccinate.
https://www.facebook.com/DRRobbPTP/

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