1year10month old basenji

[Myles Chiu]

Hey guys,

My almost 2 year old just had seizure last night. We aren't sure of the causes. He has comfy home, good food, and good dog friends to play with in our neighbourhood. We think it might have been stress or over excitement from the day he had with us going out. He was napping with us in bed when all of a sudden he started to convulse and twitch. We think he was dreaming about chasing or running. This quickly turned into his body freezing up, his eyes very dilated, all while a bit of drool came out. A second later he looked up at me and screamed a high pitched, shrill and loud, then fell off the bed somehow and proceeded to put himself in a corner. It took me about 20-25 minutes to calm him down, but all while he would bark at me anytime I spoke to him. I could see he was confused, frightened, and panicked. He lost a bit of bowel function and bladder control too. After managing to calm him down he walked around the apartment a bit, and finally came back to me. Sunday came around and he seemed almost back to normal, but he has shown more energy, alertness, and heightened sensitivity to seeing/ smelling dogs and squirrels. We are going to keep monitoring him, but will take him to the vet this week to run tests again. He has had one seizure previously back in april/may of this year, but last time his blood work all checked out and he was fine.

Anyone else have these issues? So hard to see him go through that.

[2baroos]

Did you take him to the Vet after it happened ?
The longer they stay out the more brain damage can occur.
Vet ASAP

[Myles Chiu]

Waiting to hear back from my vet at the moment for a booking.

[DebraDownSouth]

Sadly most of the time, they don't know what causes seizures. Once you rule out him getting into mushrooms or licking frogs or chemicals used on the lawn or cleaning, when blood results are bad then you just work on controlling them. Once every 5 mos may not be frequent enough to medicate, but that's a discussion for you with your vet. I do know there are some good groups for people with dogs that seizure. Hopefully Pat or someone will post them.

With seizures though, staying calm yourself and allowing him space and time to work it out on his own is probably less stressful for him than you trying to calm him. Talk normal, stay back, use a happy up tone and just wait til he orients.

[Myles Chiu]

Thanks for the advice debra, I appreciate it.
I did just that on saturday night and made sure not to give him any reason to be worried. Took everything in me to remain calm and talk normally, while keeping my distance.

[Darcy]

Ours had seizures at 7.5 and required Keppra and Phenobarbital. I would take this seriously and get the pup evaluated ASAP and on medication as each seizure can damage sight and brain cells.