How to Evaluate a Seizure in Dogs

While all breeds of dog have a great personality, not all tend to health in  the same way. Some breeds, such as the boxer, have some particularly worrisome health tendencies. What do you do in the event of a seizure in dogs?

Usually, there are two different kinds of seizure in dogs, in general. The first is the most serious – they coll them primary epilepsy or true epilepsy. This is where the dog inherits it the tendency, from its genes. Doctors only ever entertain the possibility last of all. They always try to rule out every other possible kind of seizure before thinking of this. With dogs like boxers that are known to have a genetic predisposition to this though, doctors may be willing to call it a seizure a little early. With most kinds of dogs though, they think about it quite a lot.

They usually investigate for secondary epilepsy first. They look for anything in the dog's environment that could be disagreeing with him. But when it is a young dog though – dogs that are anything short of three years generally – seizures are quickly identified as genetic. Generally, things in a dogs environment can't bring about an effect like this in just a few years.

If it isn't the dog's environment, and if it isn't genetic, what else could it be? There are a number of possibilities.

A brain tumor is one of the first possibilities that a vet will consider. A seizure in older dogs is often very quickly narrowed down to a brain tumor. The two are often easily associated. But not all dogs are equally susceptible. Dogs like boxers that have squashed-looking faces, are the ones that have the most trouble with this.

A vet will typically be able to judge if a dog has a brain tumor, by the way he holds himself. With a brain tumor, a dog is often unsteady, and may tilt his head because it feels more comfortable that way. The vet will give your dog an x-ray and find out.

Degenerative myelopathy is another possible reason for seizure in dogs. Once the disease strikes, it gradually destroys the dog's central nervous system.

There are other ways in which seizures can occur in dogs. But no one knows how they work exactly. That's why the doctors call them idiopathic seizures. A dog can get one for all kinds of complex reasons that are never immediately apparent. Even regular loud noises can do this.