Witnessing your pet experience a seizure can be frightening, particularly if it’s the first time and you’re unsure of how to respond. In this article, we’ll break down the essentials: why seizures occur, what they look like, and most importantly, how you can support your pet during a seizure.
What is a seizure?
The brain operates through the sending and receiving of chemical and electrical signals that go and originate from throughout the body. All these different signals control different processes. A seizure happens due to abnormal electrical activity in the brain, resulting in a sudden change in movement, behaviour, or consciousness of your pet. Seizures in pets can present in different ways, such as freezing and staring into space for a moment, barking repeatedly for no reason, drooling, making paddling motions with the legs, or foaming at the mouth. They may also have full body muscle tremors and/or lose consciousness. Generally, seizures last for up to 1–2 minutes and the pet will come out of them by themselves. However, if this is not the case and the seizure lasts for more than 5 minutes, this is considered a medical emergency, and the pet needs to be taken to the vet straight away. Pets can act disoriented and confused for up to 24 hours after a seizure, such as having a hard time seeing, walking in circles, being unsteady, or even trying to hide.
Pets that have a seizure may:
- Collapse, stiffen, fall on their side.
- Have a confused look
- Jerk, twitch, shake, or lay on their side making a paddling motion with the legs.
- Urinate and/or defecate due to the loss of control of body functions.
- Lose consciousness
- Be unsteady, and have trouble balancing and walking.
- Make biting and/or comping motions with their mouth
- Drool and/or foam at the mouth
- Repeat an odd behaviour such as one leg may kick repeatedly or fly biting
Causes
Seizures can be either provoked, or unprovoked. We speak of provoked seizures when the seizure is triggered by something that is irritating to the brain. For example, low or high blood sugar, an infection, reaction to a drug etc. Unprovoked seizures are seizures that have no clear reason. Some causes of seizures in pets are:
- Epilepsy
- Brain Tumours
- Poisoning
- Liver Disease
- Heat Stroke
- Hypoglycemia
- Brain Injury
- Infection or Inflammation of the brain
What to do if Your Pet has a seizure?
First and foremost, stay calm and avoid going near the pet’s mouth and head. Assess the situation. If your pet is in a safe position, leave them be. If they are near stairs, sharp objects, a body of water, or otherwise in a dangerous spot, try and move them gently by sliding them away. Keep other pets and children away from the pet to avoid injury. Do not put anything in the pet’s mouth, they can not swallow their own tongue.
When a pet has a seizure, they are usually unconscious, meaning they are not aware of anything. Stay clear of their mouth and head for your safety, as they may bite. You can stay next to them and talk to them in a reassuring way, time the seizure, and make a video for your veterinarian.
If the seizure lasts more than 5 minutes (you may already want to get ready if you notice it taking longer than 3 minutes to save time if the seizure persists), or seizures follow each other up in a row, you should take your pet to the vet as soon as possible. Once the seizure has stopped on its own, consult with your veterinarian for further steps and to notify them so they can keep a record.
Treatment and Management
Veterinarians can stop seizures by using IV diazepam or similar medication. Without medication, you can’t stop a dog’s seizure on your own. If your pet is prone to seizures, your vet can prescribe diazepam which can be given rectally. They can also prescribe anti seizure medication. Your pet may need anti seizure medication if:
- They have very violent seizures
- Seizures last for 5 minutes or longer
- They have frequent seizures
- They are of a breed that is prone to seizures.
It is possible for pet on anti seizure medication to still get seizures.
There are additional steps you can take to prevent seizures in your pet. If you know that certain triggers may cause your pet to go into a seizure, you can try and avoid them. If you can recognize your pet going into a seizure, you can try a technique called vagal nerve stimulation, which can help lessen the duration and severity of a seizure. Vagal nerve stimulation should only be done if you can do it safely, and is done by pressing gently on your pet’s closed eyelids for 10-20 seconds, then repeat every 5 minutes.
Conclusion
Seizures can be frightening, but with the right knowledge, you can support your pet if they experience one, and keep everyone safe. Seizures generally resolve on their own after 1 to 2 minutes, but if they don’t and last longer then 5 minutes, the pet should be seen by an emergency vet.
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