I have a year and a half golden retriever, who started having seizures on 06/24. Normally this would only be when she was eating; however, she is now having them when she is not, sometimes even when she is sleeping.

During these seizures she drops like a rock, her mouth gets very frothy, her eyes seem normal during these but with a panicked look, as she has no control to stop the seizures. Her legs kick and body jerks, and when she comes out of them she is very skittish, as if she does not recognize you. She used to run and run around with her toungue hanging out and drool too, as she apparently lacked the muscle strength to pull her tongue in?

They have since progressed past this, as she recently has developed strange behaviors, such as appearing not to remember dog commands like sit, down, etc. and when she is done eating she acts like she is starved and tries eating her metal dog food stand, bites at my shorts, chews my shoes or bites at my hand.

She is also now taking longer to recover from them, she is losing muscle control where it seems she now lacks the strength to run around like she did when the seizures first developed, she stands now usually in a dazed state and is very shaky, as she cannot support herself, but refuses to lay down, but sways back and forth and sometimes her but drops down to the ground for she has no strength/energy to support herself.

My vet so far is at a loss to diagnose this, she has done blood work, which was negative, x-rays too which were clear, and is doing a test for a liver shunt on Monday, 08/07, and if it comes back negative she is referring me to a specialist.

I am told to be careful with the specialist in that they do not run the tests that my vet has already ran, etc. and they can get very expensive. Do not get me wrong, I will pay what I need to for I love her, but still this is killing me to watch her go through this and it only seems to be getting worse.

Any advise of what this may be, so I can work with my vet to perhaps better understand and/or diagnose this? Please help.

(Melinda Shore) said in rec.pets.dogs.health:

The cause for seizures is frequently difficult or impossible
to diagnose. It's important, however, to get them under
control. Has your vet prescribed an anti-seizure medication
(usually phenobarbitol or potassium bromide)? If not, you
need to get him to do that ASAP, or find another vet.

What Melinda said.

I'd also like to know if your dog is on medication - some of
your Golden's symptoms seem bizzare, in my experience.

Meanwhile, read through the health links on one of my pages:
http://www.rocky-dog.com/Links/LinksMenu.html
I've grouped them, top to bottom, as to how useful they've
been to me.

And, FWIW, many of us here have way too much experience with
seizures and epilepsy. Feel free to ask anything, no matter
how silly it seems, and offer even the most innocuous
observations of your dog's symptoms.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

On Sun, 6 Aug 2006 02:15:41 +0000, GoldnLuver
, clicked their heels and said:


I have a year and a half golden retriever, who started having seizures
on 06/24.

My vet so far is at a loss to diagnose this,

Any advise of what this may be, so I can work with my vet to perhaps
better understand and/or diagnose this? Please help.

Most epilepsy is idiopathic. In other words, they don't know why.
Have you talked to your breeder about this?

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com