Epileptic dog turned aggressive

BroadfordQueen

BroadfordQueen

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My 9 year old jack Russell was diagnosed with epilepsy about 5 years ago. She has since been on daily medication which, on the whole, keep her fits at bay.
She did suffer a pretty major fit about 2 months ago whilst out on a walk- it was a busy park which she is used to, but we didnt realise the fair was set up there so lots of loud noises, extra busy etc, it all got too much for her and she had a seizure that lasted for approx 10 minutes. Back to vets, upped her dosage, bloods taken which came back normal.
However, ever since then (coincidence or not), she has become extremely aggressive towards our other dog (3 year old papillion). It has now got to the point that they cant be in the same room as each other. My pap is now terrified of her own shadow, and our lives are all pretty miserable. The final straw came today when she, for the first time ever, bit my OH. She has never shown aggression towards a human before, ever.
I'm obviously distraught, Bella has been with me through SO much, I love her with all my heart. But we are thinking about starting a family soon, and now I dont know if I can trust her.
Which route do we go down first? Behaviourist? Vets for scans etc to see if it is neurological/linked with her epilepsy? Is this a possibility?!
I feel totally hopeless and heartbroken. She has never shown any aggression towards any person or dog before.
If anyone has seen anything similar and can offer me some words of advise, I would really appreciate it. Thank you.
 
I am sorry, but in your position I would be having a serious conversation with my vet about the future. Unless they had something concrete to tell me I would PTS.

Happy dogs don't change to that extent.

It is heartbreaking, but in the end you have to do what is right for her. That is also right for your family.
 
I agree with Red. I would suspect that she has received some sort of major brain trauma since her last fit, which is unlikely to improve.
 
How often does she have fits ? Would it be worth stopping her medication and see if that helps ?
 
This happened to ours after a major cluster. He also became scared of random things and was quite reactive to normal stimuli.

He did recover back to ‘normal’ after a few months but became unpredictable again after the next.

We sadly had him PTS as I felt he had no life.
 
I would go back to the vet, explain what has happened and first of all, find out if the aggression/obvious unhappiness could be a side-effect of the medication and whether the medication could usefully be changed. If the vet says not, I would pts for every-one's benefit.

I had a Labrador who was epileptic, the meds changed her character (very subdued) to the point where I took her off the meds and we dealt with the seizures when she had them, which tended to be every few months. She lived a long and happy life until a couple of months off her 15th birthday.
 
Our vets would say one seizure a month is ok, any more than that and they would want to review medication etc
An average seizure can be up to 2-3 mins any longer than that and i would be concerned
Ideally your vets should have given you rectal diazepam to have at home or on your for emergencies if the dog stays in a longer seizure or has clusters
10 minutes is a long time for a seizure to be occurring and i would imagine has caused some damage to the brain
I think you and your partner need to have a talk with your vet about the seizures and what has happened and make an informed decision from there

It is heartbreaking to deal with at the best of times but to add a bite / aggression to the mix means something has changed

Thoughts are with you and here if you want to talk at all
 
thats a very long seizure and I'd be having a very frank discussion with your vets. The more frequent or longer the siezure, the more chance of brain damage. Please dont stop medication without talking to your vet. While some dogs live a long life with epilepsy, many do not. Even if you take all the necessary precautions to keep her and baby safe, having a baby in the house will be source of stress for her.

I had an epileptic rescue, when I got her she was having a siezure a month-she was on medication. she was always very disoriented and clingy after one for about 30 mins. they started increasing in frequency, we had bloods etc monitored, medication tweaked (and she'd previously been on a couple of different meds) but one day she had three seizures in a row one lunchtime and didnt come out of the last one. I had her PTS under anaesthetic. She was only 5 and it quite broke me.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
I had an epileptic rescue, when I got her she was having a siezure a month-she was on medication. she was always very disoriented and clingy after one for about 30 mins. they started increasing in frequency, we had bloods etc monitored, medication tweaked (and she'd previously been on a couple of different meds) but one day she had three seizures in a row one lunchtime and didnt come out of the last one. I had her PTS under anaesthetic. She was only 5 and it quite broke me.
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I lost one this year she was only 3yrs, similar to your situation with multiple seizures where they had to put her under anesthetic to stop the seizure, there really was no coming back after that, we had her put to sleep whilst she was under. Just like you say i really broke me too. x
 
QuobAsti said:
I lost one this year she was only 3yrs, similar to your situation with multiple seizures where they had to put her under anesthetic to stop the seizure, there really was no coming back after that, we had her put to sleep whilst she was under. Just like you say i really broke me too. x
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I am sorry, its so awful-awful when they are young and should have their whole lives ahead and awful when they have a long history with you. they tried to bring her round once but she was already gone to all intents and purposes. she was a fine wee dog, full of character and smart as a whip.
 
speak to both - vet may have a solution, behaviourist may be able to help. If that fails then pts may be the best option.
 
I am so sorry that you are going through this. I had an epileptic cat and have seen many epileptic animals in practice, it can be quite shocking to deal with. 10 minutes is a long time to be seizing, and I would expect some trauma to the brain as a result. I would go back to the vet and discuss it with them. A CT scan or MRI may show up some things such as tumours. They may be able to change the medication slightly to see if that is affecting her? But ultimately I would be expecting to have to put the dog to sleep soon I am afraid :(
 
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