HELP! Great Dane had a seizure.

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I'm just after some information really. My 4yr old Great Dane had a fit this morning. I am epilepsy trained for humans as part of my job, so hopefully I dealt with it well.

It lasted just over a minute, but the worrying part was the prolonged post-ictal reaction - he was blind for about twenty minutes and then incredibly aggressive and wouldn't let me into the house for over an hour and a half.

He's calm now and asleep beside me, and is going to the vets this afternoon once he's completely settled. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience of epilepsy in dogs? He hasn't had a virus, come into contact with any chemicals or overheated as far as I'm aware, and was completely normal prior to the episode.

He's very sleepy and has a tummy full of honey water at the moment. Poor puppy!
 
That's interesting actually. He's a harlequin mis-mark - mother and father both harlies, and he is white with merle patches instead of black.
 
I got him from a breeder and have his pedigree, so could potentially call them to find out if it runs in his lines anywhere.
 
It's not my breed, but you might want to do a bit of research on colour genetics in Danes and maybe give a heads up to anyone you know who might have related animals.
Epilepsy is horrible (it was a real scourge in my own breed for a while until breeders wised up and admitted there were problems in their lines - it's still an issue for breeders who specialise in certain colours, sigh!!!) but it can be managed with drugs etc, but just be careful not to put your hands in his way.
Hope your boy will be OK.
 
No wisdom to impart, just wanted to say, he sounds like a beautiful dog and I hope the vet can give you some more answers and help this afternoon.

How very scary for you. :( xx
 
Oh sorry, another question - do you have another dog/dogs? If this is a recurrent thing, make sure the other dogs are separate as the fitting dog can sometimes be attacked by dogs they are otherwise friendly with/part of their pack.
 
Thank you both for your help and kind words.

I do have another dog - I shut him away as soon as Golly started fitting, just to be safe. I didn't know that though, I shall keep an eye. Hopefully this is just a one off. I don't think I can cope with that aggression again!
 
I just wanted to offer some support really. My family and I have always had Danes all the way back to Great Grandad and luckily I have never known any with epilepsy I am not aware that it is particularly prevalent in Danes, however I have known them fit for other reasons. Hopefully, the vet will do a full check and find the cause. Please let us know how it goes and sending good vibes across the etha.
 
Oh hunny, another one with no real words of wisdom here, although I do know that treatment with meds in dogs for seizures can be very successful. I suspect his aggression was simply a fear reaction, it must have been incredibly frightening for him, and the best thing and most important thing is to do what you are doing, let him sleep, he will be absolutely exhausted and then visit the vets. I hope everything goes ok xxx
 
It must be scary to go blind for so long. My lurcher has had 2 seizures in the past few months, she comes round quicker but still confused & not quite herself. The vet did say it can be a one off and they did a blood test same day to check if metabolic which it wasn't. If she has another seizure they'll probably medicate to reduce frequency, people that gave me advice said it worked very well for their dogs. Vet suspects it maybe a brain lesion in my dog as she's 8 so older than epilepsy usually develops but it would be same treatment either way to reduce seizures.
 
Sorry to hear this. I have no experience but there are a few ladies on dogsey.com who have epileptic dogs who have masses of experience ( their dogs are particularly bad bless them). Who I am sure would be happy to pass on any advice or info x
 
Thank you all so much for your support and kind words.

He had bloods which are all clear (although do show very low cholesterol - unrelated and vet not concerned, but any ideas on how to improve this?) so the vet said she's fairly sure it's epilepsy, and we just have to wait for the next seizure, then we can start medicating him.

He is being managed as if he is epileptic for now, so hopefully we will all stay safe if he does have another seizure with such a violent post-ictal period.

Do dogs suffer with the same varying types of epilepsy as humans? I know there are lots of different types of epilepsy in humans, and would be interested to know if this is the case for dogs.

For now he is my sleepy shadow. Love him.
 
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