Preventing fits in a j.r.t. please?

[kerilli]

my cousin has a j.r.t. bitch who is the litter sister to one of mine, and my cousin's has regular fits (mine is fine so far, both are 8 yrs old). my cousin is an invalid and the dog is his biggest solace, and he gets extremely upset to see her in this state. she is on medication from the vet for it, but still has them.
please, any tips at all for things to help prevent the fits? special feeds, any particular things to avoid? thankyou.

 

[piebaldsparkle]

I assume the fits are due to epilepsy. There isn't anything I'm aware of that you can do to prevent them (other than meds). The good news is apparently they fit before 4yrs if epilepsy, so your dog should remain fit free. My JRT has fits (though thankfully quite mild as he doesn't lose conciseness), and he doesn’t have to be medicated yet. Ozzie has about 5 fits per year (on average), and has done since he was 3 1/2yrs (he’s 8 next month). The last two he had were two weeks apart, but has now not had one of nearly 4 months. If the dog is already being medicate, perhaps speak to the vet as the dosage may need adjusting.

A girl up the yard has a Weimeraner (sp), who has full on fits and after having one every 6 weeks hasn’t had one since the summer. The only thing that has changed is that both dogs have started having massage from a Galan Therapist (this is due to her training last year and using Oz as a case study). Now there is no evidence that massage can help reduce the number of seizures, so this is probably just a coincidence (though it does help make the dog more comfortable post fit, as they can end up very tight in their necks from the act of fitting). PM if you want a link as they have therapist all over the country.

 

[reddie]

My dog has the occasional fit, so far she doesn't have to be medicated. maybe your cousin mght need to speak to the vet about getting the medication dose altered. my dad's old dog had fits, was controlled by medication but needed the dose upping when she got older. I have read somewhere about diet being a factor, don't know whether thats proven or not. Also our dog's fits seem to occur after she's had some upset.

 

[CAYLA]

As suggested u may need to pay the vet a visit so they can re avaluate the dosage and check him over, otherwise try not to over exercise/exhaustion, and avoid stress of any kind or fearful situations this can commonly bring a fit on.

 

[Alexart]

We had an epileptic dog that fitted very regularly from the age of about 1, we did have him on medication which reduced the number of fits but it never stops them completely unfortunately, the drugs are the same ones they use for humans and it is basically a form of sedative. We took ours off after 4 yrs as he was just so out of it! We did know what triggered him though and it was usually a total brain over load - if another dog ran towards him to play or if he ran too much he would just keel over and fit for a good 5 mins or so which is distressing to watch but thankfully they are not aware of what is happening.
He did live until he was 11 yrs old which the vets were amazed at - so having epilepsy doesn't always mean a shorter life either - so as long as your jack russell is kept stress free it will help a bit but doesn't eliminate them totally - good luck though.