Articles with seizures

Seizures or Convulsions in Dogs: What Can Seizures Look Like and What Can Cause Them?

Watching your dog having a seizure is a scary thing. I remember how helpless I felt when Roxy had her first seizure, She had a full-blown one; she was unresponsive, laying on her side, her whole body was convulsing and foam was coming out of her mouth … What is a seizure? A seizure is abnormal electrical activity in the…

by Jana Rade edited by Dr. Joanna Paul BSc BVSc

Diagnosing Seizures in a Dog: Is It Epilepsy?–Cletus’ Story. What Would You Do if It Was Your Dog?

Seizures in dogs can have many different causes. Diagnosing seizures in a dog isn’t always straightforward. Veterinarians use the term epilepsy to describe any illness that causes recurrent seizures. That is, however, different from inheritable idiopathic epilepsy which is a seizure disorder with an unknown cause. Above all, assuming the cause cannot be known is that an identifiable problem might…

by Jana Rade

What Would You Do If It Was Your Dog? Seizures in Dogs: Winston’s first seizure.

Winston, a neutered male Boxer, got his first seizure when he was 12-years-old. Winston started seizing in the middle of the night, which landed him at a local veterinary emergency clinic. Why do emergencies always happen after hours or on weekends? Our experience confirms that that seems to be the rule. The ER veterinarian ran a bunch of tests on…

by Jana Rade

Senior Canine Seizures: Harley’s Story

I don’t know anybody who has as much experience with canine seizures as my friend over at fivesibes.com. Her blog is an invaluable resource for anybody whose dog was diagnosed with canine epilepsy. Huskies are a beautiful, intelligent, friendly and relatively healthy breed. They are, however, one of the breeds with an increased predisposition to idiopathic epilepsy. If you love…

by Jana Rade

Are Convulsions or Seizures an Emergency?

If you have a dog diagnosed and medicated for epilepsy, they might still get a seizure from time to time, and if the seizure passes quickly, given you already know what is going on, such event might not be an emergency. Every first-time seizure should be treated as an emergency. You don’t know what is happening and cannot make assumptions…

by Jana Rade

Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer, dog health advocate, writer, and author. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Endless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care in my own hands. I learned the hard way that simply seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to finally get a diagnosis for her initial issue. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people how to recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to save others the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way as I did. That is the mission behind my blog and behind my writing. That is why I wrote Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog, which has turned out being an award-winning guide to dog owners . What I'm trying to share encompasses 20 years of experience.

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