Did my dog had a seizure?
 

Did my dog have a seizure episode?

My 1 year old yorkie suddenly pooped in the wrong place earlier this morning. He never does this and when I observed him he's having shallow breathing and lethargic looking. When I picked him up, his body just went limp. He was unresponsive but his eyes were open. His pupils were dilated and unresponsive to light. He has no muscle tone except for his jaw which is quite tight. His tongue and gums were very pale and dry. He wasn't responsive to name calling and touch.

This is the first time that this happened. This was very nerve wrecking experience for me. I'm a doctor so I'm used to seeing people having jerky seizure episode. But seeing my dog's body go limp and lifeless scared me so much. First thing I checked if he's even alive. Seeing his pale and dry tongue scared me the most. His eyes were wide open and just glassy looking. I'm not even sure if he's breathing during the episode. The thing that calmed me down was when he blinked when I touched his lashes!

This lasted for 1-2 minutes. He looked sleepy and lethargic after the episode.
I've been observing him all day and there were no recurrence. He's sort of back to his usual self.

Is this an actual seizure? I didn't observe any tonic clonic movements during the episode though.

I already took him to the vet and I'm waiting for the blood work results. I'm hoping that it will all be normal and this episode won't happen again.

Sounds like a seizure to me. Seizures can present many different ways, and don't always fit the descriptions nor include all the actions/inactions one would expect to see for any specific types. (I define a seizure as any abnormal or unexpected brain activity that adversely affects normal body functioning).


What was your dog doing right before the episode? Had he recently eaten a meal?

Hi and welcome. It sounds like a seizure to me too. My 14 year old Yorkie has also had a couple of episodes like this in the last 2 weeks. My boy is in kidney failure so he doesn't always eat as often as he should. I had his bloodwork rechecked and everything was similar to the previous time so we're guessing he was hypoglycemic. Now I give him Nutrical every day as a precaution. If your boy hadn't eaten for a while, he could've been hypoglycemic. It's always possible that he's epileptic too. I have a Standard Poodle that's epileptic and he was right around a year old when he had his first seizure. Good luck. I hope you get some answers from the bloodwork.

Any further update?

My suggestion would be to consult your vet if you believe that this was a seizure. As you know from your experience as a doctor basic tests need to be done to rule out a variety of issues at the root of the episode today. Please keep us updated. Welcome to YT :)

Last sentence of her post states she's been to the vet and is waiting on Blood work results....

Thank you for all the replies!

We were playing catch indoors and then he took a break, lay down on his favorite resting spot for around 10 minutes. Then we noticed that he suddenly pooped in that spot and just stayed there lying beside his poop. So we checked him more closely and found out that something was really wrong.

I'm highly considering it was due to hypoglycemia since he hasn't eaten his breakfast yet prior to the episode. I'm also from the Philippines and we're experiencing a ridiculously hot weather even indoors, my vet says that it could also be due to the extreme heat. I'm just waiting for the vet's call today for the lab results. The laboratories here usually takes a day before they release the results. Oh, and they've used a distemper kit at the vet's office and it's negative.

In the mean time, I've been giving him glucose powder dissolved in his water to keep his sugar levels up. He's not an enthusiastic eater and only tends to eat when he's hungry. No recurrence of seizure almost after 24 hours. I really just hope the results come back clean.

Hopefully, it was just over exhaustion from the heat. You need to be very careful when the weather is very hot and you are playing.

We got back from the vet today. His results came back but bad news. :( his platelets are low and his liver enzymes are almost 9x elevated. His BUN and creatinine is mildly elevated as well. He has lymphocytic predominance in his WBC.

He's being treated for ehrlichiosis for the next two weeks. He's also on liver and iron supplements and also we're changing his diet. Hopefully his liver would quiet down and return to normal after the treatment.

That's terrible. So sorry for your little doggie! I hope the treatment makes him feel better quickly. I've never heard of that disease, but it sounds like a nasty disease.

Praying for your little one...

I would also consider doing a Bile Acid Test - ie BATS.

Hi, welcome to YT, so very sorry to read about your lil boy. I pray this treatment puts your lil guy on the road to recovery. Keeping him in my thoughts and prayers.

Sending prayers your way. Welcome to YT!

any update?