is my little girl having mini seizures?
 

kati is almost 14 and this happens on and off some weeks it seems to be more times than others...they are like little shakes or shivers...however when she was 3 she took a slow fall as a lounge chair tipped over and she landed on the deck..she had the breath knocked out of her and i am wondering if this could be the reason for her little episodes..also in the past 6 or so years she has had a true seizure where she just got rigid for a minute or so. this has only happened 3 or 4 times... the vet has her on 1/4 tab of phenabarbitol every night and i don't see any great changes..is this drug going to do any additional harm to such a little girl 5lbs? please give me some support on this awful situation... can't lose her..just lost scarlett and rhett last year from kidney failure.:confused:

I'm sorry, I don't have any experience with seizures. But I'm bumping this up so maybe someone who does can help.

I only know a little bit about this (my sister's dog has epilepsy) so I'm not going to be much help but you should do a search for phenobarbital and liver damage in dogs. I don't know how risky it is...the percentage of dogs that do get liver damage or anything like that...but it's definitely something you should learn more about.

I'm sorry you lost Scarlett and Rhett and are now going through this with Kati. I'll say a prayer for her.

Our chihuahua has had a few mini sizures...the vet prescribed phenabarbitol (1/2 tab.) for her also. I don't give it to her consistently. When she seems like she's getting feverish or sick I give her the medicine, but quit inbetween times. It seems to work for her.

thank you for the reply for kati...i'm new on torkie talk and just love it...i'm learning my way around the site ..your baby is just darling...by the way have you ever heard the term of Teddy Bear yorkies? Scarlett was short legged with a full wide face short body and the most beautiful full coat i have ever seen and i was told that she was a teddy bear yorkie i will be looking for another baby and would love to find one like scarlett.

Did they check her liver values before putting her on the phenobarb?? Have you had bloodwork done on her recently? If so, what was her ALT, AST, ALK, BUN, ALB, TP?

It sounds like seizures. It could be that falling like that caused her brain damage depending on how hard she fell OR it could be her liver or a myriad of other things.
Phenobarb is very hard on the liver. Have her liver values checked.
Since she is on phenobarb, it would be beneficial for your baby to be on milk thistle which helps protect the liver from further damage....Many of us use this on our dogs.
One of our members, Ladymom has a maltese with idiopathic epilepsy (I think) and is on phenobarb. She uses milk thistle to protect her liver and so far so good.

Lady was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy at age four, right after I adopted her. She's been on phenobarbital for almost nine years now. I've given her Milk Thistle almost since the beginning. She just started to show elevated liver values so I have decreased her dose by 10% and am now home cooking a liver friendly diet for her.

At Kati's age is is unlikely you are dealing with idiopathic epilepsy which is true organic epilepsy. Seizures in dogs under one year old and older dogs are usually symptoms of another disease or condition.

As Yorkieluv said, it is important that Kati have bloodwork done. I'd recommend a complete geriatric blood profile. Also make sure she has a thyroid panel done as thyroid imbalances can cause seizures.

Here are the most common causes of secondary epilepsy:

Causes:

The cause can be anything that disrupts normal brain circuitry:

~ Idiopathic Epilepsy, meaning "no known cause" and possibly inherited. This is also referred to as Primary Epilepsy. Check history or pedigree and make sure your veterinarian has looked for possible underlying factors. Seizures caused by underlying factors are referred to as Secondary Epilepsy.

~ Congenital hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
~ Hypothyroidism (low thyroid function)
~ Infections causing brain damage (such as canine distemper, cryptococcosis)
~ Ingestion of toxins (such as lead paint chips, insecticides)
~ Brain tumors
~ Portosystemic shunts (improperly routed intestinal blood vessels bypass the liver - one of the body's important waste-product detoxifiers)
~ Vaccinations

causes_&_treatment

No, I'd never heard of the term "Teddybear Yorkie", but I have noticed that there's quite a range of differences in the looks among Yorkies. My first male had longer legs and some of his off-spring had his longer legs, some had their mothers shorter ones. He passed and the male we have now has extremely short legs and a very dense coat. We just had a litter that he fathered. Guess we'll see how they turn out. The puppies are really sweet right now and seem to be proportioned okay.