Dog Having Seizures Or Maybe Hypoglycemia

[Isabel964]

I have a friend who has a medium sized dog - about 6 months old. In the morning when they went out the backyard with him he suddenly started whimpering. By the time they had run up to him, it had turned into all-out yelping. He was hysterical. He wouldn't anyone near him. After he calmed a little bit, they discovered that one of his paws was wet. On the way to the vet his gums and ears started turning blue, and then he lost control of the right side of his body. When they got into the exam room, he was crying in pain again. The vet said he was in A LOT of pain.

The vet gave him a pain shot and a antihistamine shot, as well as prescribed some pill-form painkillers. The vet also said to give him a Benedryl every 6-8 hours. He is to rest for the next three days.... no excitement, no playing. It was thought maybe the dog got bitten by something he was highly allergic to.

The next day it happened again - this time the dog was inside the house. Back to the vet and the vet said it could have been that he had a reaction to the Benedryl. Seeing as how he started doing that about 30 minutes after he was given the Benedryl pill that was possile. The vet said that since it wasn't an insect reaction, they should stop the Benedryl.

The first sign was whimpering, which turning into crying/yelping. Then he would go through a period of trying to hide. Both times that his humans tried to comfort him, he got aggressive (he is very good natured and doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body... normally). Once he got through the bad part, he would then start to shiver. Once the yelping, hiding, aggressiveness, and then shivering passed, he would then experience the lethargy/weakness. Also, though it didn't happen with the second episode, the first time he did experience head titling and collapse. The vet it might be seizures of some kind.

Doing some research they found hypoglycemia and what raised my friends husbands interest is that it said that inexperienced vets often don't know the signs and mistake hypoglycemia as seizures, and assume seizures.

Does anyone have experience with these things?

[~Anne~]

Your dog doesn't sound like he is experiencing any type of seizure that I know or am aware of. I have a dog with epilepsy and so I have read, researched and spoken to many, many people about seizures.

His symptoms do sound odd but to me they sound more like he is in pain and there isn't any pain related to a seizure.

Is it possible they could take him to another vet for another opinion?

Why the bendadryl I wonder?

[dogcop]

Isn't this brought on by not eating or drinking for a period of time "Low Blood Sugar".

Correct me if I'm off the mark please. But we had a Chow Chow with the exact same symtoms.

Cheers Chris

[~Anne~]

Hi dogcop,

I've never met anyone before with a dog that suffers hypoglycemia. What do you do when things happens with your dog? Do you have to have them on a specfic diet?

[dogcop]

Unfortuneately we lost our boy due to a prolapsed bowl (we had to put him down) to be kind.

He was actually a replacement for a faulty show dog, Chow Chows just weren't going to be for us as he had I will say unlucky problems within himself.

Chris

[Isabel964]

Isn't this brought on by not eating or drinking for a period of time "Low Blood Sugar".

Correct me if I'm off the mark please. But we had a Chow Chow with the exact same symtoms.

Cheers Chris

Yes, Hypoglycemia can be brought on by not eating regularly. But I do not knwo much else about it.

Of the symptoms of Hypoglycemia he has the following in bold.

Symptoms of Hypoglycemia (I have bolded the ones Folsom experienced):

drowsiness

shivering

collapsing

disorientation

seizures

listlessness

depression (to a lesser extent Folsom was kind of 'down' both times)

muscle weakness

tremors

Source

abnormal hunger/complete disinterest in food

restlessness

weakness, lethargy

head tilting

shivering

staggering, uncoordinated movements

problems with eyesight

disorientation (yowling, walking in circles, hiding, etc.) Though it seems to be called yelping in dogs

convulsions or seizures

coma

Those symptoms actually come from a site about feline Hypoglycemia, but I would imagine the symptoms are similar. Source

Staggering or collapse

Weakness

Aggression

Moodiness

Glassy eyes, staring, dazed looked

Seizure

Source

lethargy

weakness

incoordination

seizures

nervousness

tremors

hunger

[Teebs]

Kaos had the same thing - but no going blue, thank god!

she was about 6 months, she was xrayed and checkedover andnothing was found, she did it for about 3 weeks, on and off, then stopped

[dogcop]

God this hurts the he bit me during one of these i've got the scars to prove it he lock jawed on me it wasn't his fault when he realised what he'd done he was so upset. I got to go Too Hard.

[curly]

Sky, it's highly unlikely to be hypoglycaemia. The symptoms just don't fit. When they say seizures, think lying on his side and fitting. Sudden weakness is just that - unable to walk or even move much. It sounds more like he is in pain, from a bite, maybe he pinched a nerve, twisted something. As someone else said, try another vet for a second opinion.

Actually, reading your first post again, it sounds like a stroke or similar, particularly with the tilting head and right side weakness.

[Isabel964]

Thank you so much for your comments. Dogcop I'm osrry its too painful for you. My friend is really beside herself with worry and all your comments might be really helpful.

[Benji's Mum]

A rescue dog of ours died from diabetes (I think this the same as hypoglycemia) as the local vet refused to test her twice and told us to nurse her. We took her to a decent vet who blood-tested but it was too late.

[Jed]

What breed is the dog?

Hypoglycaemia presents in a lot of ways. The ears and gums turning blue suggests a heart problem to me, where there is not enough blood circulating - and the rest almost sounds like a stroke. However, it could be hypoglycaemia, but it rarely causes pain.

How long after he ate did he have the seizures? I would suggest feeding him something when he wakes up in the morning. I would also try 5 small feeds a day, and leaving something out for him overnight.

Hypoglycaemia can be caused by some internal problems (ie, pancreas, liver etc) and the vet should do a blood sugar test if the dog has another seizure ... the problem will be getting him to the vet in time.

Vet probably needs to do bloods anyhow, to even begin getting to the cause of the problem.

[cowanbree]

I have lost puppies from Hypoglycemia and have to say this doesn’t really sound like it but it is very easy to eliminate, up the amount of times the pup is getting fed a day. At 6mths the pup will still be on 2 feds a day? Cut those meals into 3 or four. It can only be properly diagnosed if a blood test is taken at the time of the seizure and yes it does look exactly like a seizure

[cowanbree]

And yet another repeat post

Edited November 6, 2006 by cowanbree

[cowanbree]

Hmm, repeat post

Edited November 6, 2006 by cowanbree

[Ittybitty_]

Having Poms, I am all too aware of hyperglycemia and alot of its affects. Poms can go from fine & bouncy one minute, to lethargic, ill looking & very uninterested in life within seconds. I always carry glucose in my tack box, as it doesnt take much for the Poms to go down hill. There is always glucose in their water at home, so they are constantly upping the sugar in their blood throughout the day.

[~Anne~]

When they say seizures, think lying on his side and fitting.

What you are describing is a tonic/clonic or grand mal... there are many types of seizures and this is just one type.

My epi has even experienced seizures where he continues to walk around and acts as if he is drunk and choking on something but he is not aware of anything or anyone during this time and if there was a pool in front of him he would fall in and not notice. That is the lack of conciousness. If he were still concious he would fall in and be aware that he was in water even though he may not be able to control himself or attempt to swim.

The one thing that is common with all seizures is loss of conciousness and awareness even if it is only for a few seconds and not overly noticeable.

[Weimlover]

I haven't heard of seizures like that either :p Bailey has been having seizures (petit mal) for the last couple of months similar to what puggles described in the last post, the vet seems to think that it is epilepsy.

IMHO I would take him to the vet so that they can do some test's e.t.c to try and find out what's going on

[persephone]

With the yelping, etc..he may be in pain....from a pinched nerve in the neck...maybe then having an effect on the blood flow? Just a thought.

would a spasm of the heart muscle cause pain such as this? This may make him yelp as well.....

Poor little thing.

A dog I knew with hypoglycaemia just used to suddenly go "Flop" and get very anxious.

We had a Koolie bitch with heart probs..her front legs used to spasm, and she would go rigid....

[aniangel]

The initial incident definately sounds like an acute anaphylaxis (possibly due to allergic) reaction - including the going blue, weakness & head tilt. If the dog was going to have a reaction to the Benedryl, it would have had a reaction to the initial antihistimine given to it at the vet's.

I wonder if the wet paw was thoroghly examined? under magnification? if there was a stinger left in and it shifted to a sensitive spot, it could have caused a pain response in the second incidence, which totally explains the dogs reactions as you described (and not to offend, but also especially if the dog isn't the bravest soul).

Also some itchy bites stay itchy for days and benedryl doesn't always handle the itch/pain if it is intense. Even in myself I had a spider bite that made me nearly chop off my own leg while i used antihistimines, until i got on a combo of antihistimines, pain killers and steroid cream for it. In the second instance, did the dog go blue as well or just the hiding, shivering, lethargy? was the lethargy as bad as the rightsided weakness in the first incident or just an exhausted type of lethargy & weakness?

As for the hypoglycaemia, you can certainly ask the vet to do a glucose curve to try and determine diabetes. Otherwise low blood glucose usually occurs in tiny breeds and neonates when they haven't eaten enough, gotten too cold, sick from disease etc. Seizures associated with low blood sugar are usually a grand mal with full on twitching and paddling. If your friend's dog is 6months old, eats well, medium sized and never had a problem before, hypoglycaemia seems v. unlikely unless there is a disease process going on, even in this instance.

I'd say double check that paw....

best of luck,