Epilepsy - Editor's Choice

Over the years, Earth Clinic readers have sent us many reports about their treatments for Epilepsy. The editors at Earth Clinic consider the below posts to be some of the most helpful and informative and have named them 'Editor's Choice'. We hope that you will find this useful.

Avoid Distilled Water

Posted by Elaina Jensen (Oregon) on 04/23/2017
★★★★★

About distilled water.... I just remember being instructed by our dog's veterinarian to only give our dog distilled water at one point for a medical condition unrelated to anything neurological and the dog started having seizures. Our dog was then prescribed phenobarbital for those seizures - which really sedated him and we weren't happy about. We couldn't believe this was happening.

After about four days of distilled water and the phenobarbital, the seizures kept getting worse. We stopped the distilled water and went back to putting regular tap water in his water dish. The seizures stopped and we stopped the phenobarbital too. We never had a problem with seizures after that.

I learned to have a lot of respect for distilled water and to be very careful how it is used after that.


Dietary Changes

Posted by Krisanne (Birch Run, Michigan) on 03/15/2008
★★★★★

To everyone who has a dog or cat with seizures, I'm sorry for that, it's the worst. I have a seven year old German Shepard that started having them when she turned two. I took her to the vet and they put her on medicine, that "might harm her liver over time" I gave her the pills for three years, with still a few seizures.

One day I went into PetSmart and was talking to the salesperson about animals,when it led into my shepard and her problem. She told me that her boxer had them to and that there is an additive in dog food called BHT or BHD that is found to bring on seizures. In amazement and anger I decieded to buy a dog food without this additive in to see if it was true and if it would help. I bought a very expensive bag of food that cost $39.99 a bag, not caring as long as it was true. Long story short, it's true! After that I started searching around for a reasonable priced bag of food because we have a 102lb. not fat just big, Golden Retriever too, and they eat alot!

I found a great bag of food at Tractor Supply called Diamond brand food. Just look on the back of your food bag if you see the three letters BHD or BHT, I really can't remember the exact three letters but it starts with a B. If it's in there I would change. Even some of the brands you think would be O.K. are not. Please try this it has been great with her not having seizuers any more. Good Luck I hope it helps.


Coconut Oil

Posted by Sandra (Gallatin, Missouri) on 08/29/2007
★★★★★

We have a Jack Russell Terrier who is now 5 years old..When she was about a year old she started having severe seizures..They got progressively worse thru the years..I was told to try coconut oil ..So I got a jar and started givig her a tsp. a day..that was back in February and cross my fingers she hasn't had any since then..she had been on medication and it wasn't helping her at all so I just stopped giving it to her and contacted a health store owner and she told me to try the coconut oil..Thank goodness it has helped her ..she was having severe seizures, as many as 12 at a time..I just wanted to share this with others


Filtered Water

Posted by Evelina (Livonia, MI) on 05/11/2006
★★★★★

I have an 11 year old dog that we found when she was about five months old. She started seizuring around the age of two. About once a week, occasionally more often. We installed an R.O. water filter system for ourselves and realized within a couple of months that our dog had stopped her seizures. The only difference was the water! She now seizures only about six times a year.

We did notice that she started seizuring after eating "bacon strip" dog treats, and other treats with food colorings, etc. We went back to plain dog biscuits and she's fine. She must be chemically sensitive. I shared this info with her vet who said she would pass this info along.