I found out from my vet that any kind of pork product can induce seizures, even in dogs that aren't epileptic. I stopped giving my dog ham bones (he used to get a lot) and pork and he has not had near as many seizures. Also, I only give him spring water because tap water has chlorine, which is another seizure trigger.
Another trigger that some people may not think of is exposure to fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Even if you do not use these products in your own yard, your neighbors could be spraying them.
As far as the vaccination issue goes, my dog also had his first seizure about one week after his rabies booster.
Replied By Holly (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) on 11/04/2008
As someone below said, seizures are not a death sentence, so don't despair. My dog, a border collie mix, began having seizures probably about about 4 years old. We put him on phenobarb at the recommend of the vet and increased or decreased accordingly. When we saw that his seizures had decreased for some time, we decreased the dose ourselves. He has not had a seizure that I have seen in several years now, and I have decreased his meds again. He is now 15 years old, and very active, not heavy, and a joy to have. As an aside, I feed him Ol'Roy dogfood in the bags, as well as people food. He loves vegetables, fruits, salmon, meats.Replied By Sandra (Denver) on 01/23/2016
I know this is an old conversation, but I still reference it often and figured I would throw in my two cents in. Be aware of the pesticides! My collie mix has seizures every full moon even though she is on several medications. When I moved into a new townhouse she started having seizures that didn't coincide with the lunar cycle. It took me a while to figure it out, but every time I simply walked her over the neighborhood grass to go to the mailbox, she would have a cluster within the next 3 days. Once I started keeping her on the pavement through the neighborhood, the out-of-phase seizures stopped. The neighborhood management was incredibly helpful and provided me with the MSDS for all the chemicals they use.