Epilepsy Remedies for Dogs

Hello all you wonderful pet owners,

I read your posts and CONCUR. I have had dogs all my life. Grew up with dogs that made it to 17 yrs. Had a Sheltie that got to 14, I put her down after a stroke. Now have a Sheltie that is coming up on 17 yrs. Let me relay my experience with dog seizures. The pet store ran out of my usual brand of dog food last year, and I picked up a small bag of another well known premium dog food. Within 1 hr my Sheltie had a seizure. She has ALWAYS been hypersensitive and allergic, but usually it meant vomitting up whatever didn't agree, but seizures are the WORST. I am a researcher and I immediately went online and found a great article about Rosemary and how it was NOT good for many dogs. BINGO this temp food had Rosemary...but then my regular dog food started adding it and BINGO another seizure. It is popping up in all kinds of stuff that DIDN'T have it before. Ok, my adorable little girl is aging. she suffers from stiff joints and arthritis. By the way, have had GREAT success using green lipped mussel and boswellia, if we miss a dosage, she doesn't get around well. Found that remedy on a UK post, works for her. But seizures have become the concern, and more frequent. But I can ALWAYS trace it to something she ingested. Canadian bacon from a McD's egg mcmuffin, seizure withing an hour, awful one-nitrates? not sure but won't let that happen again. Trail mix she got into....seizure within 3 hrs, had rosemary extract. The last 6 mths I have been cooking for her as kibble didn't interest her at all. I had tried every type I could find w/o rosemary nothing seemed to interest her. My dog is an eater, but is kinda picky. I figure if you get to be 16 yrs old, and your breed usually expires around 12 to 14 yrs, then she deserves whatever makes her happy, ha. I do find that she will have seizures that are WORSE during a full moon. I do find that the ice pack remedy cuts them down faster and the daze afterward is averted. I would NEVER use prescription meds on a dog, EVER, research the whole drug industry- it isn't acting in anyone's best interest. I believe in herbs, and even essential oils. My dog is healthy, bright eyed and her coat is so glossy, she is just having issues with seizures lately, and like others I am trying to make sure she still enjoys a quality life. I don't know if it is just old age causing them now, or if she is deficient. She gets filtered water, organic food. I am going to try the magnesium and coconut oil suggestions. I use dulse flakes as a flavoring and she LOVES those. Pets add so much to our lives you just want to make sure they are well cared for. My mom thought dog food was TRASH, she cooked for our dogs and they never had any health issues and had longevity. I think she KNEW something, ha. But my family lived into their nineties, sickness wasn't in our family, they all expired of old age not disease, most died in their sleep peacefully, they didn't believe in Drs unless you broke a bone. They didn't believe in anyone "practicing" medicine on ya. Most of the top notched vets in my area seem clueless, and expensive, so NO thank ya. When my current sheltie was a puppy she chewed a rock and broke a tooth, a baby tooth, and one of those FINE educated vets told me I had to pay for a tooth extraction. Last time I took her to that vet, because she LOST that tooth naturally, I wasn't about to put her under and have him extract something that was coming out soon anyway. I told him he was a quack and a thief. He later was brought up on pet abuse charges, this was supposedly an exceptional vet-BUNK! GREED motivates more unnecessary procedures-I know, I volunteer in hospitals and hear and see awful stuff.

So please be an advocate for your pet, and choose wisely.

My Maltese has been suffering from violent Grand Mal seizures for years and years. I tried everything I could find; including Earthclinic: phenobarb (which is outlawed now, trashed my dog's liver, thanks, and of course the vets have "no idea"), coconut oil, fish oil, hemp oil, eye pressure, organic food, doctors' food, multiple treats/food thinking it was low blood sugar, baking soda, eggs, ACV, excersize, magnesium (which made my dog really sad, btw), vitamins, home cooked foods, natural dog seizure remedies.... Nothing worked.

The seizured continued, usually once or twice a week, on bad days 3-4 times in a couple of hours. I would bathe him all the time because after each episode he would look absolutley pathetic. It was horrible. With each seizure, he would go partially blind for hours. Felt really, really helpless.

Then I came across a cute little blog (http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/taurine.htm) which reasoned that it was the lack of muscle meat in dog (and cat) food as pet food industry kept evolving to maximize profit; resulting in today's mostly corn/junk/chemical filled pet food.

As for my dog, his seizure would come when we started to get ready to leave the house. My dog would sense that we are about to leave, get nervous and would start to pant rapidly, then seizure usually followed.

According to the blog, the lack of muscle meat in today's pet food meant TAURINE deficiency, a vital amino acid which controls seizures. Well, I ran out (by now I was desperately trying anything) and bought a bottle of Taurine and immeditately started giving him one (1) 500mg capsule a day, divided to 2 doses.

It's been 2 solid weeks without even a hint of an onset of seizure!!!!!!! I couldn't be happier. My dog is much calmer now, rarely gets nervous and much less anxious. It's like magic.

Taurine is all natural with no known side effects. And since it has many benefits, I give them daily to my dog, cat and my family.

Hope my experience with Taurine helps someone and somepet out there!

My Shih Tzu used to get frequent seizures for many years. I did research on natural remedies for dog seizures. I found Info. that Taurine helps prevent seizures. I gave my dog 500mg. Taurine a day, and she has not had any seizures since. My dog Bijou is now 13 yrs. old.

Hi... I found an herb that was causing seizures in my black lab. ROSEMARY is known to cause seizures. An online encyclopedia web site states that ROSEMARY can cause convulsions and seizures.

My dog had his first seizure at age 7 and had another one about one year later. Both were unexpected and the vet could not figure it out. After the dog food poisonings I wanted to find an all natural dog food. That dog food caused a seizure in my dog but at the time I did not connect the two. My vet did not either. It wasn't until my Dad stopped by and took some of the food home to try on his dog. Within 3-hours his dog had a seizure. Then I knew to look at food consumption as the cause. I searched the internet all day and finally found something alarming.

The internet stated that there has been an upward swing in dogs and cats both getting seizures. If you look at pet products today, there has been an over whelming amount of ALL NATURAL products and many of them contain ROSEMARY.

I checked the label on that expensive dog food and there it was... ROSEMARY. I then racked my brain to figure out why my dog had a seizure the year before. I then remembered that I was on this kick of eating Triscuits with the Olive Oil and Rosemary flavor. I remember giving my dog a few crackers.

When looking back on both seizures that my dog had, there was the same 3-hour window from when the dog consumed food to having the seizure.

I read every single label including people food before I give anything to my dogs. Neither my dog nor my Dad's dog has had a seizure since we both started reading labels. It's been over a year now. And for the record, the two black labs are not related to each other so it wasn't genetics.

My dog had 10 seizures in 2 days. I was worried about having to put him down. Started using CBD oil. His seizures have stopped for 5 days. Only use a couple drops a day. Would rather use that than phenobarbital.

My 4 y/o Keeshond began having seizures (clusters). Started the phenobarb routine, it changed her personality and she also developed increased thirst and appetite from the meds. She began peeing in the house, couldn't hold it. I found a vet who specializes in Chinese medicine. Daisy started on Chinese herbs and a weaning schedule to get off phenobarb. My vet was not sure this would work. I also stopped feeding her commercial dog food and started giving her raw meat and bones- appropriate for her size and teeth. That was Dec 1st 2010. It is now March 2012- she has not had one seizure since the end of Nov 2010. She is still on the herbs-(successfully weaned off phenobarb over 6 week period) vet says the herbs won't hurt her- is somewhat of a liver cleanse. The vet doesn't particularly like that I feed raw food- but both my dogs (also a 10 lb Shitz-poo) are thriving, wiht beautiful coats and teeth and great digestion. It is amazing how small their poops are. After 6 mos of exclusively raw, I changed to one cooked meal in the morning and raw chicken necks at night. The cooked meals are rotated: beef- chicken-fish each weak with some veggies, eggs and rice. The cooked food gets ground egg shells and kelp mixed in for extra minerals. For those of you who have seizure dogs- there is hope. Look into a raw diet. Stop poisoning your dogs with commercial foods that have been totally stripped of nutrition then fortified with added in vitamins and minerals which are never quite like getting it from actual foods.

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

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.

Interesting. I had the exact opposite experience. My dog began having seizures several weeks after moving into a new home. We tried changing things one at a time - food first with no change, then water - from filtered tap to distilled. He had 8 seizures in 4 weeks but after the change to distilled water he had one more and then they stopped. Since then it's been over a month without a seizure.

Hemp is working for my dog's seizures!! ... I previously wrote about my dog Diesel here https://www.earthclinic.com/pets/epilepsy3.html Look for two entries, 02/06/12 and 10/20/13 to read about the difficulties we have had and all of the things we had tried to get control of his seizures. Note that in October 2013 we had tried the hemp oil supplement containing CBD, which really seemed to be working. We had 42 days seizure free (which was really good) and then over the next couple of months we had some breakthrough seizures and the oil didn't seem to help as much as his seizures came back more regularly.

Soooo...In my never-ending search to help my little guy, I found a hemp supplement that isn't an extract or oil but is 100% hemp. It is called Canna-Pet and is actually developed by veterinarians for dogs and cats. http://www.canna-pet.com

There have been major improvements in Diesel. Not only way less seizure events, but he is more alert, has a better appetite and sleeps better.

So I started reading and learning about phytocannabinoids, terpenoids and flavonoids, the important parts of cannabis. I learned that the process to make the oils and extracts (heat, alcohol, chemicals) could destroy some of the natural things in the hemp, which are beneficial. The new product doesn't use any of these methods.

For anyone who would like to learn more about the important parts of cannabis and hemp and why they are important, here are some of the links I came across while educating myself. Keep in mind that some of the links are about medical marijuana, but the same important things are in hemp such as CBD.

Here is an article about the Canna-Pet product and the vets who developed it. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/10/prweb11276477.htm

Here is a link to the "white paper" from Canna-Pet - If you scroll down you can learn about phytocannabinoids, pharmacological actions of non-psychotropic cannabinoids, terpenoids, flavonoids, cannabinoid profile of medical marijuana and cannabinoid profile of Hemp #112 and their "golden Ratio" and references at the bottom. Tons of information. http://www.canna-pet.com/technical.html

Importance of Terpenes http://www.hightimes.com/read/talking-terpenes

Difference between Industrial Hemp and Cannabis (I never knew...) http://hempethics.weebly.com/industrial-hemp-vs-cannabis.html

Interesting and fun facts you didn't know about Hemp (I didn't know any of this) http://hempethics.weebly.com/i-bet-you-didnt-know.html

VIDEOS

An excellent video about CBD... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31SrjjgPbhU#t=22

For those that did not see...I know it is about marijuana but the CBD is the important part... WEED - CNN Special Dr. Sanjay Gupta 2013 Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4GUkzTnFG0

And...

WEED 2 - Dr. Sanjay Gupta 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAFu-Ihwyzg

Diesel is still on phenobarbital, Kbr and Zonisamide along with the hemp. These medications have never given control to him. If the hemp continues to control/eliminate seizures, these medications will be reduced with the guidance of my vet.

I hope your vet is checking liver function testing at least every few months. If your dog's liver enzymes are elevated (as my dog's were on phenobarbital and zonisamide), then start him/her on Denamarin. It's available OTC but is pricey. Or you could buy the ingredients separately for a bit less - SAMe and Milk Thistle. Just look up the dosage on the Denamarin website and translate from there. Putting my dog on Denamarin for 1 month only brought his liver back to almost normal from very poor health. I would not wait, milk thistle is cheap, SAMe is a bit more but worth it.

Do not feed your dog kibble. Heartworm medications, flea and tick medications or any shots are the primary cause of seizures. Feed raw meat, organ meat, raw fish, salmon, raw eggs with shells. Find a pet food store that sells raw meat products and doesn't pad the food with fat or cheap vegetables. A raw diet doesn't mean raw vegetables. If feeding your dog properly doesn't help then try to find an honest, knowledgeable vet, (good luck) for a diagnosis. Heartworm and flea and tick are not preventives they are cures and contain poisons that cause seizures. If your vet disagrees find another vet.

I had a litter of pups get their first vaccinations. Exactly three weeks later all of them had back to back seizures for 48 hours straight. Horrible seizures where they ran across the floor and would slam into the wall. It was terrifying. I looked it up and found that lepto will cause seizures 21 days after vaccination. Just like my pups.

They had seizures for several years until we found out that fish oil would stop them. Within a few weeks of giving them fish oil daily the seizures became so mild that the pups would just shake. Eventually they stopped completely. My pups lived to 14 and 15 years old. They never got another vaccination after they were one!

My healthy and lively 7 month old Lab Lily approached me for her daily egg for watching over the chickens and ducks for the day last night when I noticed her shaking so bad she could hardly stand up. I brought her inside and I thought she was definitely having a seizure. Her eyes were blinking constantly, she couldn't stand, was panting heavily, had uncoordinated movements, the whole nine yards. I have always done things as naturally and holistically as possible, but I knew this was a vet moment. We arrived at the emergency clinic 30 minutes after it all started. She was getting worse. They rushed her into the back and it seemed like hours (because it was! ) when we finally learned she had Mycotoxicosis. She had a fever of 104.5. Hours later she was still convulsing. Mycotoxicosis is the term used when your dog is poisoned from backyard compost bins or areas where decaying matter can be found (e.g., forests, gardens, etc.).

I know people may already know this can happen, but I did not, neither did any of my friends in similar situations. For twenty years my dogs have been in the compost bin from time to time, and a couple times I recall a wake up call in the night to go outside from them eating it.

We could have lost her to this. It required IV fluids and flushing the toxins from her system. I can do a lot at home, but I am not skilled enough to administer IV fluids. Without this she may have died.

The reason for this post is to give people info about this. Fence off your compost, or if you live near forest where your dogs maybe eating deer or other poop in the woods- they could get this, or it could be why they keep having seizures. I am not implying this is every seizure situation by any means. Most people don't watch their dogs to see what they are doing outside every minute. It will cost us nearly $2000 for this, but more importantly we almost lost our newest family member to something that could have been avoided. Years ago I knew someone that adopted a dog who was on all sorts of these seizure meds, and would have these prolonged episodes (like Lily) and now it makes me wonder if she had this. While finding info online about it last night it did say continued seizures can be misdiagnosed when it is actually these mycotoxins which are causing the issue.

I give her grain free puppy kibble, fresh raw and cooked meats & veggies, bones, coconut oil, probiotics and pumpkin puree daily. She spends a lot of time outside and is also walked daily. She is going to pull through, but it was a real scare. I hope people will share this and read more about Mycotoxin poisoning because I am sure I am not the only one on Earth Clinic composting in my yard.

Fantastic post. Someone in a fedbook group has an Aussie that started having seizures. EarthClinic is my go-to reference. I'm sure he'll be encouraged by your post. You are totally on the money (so to speak) about what bunk so-called modern medicine is. A total scam based on a scam false premise. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with seizures.

I rescued a Beagle 10 years ago and his seizures started within 2 months of his adoption. I refused the normal RX's because of kidney and other organ failure that often occur. I then began to search out REAL preservative free dog food. I went through about 10 different kinds, even tried home made but with me working proved to be a real hassle - shelf life is not long at all. I finally found Paul Newman's Organic dog food (yellow bag with red label) and he has been seizure free for 10 years. Hope this helps you!

Just a quick update, going on day 5 or 6 here since starting Louise on her new diet - NO SEIZURES! She was having one everyday. I have her on New Balance Ltd. , and Dr. Ackerman's Seizure/Epilepsy Control Supplements. She also has New Balance treats. It appears that removing the rosemary extract and adding the taurine and magnesium (all in the New Balance food) might be the answer. I know it's too soon to really tell, but we're off to a great start. I'll continue to post updates.

Hi, I recently "adopted" a 10 y/o Purebred Chocolate Lab. She is the best dog in the world, and it breaks my heart to see her have Seizures. My stepfather had her from a pup, and I used to be the one who would take her to the vet when she started having the seizures. She was probably a year old when she had her first seizure. I have taken her to a total of 4 different vets over the years, and all 4 have said the same thing - Video record the seizure, if possible. They all said that they can get a better idea of :

1) The type of seizure, and

2) What type of medicine to be used, (either holistic or Vet-prescribed. )

They all also suggested that I "talk her through" the seizure. They said that she will be very frightened, even though she is accustomed to what is happening to her body because she's been through it before, they are like children who are nervous. The littlest bit of reassurance that everything will be OK makes a world of difference. I read in previous posts that some people were frightened to go near their dog during the seizure because their mouths were open and their teeth may have been exposed - but that is a naturally occuring phase of some types of seizures. Basically, I suggest that even if you are intimidated by the look of your dog during the seizure, and you don't feel comfortable approaching her, just make sure that they can hear your voice. With my Fudgie, I just simply tell her (during the seizure) "It'll be ok, Fudge! , " and that seems to make a world of difference. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at AveryMeyer89(at)gmail.com

Hope this helps!! :)

My 12 yr. old Shih Tsu has been having seizures for a long time. For the past few years they increased to one a month. I researched online and found Taurine helps to prevent seizures. I noticed Taurine is not in dog food. 7 months ago I started giving my dog 500mg. of Now Foods Taurine capsules a day. My dog hasn't had a seizure since. I also feed my dog Organix canned dog food. I've tried different natural food brands and this one agrees with her.

Our St. Bernard has had seizures since he was about 9 months old. We have been dealing with this problem for over two years now. He currently is on Phenobarb, Pot. Bromide, and Zonisamide. We have had to tinker with all these meds, side effects, and yet he was still having cluster grand mal seizures approximately every 10 days. We were maxed out on med doses as they were causing too many side effects which was costing quality of life. We were out of options. Or so I thought!

We started doing Acupressure once every two weeks and now once a month. The seizures are occurring only once a month, with it being just one at a time AND we have lowered his meds three times. Acupressure works! This is pure fact as dogs can't have any kind of placebo effect. We are hoping one day to get him off most of the meds and get his quality of life back!

Make sure to give your dog milk thistle to protect the liver whenever phenobarital is used!!!

Where do you use the acupressure?

I have a 5lbs 4oz chiuaua who from the first year I had her suffered from seizures. Went to the vet who prescribed phenobarbytol which made her lethargic and begin getting fat and did nothing for the seizures. Even after at the end tripling the dose. I went online and spent about a week on research and finaly ordered norwegian fish oil. I only have to give her two a week and she has not had a seizure since. She is 5 years old now. The best thing is I do not have to force feed it to her I squeeze the gel caps out on a plate and she will happily lick the plate clean. The vet said that it would not work. He got quite when I told him she has not had a seizure in a year and does not had in meds in the last year except the oil.

Easy recipe for dogs.

instant pot

1 1/2 cup brown rice

6 frozen whiting fish (get at supermarket)

or one chicken breast cut up

1 tablespoon quality oil. Coconut, olive, salmon

1/2 cup - 1 cup veggies green beans, carrots, peas

Cook high pressure 18 minutes, natural release

Stir up to shred protein. Bag and freeze.

Add some chicken liver freeze dried additional.

My dogs eat half kibble half homemade.

This is in regards to pet epilepsy (dog).

About 15 years ago my husky/Shepard mix began having seizures and a trip to the vet diagnosed epilepsy and drugs to slow him down (he was having about 3 episodes a day). I didn't want him slow, he was a great dog. At the time the internet was pretty much forums so I started searching for the cause of his affliction. I came across others who recommended a dietary change to something more natural than the Science Diet "poison" I was feeding him. I don't quite remember what brand came next but it reduced the seizures to about 3 a week. Another change reduced them to about 3 a month until the final brand "Natures Balance", eliminated them entirely. He lived a long and relatively healthy life to the ripe old age of 14. I believe he could have gone longer had my ex wife continued to give him filtered water that removed the chlorine and especially the fluoride from the drinking water. She's a believer that our great medical community knows it all and that I'm a kook... That may be true but my best friend helped save me as much as I did him. RIP Rascal 03/27/2009

I wanted to add to my previous comment about seizures. I am happy to say that both my dog and my father's dog are still free of their seizures and have been for well over a year. I still believe it was the rosemary because the seizures were "isolated" and only occurred when they both ingested rosemary.

I was researching today about canine seizures because my girlfriend's 13-year old dog just experienced her first seizure. It was one day after ingesting a heartworm pill. So now their dog will never receive that drug again.

I have stopped all vaccinations except rabies because it's the law. But I'm seriously thinking about stopping that too. I read an article from an Veterinarian Immunologist who stated that the initial immunization lasts for life. Repeating every year weakens the immune system. It's no different than our childhood immunizations. We received our shots once and that was it.

Even heartworm pills are scarying me. I was researching to see if there was a mercury preservative in heartworm. I've read that a mercury preservative in vaccines was the cause of autism in children. While doing the search I stumbled upon this site...

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/Plant-induced_seizures.htm

It is so informative and talks about a case study whereby plants do cause seizures in people and in canines. Rosemary was listed, as was a bunch of others.

As for heartworm preventative, I'm now searching for an alternative. I cringe knowing that I have been feeding my dogs poision. Heartworm is from mosquitos and it's not every mosquito that carries the disease. So for now if they are outdoors in the evening, I use a safe mosquito repellant.