Seizures in My German Shepherd

by joanetta
(long beach, ca)

my german shepherd is 2 years and 3 months old, on friday he had a full on seizure but we had walked up on it when he was in the tightening of his limbs and then he was a little incoherant for a moment then he stood up and was a little disinoriented.

last night we had him in the house and i heard a bang, when i walked into the room the dog was in he was like running lying down and his teeth were nashing that lasted approx. 2 mins, he then looked as if he was blind and started drooling all over the place (still lying down) this lasted about 2 mins as well.

he then got up and wondered around aimlessly and was a little confused, he began drinking tons of water and was very uneasy and restless, this lasted about 20 mins when he finally calmed down and went to bed.

they did blood work and urine anlyis on him we are waiting on the results. im not sure what to do? should i go natural on his treatment or should we do medication from the vet?


Total German Shepherd:


Classic description. Now I'm no vet but it sounds as though your boy may have epilepsy. Once you get your tests back from the vet I would definitely speak to him/her more in depth about the results - whatever they may be - and what you need to do for your GSD.

If he does have epilepsy you can read more about it on this site as well. I know how hard it can be watching your pet go through these seizures - I had a female GSD several years back that was epileptic too.

Once we got used to what we had to do each time she had an "episode" things were not so bad - but those first few times can be really shocking. Especially if your pet is having Grand Mal seizures, which is what my German Shepherd had and sounds very much like what your boy exhibited too per your description above.

Good news is, it can be treated in most cases and the dogs can live a fairly normal life once they are under medication and the owner knows what to do.

And that's another issue you need to speak with your vet about if your GSD needs anti convulsant medications such as phenobarbital and the like because these medications have side effects as well.

So you need to be aware of what the medication treats as well as what long term use of medication can cause. And talk with them about what your options are medicinally speaking too so that you can make a good decision for your boy - you will more than likely have several choices of medicine to choose from.

I wish you and your boy much luck and I hope you can get him the treatment he needs to get his seizing under control asap.