# Head Seizures



## summervizsla (Nov 7, 2021)

I'm in tears even writing this post. My Vizsla Fletcher is 4.5 (almost 5) months old. A few weeks ago, I can't recall where I was, but I witnessed what I now realize was a small seizure. It was short, 5-10 seconds, and he shook his head "no". I passed it off as his dreaming, since he was asleep/waking up when it started. 

But yesterday the same thing happened. He was asleep in the passenger seat when it started. The same "no" motion, but he woke up during it and his eyes were open this time. The head shaking was more intense and 10-15 seconds. Then again today, the third one I've seen. This was significantly longer and I believe more intense than yesterday. Maybe 30-45 collective seconds. He was also in the car asleep in my lap when it started.

Today is November 7. He got his last round of vaccines on Oct. 26. This included the rabies shot and a few others, I called my vet for that information yesterday. I'll be calling them again first thing tomorrow. He also took his Heartgard and Nexgard Oct. 8. 

I'm at a loss for what to do. Any advice is truly helpful.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

You could take him to a ER vet, and have them monitor him.


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

I would have the puppy checked for any medical problems that could result in seizures (infections, inflammation, tumors, congenital defects , etc). If no medical causes are found it could be idiopathic, aka unknown cause. In that case , efforts would be focused on treatment and management options etc.


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## Mrs M (Jul 21, 2021)

summervizsla said:


> I'm in tears even writing this post. My Vizsla Fletcher is 4.5 (almost 5) months old. A few weeks ago, I can't recall where I was, but I witnessed what I now realize was a small seizure. It was short, 5-10 seconds, and he shook his head "no". I passed it off as his dreaming, since he was asleep/waking up when it started.
> 
> But yesterday the same thing happened. He was asleep in the passenger seat when it started. The same "no" motion, but he woke up during it and his eyes were open this time. The head shaking was more intense and 10-15 seconds. Then again today, the third one I've seen. This was significantly longer and I believe more intense than yesterday. Maybe 30-45 collective seconds. He was also in the car asleep in my lap when it started.
> 
> ...


Hello
Sorry to hear Fletcher has suffered these episodes, know just how upset and worried you will be.
Our boy, Oscar suffered two similar episodes, first when he was also around 4.5 months old then about 6 weeks later.
He was awake though and seemed aware of his surrounding but a bit vacant.
His head shook like he was saying “no” he also appeared to sway and was unsteady on his paws.
Oscar was referred to the vet hospital as our local vet suspected epilepsy.
His neurological exam there was normal but decided to go ahead with an mri scan and sample of spinal fluid. Both of these we normal too thankfully as this excluded any brain abnormality. This was very good news.
We were advised that there is a link between some movement disorders and gastrointestinal disease. Oscar had giardiasis and campylobacter and suffered diarrhoea since we got him.
We got him treated and tried all diets, settling on a raw diet. His gastro problems improved greatly and he has not suffered anymore episodes.
If there had been anymore and frequent episodes we could have tried him on anti seizure meds or meds for movement disorders.
He does not need any treatment and only would if the episodes returned and were frequent.
Hope you can get Fletcher checked out and get to the bottom of this.


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## bru (Aug 22, 2012)

summervizsla said:


> I'm in tears even writing this post. My Vizsla Fletcher is 4.5 (almost 5) months old. A few weeks ago, I can't recall where I was, but I witnessed what I now realize was a small seizure. It was short, 5-10 seconds, and he shook his head "no". I passed it off as his dreaming, since he was asleep/waking up when it started.
> 
> But yesterday the same thing happened. He was asleep in the passenger seat when it started. The same "no" motion, but he woke up during it and his eyes were open this time. The head shaking was more intense and 10-15 seconds. Then again today, the third one I've seen. This was significantly longer and I believe more intense than yesterday. Maybe 30-45 collective seconds. He was also in the car asleep in my lap when it started.
> 
> ...


Hello,

For starters I am so sorry you are going through this. I haven’t logged in in close to nine years but I felt compelled to respond when I saw your post in the email digest. Our Bru is now 9 and change and in good health, but she experienced several of these exact episodes as well. The first was at 6 months and the worst was when she was almost a year old. The good news is that we have thankfully not experienced them since. 

At first it was exactly as you described, bobbing her head, getting wide eyed and looking sleepy yet awake. I thought she ate something bad off the street and gave her activated charcoal. It passed and then happened again about a month later in a similar fashion. 

The biggest/worst episode was frightening in that the bobbing was present but her legs went weak and even though she was still standing it was like loosening the tension on a string puppet and she was just swaying. Her heart was also beating very slowly. We took her to the ER and they monitored her for a day. They ruled out seizures – which i have wtinessed in other dogs and that closely resembles the roof crawling scene in the exorcist. They did a ton of bloodwork, found zero abnormalities. We consulted 4 different vets outside of the animal hospital and the only working theory we got was that the frontline was penetrating the blood/brain barrier. We stopped giving it to her from that point on and we have had zero issues since. We then realized all of the previous episodes were within 3-5 days of us giving her the frontline. I obviously cannot say for certain that this is entirely what caused/causes it but I know that for us it coincided with the issue going away. I do think getting blood and stool tests done to rule everything out is wise. 

I know how scary it is to see them so helpless especially when they are so young. I hope this helps and i wish you all lots of good luck.


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## summervizsla (Nov 7, 2021)

bru said:


> Hello,
> 
> For starters I am so sorry you are going through this. I haven’t logged in in close to nine years but I felt compelled to respond when I saw your post in the email digest. Our Bru is now 9 and change and in good health, but she experienced several of these exact episodes as well. The first was at 6 months and the worst was when she was almost a year old. The good news is that we have thankfully not experienced them since.
> 
> ...


Thank you so much for replying. I appreciate all your kind words and advice! I've been down every internet rabbit hole you can imagine... and I believe the cause is the Nexgard. Like you said, I can't say this for certain. But I've stopped giving it to him and I will never give it to another animal of mine again. I've also switched him to a new food and am giving him a big spoonful of Greek yogurt everyday. Some people speculate this kind of thing is caused by nutritional deficiencies. We haven't had an episode in almost a week (to my knowledge) and I'm hoping all of these changes are enough. I appreciate your insight very, very much. I'm so relieved to hear Bru hasn't had an incident since eliminating the Frontline. I hope Fletcher and I have the same outcome. Thank you again.


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## summervizsla (Nov 7, 2021)

Mrs M said:


> Hello
> Sorry to hear Fletcher has suffered these episodes, know just how upset and worried you will be.
> Our boy, Oscar suffered two similar episodes, first when he was also around 4.5 months old then about 6 weeks later.
> He was awake though and seemed aware of his surrounding but a bit vacant.
> ...


Thank you very much for your reply. I'm so happy to hear Oscar is doing well. I've changed Fletcher's diet to a new food and am giving him a big spoonful of Greek yogurt everyday. His stools do seem much healthier than before and he hasn't had an episode since the switch... My fingers are crossed it's a successful change. Thank you again for your advice. If things continue to escalate I will try a raw diet next!


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## Mrs M (Jul 21, 2021)

summervizsla said:


> Thank you very much for your reply. I'm so happy to hear Oscar is doing well. I've changed Fletcher's diet to a new food and am giving him a big spoonful of Greek yogurt everyday. His stools do seem much healthier than before and he hasn't had an episode since the switch... My fingers are crossed it's a successful change. Thank you again for your advice. If things continue to escalate I will try a raw diet next!


Great news, hope Fletcher remains well and enjoys his new food xx


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## vizslanewbie123 (Jun 24, 2021)

Hi -

I am so sorry you are going through this! Reaching out with support as we are going through something similar as well. However scary, it helps me to hear from all of you with similar circumstances. I am sending hope and prayers your way! 

Our baby Mia is 7 months old, but had her first episode at just 11 weeks . We had similar head bobbing, disoriented, etc. but hers also usually begin with a bout of zoomies and then kind of aggitation/skittish for us to approach her. Once we get her into the crate, she sleeps it off, but this weird state of bobbing lasts for many hours. It's not as much of a distinct shake as what you have described. We had given her simparica trio at this time, and of course took her off. We too went down the path of MRI, spinal fluid, etc. and all came back clean. 

We did not have any episodes for almost 4 months, but she has had two more recently. This was after putting her back on flea meds (required for a boarding facility) on 10/20. This time we went with Vectra as a safer/topical option. The next episode was 10/31 and again 11/17. 

Our episodes seem a little different, but is it possible to be related to the flea meds? We have seen many doctors, and they entertained it as a possibilty with the first batch but have not felt it is connected with the second. Currently, they still believe it could be "seizure activity" though it doesn't fully fit the profile given the lenght of these episodes. It could also be a toxin, but we don't know what she could be continually getting into and can't find correlation on the different incidents.

Thoughts to all going through something unknown with their babies. And thank you to everyone providing insights and support. 

Xx


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