Hello everyone,

Ive been a long time reader but admit I dont post here much. Today my beloved Coco have died most likely from a epileptic seizure or something in relation to it.

She was 7 years and 3 months old.

I'm posting this to get some closure and simply to get some more knowledge why she died today.

Heres some background, around November 2013 she started having seizures. At least enough for us to notice. She went on phenobarbital I believe a low dosage of 20-30mg twice a day. For a few months she was very stable and got back to "normal" as long as she was on the medication. A few months go by and she started having seizures and I noticed/ vet noticed that might most likely be tied to the time she has periods. We did some blood work and decided to up her intake to 94.5 mg.

Shes been pretty good up until today. I walked her last night and everything looked normal and she didnt behave or act out of the ordinary. Today, I was told by my brothers that they noticed she had 3 seizures and they were back to back.

Usually she would recover from them in a few mins and be back on her feet. Some seizures in the past have slipped thru and we would see one or two from time to time in a span of months. However today she had 3 consecutive and never seemed to get out of it. My brothers monitor her and shes been breathing heavily and gave her some water waiting for her to recover.

However, she kept in a corner and "slept". 30 mins go by and they noticed shes not moving or see any signs of breathing. When they get closer, her tongue was out of her mouth, mouth opened, eyes opened, some of her stool seemed to have came out and the worst has occurred. She has passed

My question is does seizures generally kill dogs? Did she have some many consecutive seizures that she finally couldnt take it and had a heart attack and died?

I guess Im trying to figure out or why she died today vs not tomorrow, not two weeks ago. Etc

I can not answer any of your questions. But I'm sooooo sorry to hear of your loss. I do believe that blueeyedghost, a moderator here,  belongs to an epileptic dog group, perhaps she can steer you to someone who could help.

I'm truly sorry for your loss.

As Renee stated, the user blueyedghost has a pup named Ghost who is also epileptic. Hopefully she will see this thread and help you out with your questions.

Thanks for the support thru this difficult time. Ive read multiple forums, articles, posts on the internet the past few hours and hope she didnt have a tumor that wouldve all of a sudden abruptly take her life.

First, Im VERY sorry for your loss. I went through this last April with both my dogs, they died 2 weeks apart, from seizures. I'm no expert, but I have read and saved so many files on Epilepsy/seizures in dogs since mine were diagnosed...not until they died did I realize how consumed I was by their condition. Both my dogs never "qualified" for meds, they didnt seizure often enough (according to the vet). What I do know is that with each seizure, the part of the brain that was affected, is damaged...have enough seizures, theres quite a bit of damage. The back to back seizures you describe are cluster seizures...theyre dangerous. During the seizure, they dont breathe, so their organs are being deprived of oxygen and what happens is they overheat and the organs become stressed. With my dogs, it stopped their hearts. Anybody going through this, please, if the seizure lasts more than a few minutes (I'd say 5 minutes max), get them to the vet as fast as you possibly can. Have ice packs/frozen bags of vegetables, handy to attempt to keep them cool until you get to the vet. Also, it seems that vanilla ice cream, or plain yogurt, after an initial seizure, can help prevent a second seizure (when they seizure, their blood sugars drop and low blood sugars can help start another seizure) If your dog is on meds, its EXTREMELY important you are extremely vigilant in not only giving it at the same time each day, but also to have the level measured in their bloodstream on a regular basis (I believe its every 6 months). Again, I am SO sorry for your loss.

Wow sorry to hear about your troubles with your dogs as well.

Back in November 2013, I was given a few options when my Siberian Husky had a lot of seizures. She was seizing about every other hour or so for about 2-3 minutes. She would get out of that phase and slowly come around.

The options I had was a blood test and a cat scan. I opted out of the cat scan ( they were charging upwards of 2,000 dollars for it

My doctor's approach was to treat it with pheno for a few weeks and see how the outcome was. The outcome was great with her being on pheno so we pressume this was a genetic inherited. It was great up until now.

Before pheno controlled her seizures well. There were a few that leaked thru but they were months apart (at least from what I have witness, I dont monitor my dog 24 hours so Im sure there were some that came but were minor) Until today it sounds like your are right with the cluster of seizures. At first I thought a missing dosage couldnt caused this but who knows. Im just sad that my poor girl had to go at a relatively young age of 7 years was hoping for her to be around when I had kids of my own.

I am, again, SO sorry. I do know what you mean by going at a relatively young age, my boy was only 5 (diagnosed at 2 yrs old w/genetic epilepsy) my girl died on the morning of her 10th birthday (sounds a lil more up there in age but she was SO healthy, AND she hadnt seizured in years ...she was diagnosed at 2 as well, both my dogs had the same father, anyways her seizures started out like the typical epileptic dog but after a few years, they stopped. I thought she grew out of them, like some people do. I believe the stress from Malukhai dying triggered her final seizure) Malukhai seizured about every 3 months

One thing I wanted to add is, I believe the initial blood tests the vet does for a seizuring dog, do test for cancer/tumors, or atleast show a belief that additional tests would be needed. I say that because when my dogs were tested, the vet said the good news was that they didnt have a cancer causing the seizures. BUT, generally if a dog seizures from 2-5 yrs old, its genetic epilepsy usually...over 5 years, they start looking at things like organs not doing their job properly, tumors/cancers, etc...there are grey areas im sure, but anyways, those initial blood tests would more than likely have shown a need for further testing of organ functions, cancer, etc...

Good info. I did about 3 blood tests with my vet for my dog's routine checkup about every 6 months. Every one of those results were good as the vet would say.

I research the whole dog's getting heart attacks etc and read from a lot of people that may or may not be true that its a vets way of being lazy. Im sure ultimately after all of these seizures it would effect brain activity and then lead to other organs not to function correctly.

The hardest part is coming home to seeing her laying there waiting for me to bring her into the vet for cremation.

Awe, I'm so sad to hear for your loss!

I wanted to 'bump' this in hopes that Meredith can answer some of your questions.

And again I'm so sorry for your loss.

Hey, first off, I'm so sorry about your dog. My biggest fear is waking up to find that Shadow passed in the night. Dogs can die of a seizure, and it sounds to me that she may have had a cluster event that went into Status Epilepticus (nonstop seizure activity). That's actually how my childhood dog passed while I was in grad school. She developed seizures late in life, and the vet thought with her that it may have been a tumor. My parents elected to not ever do imaging studies and just treat the seizures. Your girl was young enough that it very easily could have been idiopathic (no known cause) that just presented a little on the late side. I wouldn't be kicking yourself for not doing the CT, it probably wouldn't have changed your course of treatment for her.

The cluster/Status event may have overtaxed her heart, but more likely it damaged her brain. The longer a seizure goes on, it's generally thought that more damage occurs to the brain. They're really not sure though, there's tons of research going into that. Missing a single dose of meds probably wouldn't have done that, but the Epilepsy Monster is weird and random. I really hope you are able to get some closure, and again, I'm so sorry you've had to go through this. Canine Epilepsy is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, but somehow those of us who do have to deal with it learn how to endure and manage. My heart really goes out to you and your family.

And thanks for the bumps and bringing this one to my attention, guys (been running around and in meetings all morning). This is why I love this forum so much

Meredith, Thank you for your kind words, and insight, I'm hoping that all of us reaching out will give some comfort to dc5itr888. I was going to leave this thread alone, but after reading everything I must add, that my first dog she was 2 years younger than me, Toni, husky/gsd around 11 years old, suffered the dreadful cluster seizures as well. I never realized this until I read all of this. She never seized before, but one day she went chasing a rabbit, and our neighbor yelled for my mom. How on earth without internet, resources, etc. my mom knew how to care for her. My mom didn't want me to see my dog this way, but all of your descriptions was exactly the same as her, she had several seizures that day. I remember my mom wrapping her in cold sheets and ice, and talking to her gently. About a month later the exact same thing happened. My mom bounced her back to our good old Toni girl, and explained to us kids that it was time, my mom didn't want us to see her in such bad shape. I'm sharing this simply because after 30 some odd years I got the closure I needed, I never knew what was wrong with her and it left me so sad to see her in that condition. Thank you all for sharing, sadly a lot of us have and will go through this.

dc and artic, I wanted to add, such sweet and beautiful huskies you had. It took our family nearly 4 years before we got another dog(a gsd), because of our love for our first girl, it was difficult, but a new puppy(or dog) eases that pain a little. Take care
Renee

Great Info guys.

I think the dread cluster seizures ( from what my brothers tell me they witness of our beloved dog) was what happened to my dog as well. Back then when she had 3-4 total a day occured in a matter of 2 hours yesterday when it finally took her life.

Whether the cluster of seizures caused her brain activity to fail or caused her heart? to go.

Im glad she is in a better place now. No more meds for her as I read some dogs down the line that go on phenobarbital affect their liver and they end up dying from other side effects

And thanks for all the info blueeyedghost.

When my dog passed yesterday. I wanted answers or some remote explanation why now she has died.

I did search Siberian Huskies/ Seizures and there wasnt a good thread concentrated on my particular case with our breed so I hope this can help all the owners out there

Anthony, I'm glad that you updated your profile with a pic. I had talked to Jimmy(artic wind) about losing his. I'm also glad that you reached out to this forum, such wonderful and knowledgeable people here. Coco is truly in a better place, I hope we helped and gave you some comfort on such a terrible day.
Renee

I am deeply sorry for your loss.

@dc5itr888
You mentioned doing research about heart attacks and how people said it may or may not be true, the vet just may have been lazy. In my case, there is no doubt it is true. Anuschka had her seizure at 430 am, it woke me up and immediately I went to her to do my thing of trying to keep her comfortable/keep from hurting herself, etc...I was watching the clock though because I had just lost Malukhai 2 weeks before...after 5 minutes, I rushed her to the emergency vet. When I carried her in she was still in a seizure, but so SO weak she was barely moving. The vet took her immediately and gave her valium to stop the seizure. While explaining to me that she more than likely would have brain damage, that one or more of her organs may have been compromised, theyd need to keep her for a few days, that shed need to be on meds for the rest of her life, the other dr/nurses were attempting to get her body temp back down. A nurse came in and whispered something to the dr, he excused himself and went with her to where Anuschka was...he came back and told me Anuschka had gone into cardiac arrest and asked if I wanted them to resuccitate (sp?) her. I didnt even have to think about it. I told him "no". She was my lil girl, my entire world, and with Malukhai gone, all I had left, but...the possibility of brain damage, internal organ damage/failure, being medicated for the rest of her life and on top of all that, coming back home to a house where she'd still be missing Malukhai, I think I made the only decision I could have. Anyways, the seizure had indeed stopped her heart, whether because of brain damage or the seizure itself, it doesnt really matter.

articwind thanks for the input

Although I was at work when all of this happened to my dog. I only got the details from my younger brothers. But I believe this might be true to what had happened to my dog however all at home.
Your situation just gave me some closure on "what if" I was there and was able to rush her to the vet.
In the end I dont think it wouldve made a difference.

It sucks being helpless to what I can do when I was so far away.

As for it being genetic, I got my dog from a Pet Shop. Unfortunately it was mass produce (puppy mill) and I believe the 8-10 siberian huskies in my dogs litter might all be affected.

Exactly, even if you had been there, the outcome would probably have been the same. Don't beat yourself up or feel any type of guilt, I think once the seizures reach the point of Status Epilepticus, and the dog somehow survives, their quality of life suffers dramatically. For me, trying to keep Anuschka alive would have been for me, not her.

I was home when Malukhai seizured, but in the shower. I came out and found him in a violent seizure, where I saw him get lifted from the ground and into a sitting position, and then being thrown back onto the ground. I had no idea how long he had been in the seizure but really, there was no way of getting him into the car and getting him help in that condition. All I could do was try to keep him from hurting himself. I'd say no more than 5 minutes passed when the seizure finally stopped. He was breathing heavily and that was a relief for me to see. I was petting him, telling him to keep breathing, everything would be ok, took me a little while, but I noticed he seemed a little too quiet. He was always really quiet after a seizure though...what I didnt realize was that he had stopped breathing. I tell you this because I had the same "what if" questions racing through my mind. What if I wasnt in the shower and was able to get Malukhai help right away, or what if I had brought Anushka into the swimming pool in an attempt to lower her body temperature before we went to the vet. There are a lot of "what ifs". But I keep coming to the conclusion the outcome would have probably been the same.