Seizure -9 month old pup

[pdxnurselily]

At 11 weeks old, I woke up to a very sick puppy, vomit, diarrhea, foaming at the mouth, trembling and seizures. The vet thought Stella had ingested something as curious puppies do, so they scoped her. Found 6-8 tiny pieces of black plastic/rubber substances in her stomach, but couldn't get them out, she was so small, only 4.5 lbs. at the time. Still to this day I don't know where that came from. So he did a gastrostomy to remove the particles. Ouch! The next day at the vet's office she had another seizure. They put her on phenobarbital. We went to visit her and I honestly thought about returning her to the breeder and getting another puppy, but my daughter started crying and tore at my heartstrings right in the vet's office. It was recommended that we take her to a neurologist because my vet suspected she had hydrocephalus (water on the brain). So two weeks later we did the MRI and she was diagnosed with mild to moderate hydrocephalus. I debated with many vets about the seizures being caused by what she ingested and they all said that was not likely and that it was due to the hydrocephalus. My breeder agreed to give us another puppy, through her tears and apologies, but I suspected she would have put Stella down as she would not be able to breed her. So we decided to keep her and do the best we could for her. I went with my gut and weaned her off of the phenobarbital a couple of months later because I always believed it was what she ingested. So far so good, she has been seizure free for about a year now.
I hope you are able to determine the cause of the seizures. As a side note, my mom had a dachsund that would have seizures about once per month. The cause was never determined and she recently just passed away at age 14! Good luck and please keep us posted on her progress.

How is your Stella now? Have you been able to control her seizures? Did they suggest it could be an auto-immune disorder? My Hamilton is 6 months old and seized on 1/20 for the first time was started on Keppra and had cluster seizures after that on the 27th. We had the MRI, CSF studies, bile, bloodwork and checked stool for parasites. No definitive answers and our neurologist is recommending that we either treat for autoimmune disorder or idiopathic epilepsy. The only study abnormalities were mild inflammation found in the MRI and elevated protein in CSF which can result from simply having the 10 or so cluster seizures that he had while we were in route to the vet hospital. They can also indicate an auto-immune disorder. Do you have any insight you can share?

 

[Jakeyjake]

How is your Stella now? Have you been able to control her seizures? Did they suggest it could be an auto-immune disorder? My Hamilton is 6 months old and seized on 1/20 for the first time was started on Keppra and had cluster seizures after that on the 27th. We had the MRI, CSF studies, bile, bloodwork and checked stool for parasites. No definitive answers and our neurologist is recommending that we either treat for autoimmune disorder or idiopathic epilepsy. The only study abnormalities were mild inflammation found in the MRI and elevated protein in CSF which can result from simply having the 10 or so cluster seizures that he had while we were in route to the vet hospital. They can also indicate an auto-immune disorder. Do you have any insight you can share?

So sorry about your pup and all his seizures. It is so difficult to determine the culprit sometimes. Is the Keppra helping prevent seizures now? Stella recently had 2 seizures, 4 hours apart, the end of January. It had been 7 years since her last seizures and she was not taking an anti-convulsant all those years. Without doing an MRI her neurologist can't be certain what is going on, but the last MRI, about a year ago (she has IVDD), she aspirated, so I wasn't comfortable with anesthesia. He placed her on phenobarbital, because Keppra decreases appetite and she is very thin already. Three days after starting the pheno, her regular vet called with results from a culture on her foot and indicated she needed to be placed on chloramphenicol to treat the infection but it has interactions with pheno. So we had to stop the pheno and placed her on Bromide. I have a camera set up in our home so if we are out I can check on her to make sure she is safe. Your Hamilton is still very young so not sure if you are crating him or using an x-pen but I would make sure he can't harm himself if he seizes when you are not home. Not sure this reply helped at all, but I just hope for the best for your little guy.