Seizures are an involuntary contraction of a series of voluntary muscles. This essentially means that the animal, or person looses control of their muscles and experiences anything from small twitches to thrashing and paddling. Seizures result from neurons in the brain signalling abnormally and rapidly. A neuron is a nerve cell that sends and receives electrical signals in the body. So every time a dog or cat moves its leg, or wags its tail, it is doing so because of neurons.
Seizures are most commonly seen in dogs and have a variety of causes including: central nervous system abnormalities, toxins, trauma, tumors, certain diseases, and fever. They can be metabolic and caused by low blood glucose or calcium. They can also be genetic, and certain breeds are predisposed to having seizures.
Seizures can occur by themselves as an isolated incident, or in groups. An animal may seizure once in its entire life, and be perfectly normal, or they may develop a condition and have seizures on a regular basis. Most of the time the cause of the seizure remains unknown. Cluster seizures are more than one seizure in 24 hours. Status epilepticus is 3 or more seizures occurring with no recovery time in between, or the animal continuously seizures for more than 30 minutes.
There are two types of seizures:
- Focal Seizures: Affect one part of the body, caused by a lesion or focus that periodically disrupts that one part.
- Generalized Seizure: The type most commonly seen in animals, they affect the entire body.
Seizures occur in three stages
- Aura: This is before the seizure when the animal may exhibit subtle behavior changes or seems abnormally anxious
- Ictus: The seizure itself
- Post Ictus: The recovery period after the seizure. Often the animal seems restless, confused, lethargic, and unsteady on their feet. The animal may also be temporarily blind.
Signs of seizures include: A loss of consciousness, salivating, behavior changes, an alteration of movement, elimination staring into space, sudden unexplained aggression or diffuse tremors. Grand-mal seizures involve the classic thrashing or paddling most people associate with a seizure.
What to do if an animal seizures
Stay away from the pet's mouth, since seizuring animals may bite without being aware that they are doing so. Clear the area of hard or sharp objects, and keep the pet away from any stairs. It is important to take a detailed history: note the type of seizure, how long they last, frequency, time between seizures, behavior before and after the seizure, and any other unusual symptoms such as vomiting/diarrhea, or lethargy. Contact the pet's veterinarian with this information.
Prolonged seizures can result in hyperthermia and brain damage, so it is important to rapidly control seizures. Prolonged seizure activity may also increase the time and amount of medications needed to control the seizures and prolong the pet's recovery time.
Many animals must be placed on medication to help control future seizures, but this is not a cure. The goal of therapy is to reduce the number of seizures the pet has, and the severity. Medication levels take time to build up to the appropriate levels in the blood stream, so the pet may still have frequent seizures even after being on regular medication. Medication levels in the blood stream must also be closely monitored, which requires regular testing.
