My dog suddenly started having seizures. What could be the cause?

Question

I have a 3 year old male german shepherd who recently started having seizures. What would have caused him to start having these? Pet's info: Dog | German Shepherd | Male | neutered | 80 lbs

Megan, DVM, CVA · Accepted Answer

Poor O'Malley! I know these are scary to watch but rest assure that the seizure itself will not harm him as long as they are really long and he isn't having them back to back to back. At his age, this is most likely just genetic epilepsy but I would have your vet do a thorough exam on him and run some baseline blood work with electrolytes to ensure nothing metabolically is causing the seizures. I would also ensure that he isn't taking any medications that could lower his seizure threshold. There are some flea and tick products that can cause this as well like trifexis, comfortis and less commonly nexgard. If your vet doesn't think there is anything metabolically wrong, then I would start a seizure log on your fridge of his seizures. This will include the date, time, and length of the actual convulsing part of his seizure. If you can pinpoint any stressful event that happened before the seizure like a thunderstorm or fireworks then great. The key is to look for a pattern. Most people cannot pinpoint the triggers but if he is having a seizure once a month and they are only 30-60 seconds long then chances are he doesn't need anti-seizure meds yet. If you start noticing that they start to become longer, more intense or more frequent then I would contact your vet and let them know. At some point he may need to be put on an anti-seizure medication but I personally try to wait until the seizures are more frequent as the anti-seizure medications can have long term side effects to the liver. I hope this helps!

My dog suddenly started having seizures. What could be the cause?

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