My dog has severe, frequent seizures. How many are too many?
Updated On September 23rd, 2025
Pet's info: Dog | English Springer Spaniel | Male | neutered | 10 years and 5 months old
My 9yr old English springer has suffered with seizures since Feb 2016. In October he had 6 in a 24hr period. The vet increased his phenobarbital and provided anal diazepam, as it is regular for the seizures to be 5-9 mins long. Today he has had 12 seizures in the last 20hrs. the vet Has said to continue as we are and will look to increase the phenobarbital or possibly use a seperate medication alongside. However how many seizures are too many??
2 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Published on December 3rd, 2016
12 seizures within 20 hours is a large number of seizures. Also the length of the seizures at 5 to 9 minutes is extreme. This does certainly point to a serious problem in the brain and likely to a tumor. Make sure to take your dog to the vet on Monday to adjust the dosage/add other medications. If the seizures last longer than 5 minutes , use the diazepam your vet gave you and if the seizure does not stop with the diazepam, you need to take Murray to an out of hours vet or ER right away.
5Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Related Answers from Veterinarians
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Published on December 11th, 2018
Hi and thanks for your request. To give you a precise differential diagnosis I would need to have more clinical informations (type/brief description of seizures, age of your dog and more in depth discussion) otherwise for a general discussion about possible causes please refer to this link: https://www.petcoach.co/dog/condition/seizures-1. I am happy to answer whatever question you may have on the forum (please refer to my my name on the question). Generally speaking, in seizure episodes with such a low frequency, long term treatment can be avoided and only emergency one can be considered (usually diazepam is used ). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. Please find the time to give us a feedback about the consultation as that will be used to improve our service.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
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