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My healthy Maltese had a seizure. Will it reoccur or what caused it?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Maltese | Male | neutered | 5 years and 8 months old | 7.5 lbs

I think My 5y9mth old male Maltese had a seizure. It lasted appx 1min. It started randomly while I was giving him a belly rub. He started flipping from his back to front, wouldn't respond to his name. Eventually it calmed down to turning side to side. Once it stopped he was immediately back to himself as if it had never happened. I took him to an emerg vet where they did CBC and BMP. Can Maltese have a one time seizure or could it reoccur? What could have caused this in an otherwise healthy dog?

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Andrea M. Brodie, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on July 29th, 2018

Sometimes a dog can have a seizzure once and then never again. Your dog is relatively young and it is possible that this is just a one-time episode. Seizures Young dogs sometimes suffer from what we call idiopathic seizures (cause unknown) and older dogs that have never had a seizure before, can suffer from a brain tumor causing seizures. You should keep a diary of the seizures, provided they reoccur: situation that triggers it, time start, time ends, what the seizure looks like. If the seizure lasts more than 4-5 minutes your dog needs to see a vet right away, as this can cause hyperthermia and damage the brain. If you can you should take a little video of one such seizure to take with you to the vet and show him. Unless your dog starts havving seizures regularly it is probably not necessary for him to take antiseizure medication.

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