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Can a dog develop seizures after brief exposure to a hot car?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

On a warm summer day 6 yrs ago (20 degrees celcius), I took my dog in the car and due to unexpected events I ended up parking in the sun. I left for the bank, about a 2 minute walk from the car. I was gone max 10 minutes! I remember that the dog seemed fine, I realized what I'd done and let her get some air, and full A/C on the ride home. I never noticed anything with her. About 2 months later she got epileptic seizures. But she had been stressed for 2 years prior. Border Collie. Did I hurt her?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Andrea M. Brodie, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on May 14th, 2018

It is unlikely that the episode in the car caused epilepsy. If your dog is fairly young then this could be idiopathic epilepsy, and those seizures could be a one-time event. If she is an old dog then seizures can be caused by a brain tumor. This will need to be examined by a veterinarian. If the seizures happen often , then medication such as KBr and phenobarbital can be given to suppress seizures. Keep a diary of when she has a seizure, write down the time of start and end, and the circumstances as well as the date. If the seizure lasts longer than 4-5 minutes, it is an emergency and she needs to be seen by a vet right away.

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    Answered By Tomasz Wnuk

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    I don't think the epileptic seizures is anything to do with the heat stress or stressful time. Heat stress (but I am not even sure if your did have real heat stress at all) is unlikely to cause permanent brain issue resulting in seizures. Most of the epilepsy cases do not have any obvious ethiology and is called 'idiopathic' (which means that we don't know why it happens).

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