CEN

I am new to the group and I wanted to ask anyone if they have the same issue I'm having?
I have a 6 year old 3 legged terrier mix named Natty. Natty had his first seizure a few years ago. It was short and he didn't have multiple ones so the vet said it wasn't anything to worry about. He would have one maybe twice a year. They were scary but never more than one and never lasting over a few minutes. I even had blood work and a urinalysis done 10 minutes after one of the seizures and the vet couldn't find anything abnormal. After his first seizure he started obsessing over lights and shadows. He is a terrier so I just thought this was normal necrotic behavior.
This past Thanksgiving we had him over to my fathers house and there was a lot of stimulation and all new lights and shadows to obsess over. I was worried it was too much stimulation and sure enough it was because he had a terrible seizure. Not like his normal one where he gets, this one was different. Again he only had one and it didn't last more than a few minutes. One week later he had another seizure, this is the closest they have ever been together. Since these seizure the obsessive neurotic behavior has gotten worse. Also I can no longer leave him in his crate. Natty used to love his crate, going in willingly and even preferring to sleep in there. Now If I lock him in it he tears up his bed and I find a puddle of drool outside the crate. Also he has town through 2 baby gates which he has not done in the past.
I guess the question I'm asking has anyone ever had a dog have seizures due to neurotic obsessive behavior or has anyone's dog developed these types of behaviors after having seizures? Im struggling with knowing if the behavior is causing the seizures or is the seizures are causing the behavior. I am taking him to another vet on Tuesday to get another opinion but I wanted to reach out to see if anyone has experienced anything similar. Thanks!

I'm guessing the seizures are causing the behavior which sounds like separation anxiety. Although, if the dog stresses himself a lot one wonders if that caused the seizures...which seemed to come first?

Some dogs who seize go thru life only seizing infrequently, others start out clustering and have to stay on meds and be monitored their entire lives, it's one of those 'wait and see' situations for most of us. Are you writing down the episodes in a journal to keep track of time, length of seizure and anything that may have brought it on? If not, you will want to do that to see if you can see a pattern.

My boy's name is Nathan and I call him Natty all the time. I got a chuckle when I read your post because I didn't think there were any other Nattys out there!!

Hi, I thought of separation anxiety too, which can come even though the dog normally don't mind being left alone - but maybe he had a seizure while being alone, and this triggered the anxiety.

Is it possible to train home alone with him again?

This hunting for light and shadows are a bad thing for him. It can actually be a kind of epileptic behavior. Any way you can stop him when he does it? Maybe with a chewing stick or alike?
You need to act calm and friendly as he can't help this neurotic behavior, but he needs to be helped out of it. I am sure there are a lot of reading on google about this subject, or else you can contact a personal trainer who only uses positive methods.

Cali would have seizures during stressful periods. Over 1/2 her seizures where while I was away traveling for business and she was with my brother's dog. I thought of it as the stress was lowering her seizure threshold thus triggering the seizures.