Toxins that cause seizures

[KK]

My 6 year old GWP just had his first two seizures over a twenty four hour period. Metabolic and urinalysis were negative. He has gone twenty four hours without a seizure. Hoping this was a toxin effect, what are the most common toxins that cause seizures in dogs?
Graham Kelly

[avwilcox]

We have not had our dog long, actually only 5 days now. We got him from the pound, he is about a year old. Very normal, no signs of any problems. Then, yesterday he had a seizure in the morning, and another one that evening. Nothing had happened before those that we were aware of, and none today. Obviously, having just adopting him, we are unsure of his medical history, but is this common? To have 2 seizures in a day, and then continue as normal? We of course took him to the vet today, got bloodwork tested, etc. and everything turned out fine, suggesting epilepsy I suppose. Is this correct, or could this have just been a reaction to something? Is there no way of really knowing unless he has another one? These seizures were each around a minute, but full seizures with "paddling," urination, and frothing at mouth. Quite scary, as this is the first time I have seen/had a dog that does this.

[Ned Patterson DVM]

Epilepsy by definition is repeated seizures over time. If you dog has another episode then it is epielpsy by definition.

Primary epilepsy has no detectable cause and we beleive it to be inherited in most cases.
About 70-80% of dogs whose first seizure is between 1-5 years of age have primary epilepsy.

Symptomatic epilepsy can be caused by detectable brain pathology or metabolic abnormalites or toxins. If the seizures reoccur it is likely that your dog has primary epilepsy since the blood work was normal. There is a small chance percentage wise that a dog in this age group has an identifiable abnormality in the brain causing seizures, but it is still possible.

[Gentle Jacob's mom]

To anyone here just starting to face this horrible disease, I'm asking you to please ignore what David is saying about anti seizure meds. It may very well be his experience that the drugs did not help his dog and unfortunately there are dogs that do not find the right combination and we loose them to this stupid disease.
However, more often than not, we find through a lot of trial and error, the drugs our dogs need. I'm certainly not an authority, but there are many here, including us, that have dogs that have survived for years and have a happy life.
David, I'm not sure why you're coming here and putting down what is sometimes the only encouragement that a new member has, and I can't speak for everyone, but I'd appreciate it if you'd stop it. I think the members here that have been here for awhile are proof that the meds do work. Sometimes not as well as we'd hoped, but well enough.

Lynne

[MK's mom]

I have asked the same of David. Although I agree that pesticides are not good for animals nor humans, dogs with primary epilepsy need medication if they're seizing more than a couple of times per year. I, too, hope that a new person coming to this site doesn't see David's posts as encouragement to dump meds because every new person that comes here (including myself at the onset) wants their dogs off of meds and is looking for the slightest encouragement to do so.