Seizures in dogs caused by hot weather any experience? (5 Viewers)

[32143]

I originally posted this in the pets group but as there hasn't been much activity since 2016 have copied to general population pets.

We are gutted after 21 months on her current medication and Boston being seizure free she had a seizure early hours of Monday morning. She came out of it fairly quickly and apart from demanding food for an hour or so calmed down fairly quickly. She hasn't had anymore since.
We are hopeful it may have just been caused by the extremely hot weather we had over that weekend and maybe she just got too hot over a few days building up to a seizure and not her epilepsy seizures returning.

Has anyone experienced seizures in their dogs caused by hot weather?

They were all kept out of the sunshine as much as possible and know when to seek shade, had plenty of water and only walked early mornings and in evenings, but we were away from home so they didn't get chance to go for their daily swims which cool then down considerable. Boston didn't seem to be particularly effected by the hot weather, if anything it was the old girl Biskit bothered most, dragging her paws on walks. Having only ever witnessed seizures caused by epilepsy unsure how heatstroke ones are, would it only happen at the point of heatstroke or can it be a build up over a few days? it wasn't as hot on the Monday and we had returned home Sun night, it was fairly cool by the time she went to bed, our flat is generally cool even on hottest days as we are basement level.

Thanks

Lin

 

[Janine]

How upsetting. Anything else changed? Food or meds?

 

[Camping Gaza]

Has anyone experienced seizures in their dogs caused by hot weather?

My girlfriends pekingese is as stiff as a board... never mind makes a great Frisbee for my Doberman

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[Hollyberry]

You could always ring your vet practice for advice. I've not heard of seizures caused by overheating, though if a dog is already prone to them maybe a possibility.
It was unbearably hot and my 2 were flat out in the shade , considering they're both from Cyprus and then lived in SW France for several years, they didn't seem comfortable.

Hope Boston continues to be ok, much better for them now it's cooled down a little.

 

[32143]

How upsetting. Anything else changed? Food or meds?

Hi no nothing other than it being very hot. I expect it is her epilepsy, just trying to convince ourselves it wasn't rather than face the possibility her drugs are failing again and she may go downhill again.

 

[32143]

You could always ring your vet practice for advice. I've not heard of seizures caused by overheating, though if a dog is already prone to them maybe a possibility.
It was unbearably hot and my 2 were flat out in the shade , considering they're both from Cyprus and then lived in SW France for several years, they didn't seem comfortable.

Hope Boston continues to be ok, much better for them now it's cooled down a little.

Hi,

The vets are saying could be the hot weather, which I wasn't convinced about as assumed in the case of heatstroke it would be instant, like in a human, rather than next day. I've never seen a dog heatstroke case so wondered what happens.
Just have to hope it was a one off and her previous pattern doesn't start back up.

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[John.]

Hi,

The vets are saying could be the hot weather, which I wasn't convinced about as assumed in the case of heatstroke it would be instant, like in a human, rather than next day. I've never seen a dog heatstroke case so wondered what happens.
Just have to hope it was a one off and her previous pattern doesn't start back up.

Hope all goes well and it is just a one off.

 

[Dartagnan]

I genuinely hope you find an answer to the issue. It's distressing seeing a loved pet having problems and all you want to do is the very best for them.
I'm not convinced when a vet says to me 'could be'. To me it always sounds like 'I don't know' but then again it must be extremely difficult for them when the patient isn't able to give a list of symptoms themselves.
Good luck.

 

[adt]

We had a rescue dog in the past with epilepsy and I can't say that we saw any difference in him in hotter weather. We did however cut his long coat very short when the hot weather came.
He looked a bugger but he had a smile on his face after the cut.

We suspect that one of our mini-poodles has epilepsy having had a couple of attacks in the last couple of years but they too didn't really relate to heat as he had them at different times of the year. His seemed to be more related to extreme excitement, with his first one coming when we went for our second only outing in our van - guess he enjoyed the first one that much !!

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[32143]

We had a rescue dog in the past with epilepsy and I can't say that we saw any difference in him in hotter weather. We did however cut his long coat very short when the hot weather came.
He looked a bugger but he had a smile on his face after the cut.

We suspect that one of our mini-poodles has epilepsy having had a couple of attacks in the last couple of years but they too didn't really relate to heat as he had them at different times of the year. His seemed to be more related to extreme excitement, with his first one coming when we went for our second only outing in our van - guess he enjoyed the first one that much !!

We have Boston clipped as well, she's a golden retriever, but looks like a Labrador, she hates me doing it as I make her look like corduroy, loves the professional groomer doing it though

 

[Stacetop]

@Milliemobile i can't offer any advice on heatstroke but my colleagues dog had been taken epilepsy medication for approx 2 yrs - he then made the connection that the fits/seizures were possibly linked to his flea medication! Just a thought in case u had recently given a spot on or flea tablet!

Hope your dog recovers well and has no more!

 

[Mikeco]

Our dog had seizures but they were due to her having a poor heart, still miss her although we lost her over two years ago.

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[Dave K]

One of my Labs has seizures, fortunately not very often now that he takes the correct quantity of Epiphen, but it was noticeable if the weather was warm and he'd exercised then it quite often would happen. We find we can almost tell when he's going to have one a few days before, he has almost mini seizures which don't affect him too much but he's noticeably not himself, sometimes he'll have one every day for 3 or 4 days and then nothing for months. We get his blood checked every 6 months or so to check his phenobarbital levels, we've been able to lower his dosage as his levels were too high, worth checking every now and then as the lower the dosage the better it is for his liver etc.

 

[Yorick]

Dogs in middle of Spain cope with 40c and above for the whole of summer. It's around 29c every day of summer here and my mutt copes OK. In fact he goes often out side to sleep on the sun loungers

We just make sure he has plenty of water

 

[wizzer59]

No problem for mine, they've been with me in Scotland for two weeks

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[DBK]

Our Charlie keeled over twice on walks in hot weather. It doesn't happen now as we are aware of the risk and avoid getting him into that position.
The symptoms were very sudden, he literally fell over and was unconscious for a few seconds and was fully recovered in about 30 seconds. There were no obvious signs of distress before he fainted. This happened on the walk not afterwards.
We've just bought him a cooling coat but can't try it as the hot weather has gone.

 

[32143]

@Milliemobile i can't offer any advice on heatstroke but my colleagues dog had been taken epilepsy medication for approx 2 yrs - he then made the connection that the fits/seizures were possibly linked to his flea medication! Just a thought in case u had recently given a spot on or flea tablet!

Hope your dog recovers well and has no more!

Hi,

Thanks for the thought
They all take Bravecto a tablet treatment. We monitored Boston on it and she's been fine and she's been on it for a few years including when she had regular seizures. Her medication was changed 21 months ago after a very bad set of seizures which she wouldn't come out of and ended up in a drug induced coma, we carried on with Bravecto during this time so can eliminate it.
I did have concerns about the liquid stuff we used to use which was every month in case it was a problem, but didn't notice a pattern.

Her epilepsy is caused by congenital brain damage from birth, but always a chance other isolated stuff could trigger it.

Lin

 

[32143]

One of my Labs has seizures, fortunately not very often now that he takes the correct quantity of Epiphen, but it was noticeable if the weather was warm and he'd exercised then it quite often would happen. We find we can almost tell when he's going to have one a few days before, he has almost mini seizures which don't affect him too much but he's noticeably not himself, sometimes he'll have one every day for 3 or 4 days and then nothing for months. We get his blood checked every 6 months or so to check his phenobarbital levels, we've been able to lower his dosage as his levels were too high, worth checking every now and then as the lower the dosage the better it is for his liver etc.

Hi

Yes we used to be able to spot Boston's seizures in advance when she had them regularly, nothing we did stopped them coming but we were at least prepared. We used to dose her with Diazepam afterwards, a small dose for 24 hours and found this prevented further cluster seizures, without it she would have between 3-7 in a cluster, we tried reducing the diazepam to 12 hours after but then she would seize again, the magic 24 hours worked and she would go 6 weeks between. unfortunately she then went down hill and was having them every week. this was whilst on Epiphen.
After her stay at SCVS in Hampshire they started new meds which are actually human ones Levetracetam and we got 21 months clear, which was brilliant.

Hopefully it's just a glitch and she will continue to be ok on it.

I can highly recommend SCVS Southern Counties Veterinary Hospital, at West Moors, they have a specialist neurology department and saved her life.
Fortunately our insurance paid for her, we would have paid the £1,400 anyway for her treatment and diagnosis.

Lin

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[32143]

Our Charlie keeled over twice on walks in hot weather. It doesn't happen now as we are aware of the risk and avoid getting him into that position.
The symptoms were very sudden, he literally fell over and was unconscious for a few seconds and was fully recovered in about 30 seconds. There were no obvious signs of distress before he fainted. This happened on the walk not afterwards.
We've just bought him a cooling coat but can't try it as the hot weather has gone.

Yes I would tend to think anything heat related would be instant, so reluctant to go with the vets idea she was just too hot as it was over 24 hours later.
Hopefully we will get a bit more sunshine and Charlie can test his new coat and enjoy his walks.

 

[32143]

No problem for mine, they've been with me in Scotland for two weeks

We want to do Scotland, our earlier trip in April was cut short, due to family illness and daren't go back now as Boston attracts bitey things and ends up covered in bites, me too if I'm not careful

 

[wizzer59]

We want to do Scotland, our earlier trip in April was cut short, due to family illness and daren't go back now as Boston attracts bitey things and ends up covered in bites, me too if I'm not careful

Bitey things? In Scotland?? Surely your migstaken

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[GreenHell]

We had a Border Collie that we thought had a heat-induced seizure one evening at the beach last year.

We called the vets and took her up. Vet said 'no need to worry after one seizure. A lot of dogs will have a seizure, never to have one again'.

To cut a long story short, she passed away 3 weeks later with a brain tumour aged just 5

 

[32143]

We had a Border Collie that we thought had a heat-induced seizure one evening at the beach last year.

We called the vets and took her up. Vet said 'no need to worry after one seizure. A lot of dogs will have a seizure, never to have one again'.

To cut a long story short, she passed away 3 weeks later with a brain tumour aged just 5

So sorry to hear that, just awful

Our original vet told us not to worry about Boston after her first seizure three years back. I wasn't happy about the way they dismissed us, she went on to have a lot more getting worse, we booked her in for an appointment with a specialist neurologist in Hampshire and fate stepped in, a week before her appointment whist we were in the south visiting family ready to head towards Hampshire she had seizures, the worst she had ever had, she had over 14 and we thought that was it, drove her to the Portsmouth to our old vet, who immediately contacted the hospital and arranged for her to go over, We drove her straight over with her seizures coming every few minutes and they admitted her put her into a drug induced coma, saving her life. They put her on new meds and until last week she had been seizure free. She has been ok since that one and hopefully she will continue to be fine.

Lin

 

[GreenHell]

So sorry to hear that, just awful

Our original vet told us not to worry about Boston after her first seizure three years back. I wasn't happy about the way they dismissed us, she went on to have a lot more getting worse, we booked her in for an appointment with a specialist neurologist in Hampshire and fate stepped in, a week before her appointment whist we were in the south visiting family ready to head towards Hampshire she had seizures, the worst she had ever had, she had over 14 and we thought that was it, drove her to the Portsmouth to our old vet, who immediately contacted the hospital and arranged for her to go over, We drove her straight over with her seizures coming every few minutes and they admitted her put her into a drug induced coma, saving her life. They put her on new meds and until last week she had been seizure free. She has been ok since that one and hopefully she will continue to be fine.

Lin

Inca had another seizure which happened about an hour after we got home from the first visit. It wouldn't stop. I had to race back to the Vets. They saved her life by putting her in a drug induced coma too.

The best we could hope for was an eventual diagnosis of epilepsy. About a week later, we paid for a precautionary MRI scan.

Unfortunately this showed up a large tumor. She seemed ok though so we got her referred to a neurologist on the Wirral. The hospital were fantastic.

Sadly, she wasn't able to make her intended course of radiotherapy.

Poor thing.

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[Sarah1973]

How upsetting. Anything else changed? Food or meds?

My dog had a seizure in the hot weather and vets have now put him on medication and now he's all dozy ans can hardly walk I'm so heart broken

 

[almichie]

Our dog is on epiphen, and despite this she has a seizure every 8-10 weeks on average. Some small some large. It’s reassuring reading other dog parents that also live with this too.

We get very little notice of a fit, normally she just runs towards you for support. The vet said we will know and there will be signs. They also said she would be drowsy for days - she comes out of them and is running around within minutes.

They’re all so different