How do I prevent my beagle from having so many seizures? I've gotten him to the vet, but nothing helps.?

Answer 1

Did the vet put him on meds of any kind? Phenobarbital and/or bromide are usually prescribed. If this doesn't help you may want to go to a neurologist who would be a specialist in these types of things.

Answer 2

I have a good friend who had a beagle with seizures, It started a little before the dog was one and got worse until he died at he age of 1 1/2 from a bad seizure in the middle of the night. He was even on medication . Seizures that are recuring more than 2 a month may be caused be epilepsy and it can sometimes be controled by medicine but like in my friends case it is not always 100 % effective. epilepsy is a inherited disorder and Beagles are one of the breeds that is often affected. Epilepsy will get worse over time . Find a vet that has dealt with it before. He will ask you to keep a log of the times and duration and strengths and his behavior before and after the seizures so he can diagnose it correctly.
And do not disturb your dog when he is having a seziure it could further trigger more seizures , just watch and note all of the above info. IF it last for more than 5 minutes take him to the ER he will need it stopped with intravenous Valium before it causes brain damage or death.

I am soo sorry you have to go through this ,I wish you the best.

Answer 3

Most vets do not like to medicate dogs with epilepsy unless they have a pretty severe case. This is because the side effects of the medications is not worth it. My vet recommended that I switch to a fish based food. I honestly can not remember why, but I did it. He also gave me supplements for my dog. Again, off hand I can't recall the name. My dog has been seizure free since then . . . about a month now. Be sure to record the seizures. Write down:
how often they happen
what they were doing / eating right before
how long they last
describe what they look like
how long it took him/her to recover from it

Provide this information to your vet and hopefully together you two can figure out what, if any, triggers are.

Also, during seizure, be sure to reduce as much stimulation as possible . . .
turn down lights
turn off any noise . . tv, radio, talking . .etc
only touch if you need to move them to a safer place . . dogs can not swallow their tongue so u don't have to worry about that
you may talk to them in a soft calm voice to try to relax them

Epilepsy does not in any way shorten your dogs life . . . at least that is what my vet said. I hope I was able to be of some help. Good luck.

Answer 4

I am so sorry to hear about your Beagle. My sister had a Beagle for 12 years who had seizures. We never did figure out why except that Beagles are prone to epilepsy and seizures. For Abby her seizures started about the time my sister and her husband moved into their new house. The house had PVC not copper piping....PVC has been known to let off small amounts of chemicals that in sensitive individuals can cause seizures. As well as the chlorine used in city water can in sensitive individuals cause seizures.....in Abby's case the vet couldn't do much for her either so we took her off water from the faucet and she drank bottled water. (sounds silly, but it worked. Where she lived with us we had well water, and copper piping in the house.) It could have all been coincidence, but her seizures stopped until she got very old and started having other problems as well. Hope this helps, Nothing is more difficult than watching your dog have seizures. My dog (not a beagle) had them too as a puppy. Best of luck.

Answer 5

There are already some great answers here. . . please don't go giving your dog experimental remedies, such as suggested by 'bladedogs', without absolute approval from your bet - - these things can harm the dog in the long run! Even such 'natural' remedies can be dangerous, and need to be dosed and evaluated according to the individual dog in question. For well-meaning people to assume they have the medical knowledge, without education in it, to make these assessments for their pets, is just really dangerous for the dogs.

As people say, you need to know these things:

1) there are drugs that can help - your vet needs to be asked;
2) it's important to get the seizures under control if at all possible, because continuous seizures over a period of time result in permanent brain damage.

I want to mention something for everyone's info: some breeds are prone to seizures because there has been too much irresponsible breeding in that breed. (This is what happens when people who don't know what they are doing decide it's a good idea to breed their dogs! - a few generations down the line, someone else pays for it, with a pup with genetic problems...) Some examples are beagles, irish setters, springer spaniels, and many more. This is why you see people here say their beagle has seizures but "no one could figure out why". That's because the 'why' is buried in the dogs bad genetic heritage.

This doesn't mean these are bad breeds to get!! But it does mean that you get what you pay for. Experienced, educated, responsible breeders know how to eliminate traits in their dogs' lines which lead to genetic defects and medical problems, such as bad hips, epilepsy (seizures), some kinds of cancer, aggression problems, etc.

So . . people, Beagles are wonderful little dogs, great family dogs. But get one from a good source (experienced breeder) if you want to avoid problems.

OR, if you are particularly generous, get one at a shelter, who may have problems, but needs a home and medical care to live a good life.

Buying dogs from "backyard breeders" and "puppy mills" just encourages ignorant, irresponsible people to make money off the misery of their flawed dogs.

Best of luck with your little guy! Get him to a vet, and get it under control if it isn't too late.

Answer 6

Wow, we had a stray beagle for a few months that had seizures all the time. The vet never could figure out why. And then they just stopped with no explanation. We never did figure it out.
Good luck.

Answer 7

Read up on seizures. How people deal with seizures will be a good clue on how to deal with your pup who has them.
We have seizures and had one dog that had them. I quit all training with her (to much stress for her and she would have a seizure). Her exercise was limited. The medication for seizures is not I feel for dogs. Vets do not have the capabilities to give a dog a EEG, and the other medical needs a dog must have to take those dangerous epileptic medications...
Keep stress down to a minimum. You notice your dog seizure triggers, these have to be limited.
Having a disabled dog is not fun, and many people put there disabled dog down instead of just living with it and changing the way they do things. Our dog lived for several good years when finally she died of a seizure (I go her fixed and she lived for 2 days afterwards)....I new better but she needed to be fixed. I did not realize it would kill her....
If you know what breeder you got your pup from more then likely (like the breeder I bought our pup from) they know they are breeding pups with seizures, but money is more important to these kinds of breeders, these breeders are to be avoided at every cost!!
I am so sorry to hear your pup has seizures!

BTW my son who has epilepsy found this dog past on. He was in therapy for some time. He thought his seizures were going to kill him too....very sad!

Answer 8

I think you need another vet. Also, you may want to look into feeding your dog raw food - people whose dogs suffer from seizures say that it helps.
Sorry to hear about your dog. Must be scary when the seizures happen.

Answer 9

your beagle has seizures? ohh..does that mean it will happen to mine? BEcause he is 1 year, 6 mo., and i want to be prepared...

Answer 10

http://www.canine-epilepsy.com
Check this site out. Also check out this product here.
"...have seizure dogs, as long as their dogs are taking NuVet, their dogs do not seizure. One of them ran out of NuVet, within three days her dog began seizing again."
http://diademchihuahuas.50megs.com/photo2.html
This is on the bottom right of the page. I know the person who's site this is and she uses the product all the time. She says it works miracles so it may be worth a check out. With what she says, I'll be feeding it to my dogs when I get them.