Watching your dog having a seizure is an incredibly distressing event to witness. But what can you do to help stop their seizures if they're not having a fit caused by epilepsy? Sometimes treatment is tough and the prognosis poor.

Recognizing these situations is so important if you want to be sure that you are making the decisions that are in your dog’s best interest.Seizure causes are numerous. They fall into the five main categories of: Toxins, infection, organ dz, brain lesions, and epilepsy.

• Controlling seizures involves making a diagnosis and then being able to treat, manage, or cure it effectively. When there is a disease causing the seizures, other than epilepsy, then anti-seizure medication alone will often fail to control the seizures adequately - especially in the long term.
• Anti-seizure medication can though form part of symptomatic treatment plan while investigating and starting treatment targeted at the specific underlying cause.
• The kidneys help to regulate hydration, body salt levels and filter out numerous toxins from the blood
• In advanced kidney failure, seizures can result from the build up of toxins within the blood. This is typically only seen right at the end of long term failure, or if there has been a sudden failure - acute kidney injury - e.g. antifreeze toxicity. Seizures are a sign of severe and advanced kidney damage and unfortunately the prognosis is likely going to be really poor.
• Whenever our pet has a really serious disease, we need to be realistic about the likelihood of recovery and whether ongoing treatment is resulting in an improvement, whether the condition itself is curable, as well as the condition of your pet (e.g. are they comfortable or in pain)
• Vital that you work in conjunction with your veterinarian. It is important that you know what to expect, the likely outcome based on the treatment and investigation decisions made, as well as the potential costs involved.
• Decisions need to be re-evaluated on a weekly, daily or even hourly basis. We always need to be thinking what the best decision is for out pet, not for us

Head here for the full show notes about kidney disease and seizures

Love the show? Sharing this episode or leaving a review helps others know it's worth a listen! - https://ourpetshealth.com/review