Madison and her Seizures

Madison

In my last blog I described seizures in a pet. My own dog Madison had frequent seizures but she was not an epileptic. How is this possible?

I got Madison when she was about 5 years old. She was found running along Eglinton Avenue the day after a severe thunderstorm. Someone kindly scooped her up and brought her to our clinic. We kept Madison for 2 months in hopes her owner was looking for her but no one ever came. We also posted notices on the Toronto Humane Society and Animal Control websites but were never able to find her owner. After 2 months she became a permanent resident in my house and never left. I had to ask my 2 cats’ permission to let her in, but once they agreed they all got along like the 3 stooges they were.

About 1 year after Madison arrived, I had her out for a walk with Dr. Portch’s dog Lizzie at the back of the Richview Animal Hospital when she suddenly fell over and started paddling. The event lasted for around one and a half minutes. Dr. Portch noted right away on physical exam that her heart was beating abnormally, so an ECG was done.  The cardiologist said her rate and rhythm were normal post seizure. She did not have another event for almost 1 year.  The following year she had 2 events in the summer. No treatment was started because the seizures were still not that frequent.  The next year however; she started to have seizures very regularly. Almost every 6 -10 weeks she had an event. We started her on a very common epilepsy medication called Phenobarbital. She was on this drug for 2 months but it did not help to control the events and also seemed to turn her into a “space cadet.” She was so out of it she couldn’t remember to urinate when I put her on the grass.   I had inquired about using Potassium Bromide but it takes a long time to build up therapeutic levels in the brain and then takes just as long to eliminate from your system so although this is a great choice for some pets, it was not the best choice for Madison. We decided to try Keppra instead. Almost immediately after starting Keppra, Madison started having multiple daily seizures.  Dr. Portch immediately made a call to a neurologist and they suggested that if Keppra made the seizures worse then it is likely that Madison did not have epilepsy. They recommended we look at her heart, rather than her brain. This is how I ended up taking Madison to see a cardiologist. Madison wore a halter monitor to track her heart rate and rhythm for 2 days and we found that when she had an event her heart would actually stop beating for 9 seconds at a time. This is called a “malignant pause” and caused her to faint which looked just like a seizure. My poor little girl needed a pace maker! I was stunned. It turned out that Madison had a rare heart condition we rarely see.  The ones we usually only read about in a veterinary journal.

In Madison’s case, we never found a drug that was helpful and a pace maker was financially unfeasible for this technician.  She lived with her illness for 6 years and passed away at 11 years of age last December. In her last few months of life she bravely battled Cushing's disease, pancreatitis, and finally succumbed to congestive heart failure. She was an awesome, smart little "Schnitzel" who taught us a lot about the power of love, the limitations of medicine and how brave a little Shih Tzu can be when faced with multiple system organ failure.

So if you suspect your pet might be having seizures.  Call your vet right away, so they can begin helping you find out the cause and the appropriate treatment for your little one.

Brigitte