Blog # 151: Pets with Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders

 

My dog, Bagel, over 60 years ago when I was a high school student, would occasionally lay on his belly on out linoleum-floored kitchen, reach his right front leg out, the right corner of his mouth would pull back with foam, his eyes remained open for seconds and then his right front leg would beat the floor as I remember it. After a short moment, this posture ceased, and he appeared listless for some moments and then returned to his usual state. I recognized this as some sort of seizure as a teenager, but my mother and I did not seek veterinary attention. Was this an influence in my becoming a neurologist? I don’t know. On his third violent confrontation with a car, I got a call from a stranger blocks away that my dog was hit by a car. My contact information was tagged on his collar. After nine years he was dead. My aunt loaned me her car. I took him to the Pound in Buffalo. I placed him in their freezer.

 This was my first experience with focal motor seizures, epilepsy, secondary to head trauma.

 Dr. Carrera-Justiz, a veterinary neurologist, reviewed epilepsy and other neurologic disorders. The veterinarian reviewed neurological afflictions in pets.¹ As a veterinary neurologist she accepts referrals from general veterinarians. Evaluations of cats and dogs with seizures could result in a diagnosis of epilepsy, encephalitis, tumors, just as humans. The veterinarian reports epilepsy is more common in dogs than in cats.

 Other neurological conditions include stroke. This could manifest with sudden dizziness demonstrated by unsteadiness, paralysis, incontinence. Multiple sclerosis, Dr. Carrera-Justiz describes, can occur based on MRI brain scans and the pet’s spinal fluid, just as is found in humans. Dementia, too, develops in our pets, usually in their mature years over 12. As in humans, the pet may become incontinent, they may no longer recognize their owners and they may stop their usual behaviors.

 Cats develop brain meningiomas more than do dogs. These are benign growths. Surgery can remove this benign mass if it is causing seizures or other mass effects.

 Veterinarian Dr. Carrera-Justiz suggests querying your veterinarian and how much testing of your pet will cost, what information testing will show, and whether euthanasia may be appropriate.

1.  S. Carrera-Justiz. Clinical Professor of Neurology, Univ. of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. Brain and Life: Feb/March 2023 p15

 

Lance Fogan, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His hard-hitting emotional family medical drama, “DINGS, is told from a mother’s point of view. “DINGS” is his first novel. Aside from acclamation on internet bookstore sites, U.S. Report of Books, and the Hollywood Book Review, DINGS has been advertised in recent New York Times Book Reviews, the Los Angeles Times Calendar section and Publishers Weekly. DINGS teaches epilepsy and is now available in eBook, audiobook, soft and hard cover editions.