Older Bishon having seizures
 

I have a friend with a 12 yr old Bishon having seizures. Health has been good except for her teeth many have been extracted. They are home cooking right now simple ground beef, rice and sweet potato, avoiding commercial food for now. She has a low Albumin, and high white blood cell count. Her liver and kidney tests are good. She has diahrea and these seizures. Any information would be appreciated. Yes they have been to an emergency vet they want to give her an MRI at 1,500 bucks with possibly no conculsions. What kind of health issues can cause this? They are going to their regular vet on monday morning as well.

Sorry to hear about your friend's Bichon :( Here is a link to a post about seizures answered by one of our vets here in this forum
[URL="http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=9892"]Seizures in dogs - Answered by Dr Van Lienden[/URL]

If they did any tests at the emergency clinic I hope they sent copies to the regular vet, they usually do.

Good luck to your friend :grouphug:

Thanks dbg for the link. Great info. I should hear in a couple of days what is happening. We use the same vet and I really like her. :fingerscr

[QUOTE=Marty11;988964]I have a friend with a 12 yr old Bishon having seizures. Health has been good except for her teeth many have been extracted. They are home cooking right now simple ground beef, rice and sweet potato, avoiding commercial food for now. [B]She has a low Albumin, and high white blood cell count.[/B] Her liver and kidney tests are good. She has diahrea and these seizures. Any information would be appreciated. Yes they have been to an emergency vet they want to give her an MRI at 1,500 bucks with possibly no conculsions. What kind of health issues can cause this? They are going to their regular vet on monday morning as well.[/QUOTE]

Sounds like a potential tick disease to me.

Where are the platelets, rbcs?

I would have a tick panel run. No matter what, I would do a trial run of doxycycline at the aggressive dose of 10mg/kg twice a day (roughly 5 mg/lb twice a day).

Also be aware that sometimes seizures in older dogs are idiopathic. My friends dog is 8ish and has a seizure 3-4 times a year now, for no apparent reason.

I don't know of a single vet that has actually had a client go through with an MRI. In my opinion, in a 12 year old dog, I wouldn't put him through an MRI. I've had a few in my lifetime and as a person they are scary, can't imagine that for a dog or cat.

Thanks for your responses. I will suggest tick testing. Bishon is home for now, she's been at the vets a couple of days now. They found a non cancerous tumor on the spleen, but is not concerned. She has no known cancer and is being treated with the drug for seizures right now.

Glad to hear they found the problem with your friend's Bichon, presumably without an MRI, and are treating the seizures.:thumbs up A low albumin and high white blood count may be an infection or as a result of the splenic tumour. Also happy there is no cancer.

As Kathryn said seizures are fairly common in senior dogs without a verifiable cause. I hope your friend's Bichon recovers well Sending :goodvibes: and a :pray: for them