epiliepsy in dogs - head shaking - Answered by Dr. Van Lienden

[Dog Dancer]

Raingirl posted a thread about this some time ago and I had answered that my 5 year old labX Halo shakes her head like Odin does. It's sort of a gentle side to side shaking (like they're saying no no no). We'd both had the dogs to the vet (possible epilepsy) but the seizures (for lack of a better word) were very rare. Halo has had several of these seizures in the past week, they are very short in duration (30-40 seconds) with no other apparent afflictions. She can walk, and comes to see me. Normally she's sleeping or laying down whent hey occur, but the last one she was just standing in the kitchen visiting. I will be taking her back to the vet on the weekend, but I'm not sure what to expect. Chances something would happen while there are slim to none. Could this in any way be related to her multiple food allergies would you think?? It concerns me that she may be having these episodes during the night when I'm not aware of it and therefore don't actually know how often they happen.

So if it is epilepsy how would they test for that? Is it blood work or do they have to do Xrays to look for leisions or something? Just curious what I'm in for? Tks.