Dog Seizures: What to Do During a Fit and Common Causes

A seizure looks more frightening than almost anything else an owner can witness. That is exactly why the order of actions is worth knowing in advance: during the first minutes what matters is not knowledge of causes but a handful of simple things you either do or do not do. The common causes come later — first, what is needed right now.

What to Do Right Now During a Dog Seizure

• Note the time. Look at a clock in the first second. Duration is the single parameter that decides whether you drive in or watch. A fit always feels longer than it is.
• Clear the danger away. Move sharp-cornered furniture, glass and hot objects. If the dog is on a sofa, a bed or the stairs, ease it down or guard it from falling by supporting the body, never the head.
• Dim the light and the sound. Switch off the television and bright lamps, take children and other animals out of the room, speak quietly.
• Record a video. This is not a distraction but the most useful thing you will manage to do. Film the whole episode, with sound, with the face and legs visible.
• Put something soft under the head without holding or turning it.
• Wait it out and stay nearby. After a fit the dog is disoriented, may not recognise you, bumps into things, and can be noisy or snappy — that is a normal phase lasting from minutes to hours.

What Not to Do During a Fit

• Do not reach into the mouth. The swallowed-tongue myth came from last century's human first aid and is wrong even for people. During a seizure a dog's jaws clamp reflexively and very hard: a hand or a spoon in there means broken fingers for you and broken teeth for the animal.
• Do not hold the dog down or straighten its legs. Restraint does not stop a fit, it produces dislocations and fractures, and an unconscious dog can bite.
• Do not pour water over the head. It does not interrupt the seizure and the risk of water in the airway is real.
• Do not put anything in the mouth — no water, no food, no medication. Swallowing does not work during a fit or straight after it.
• Do not shout or shake the dog. Loud noise and touch prolong the episode.
• Do not drive while the fit is running unless life is at stake: transport during seizures is more dangerous than two minutes of waiting beside the animal.

When Seizures Are Life-Threatening

This is the section people open at night. Go to a clinic immediately if:

• a fit lasts longer than five minutes — that is status epilepticus, an immediate threat to life;
• fits come in a run and the dog does not regain full consciousness between them;
• two or more fits within a day, even short ones;
• the seizures started after poisoning, a bite or a head injury, or after known contact with a toxin;
• seizures in a puppy, a pregnant bitch, or an animal with diabetes or liver disease;
• this is the first fit of the dog's life — even if it ended and the dog now looks fine;
• consciousness does not return, or there is limb weakness, blindness, vomiting or laboured breathing afterwards;
• the body temperature is high afterwards: a prolonged fit overheats the body by itself.

Separately: seizures in hot weather mean heatstroke, where the clock runs in minutes. How dangerous breathlessness in heat looks is covered in dog breathing heavily.

A Video of the Fit: the Best Material an Owner Can Give

A vet almost never sees the episode — the dog arrives afterwards. So thirty seconds of phone footage is worth more than a careful description. On video a vet distinguishes things an owner cannot:

• a true seizure with loss of consciousness and rhythmic movements;
• a faint — collapse from a heart rhythm problem, with no rhythmic jerking and a fast recovery; how that is pinned down is in dog heart ultrasound and ECG;
• tremor and shivering — consciousness intact, the dog responds to your voice; the separate causes are in dog shivering;
• a vestibular episode — head tilt, unsteadiness, eye movement, but no loss of consciousness;
• pain and agitation with tense muscles — there the leading sign is different, and it is covered in dog whining.

Record what happened before and after as well: the warning signs (restlessness, seeking you out, drooling) and how long recovery took. Keep a simple diary — date, time, duration, what preceded it.

What a Real Seizure Looks Like

A classic generalised fit runs in stages: falling on the side, loss of consciousness, stiff extended legs, then rhythmic jerking, often drooling and involuntary urination or defecation. It usually lasts one to two minutes.

There are also focal fits that owners do not count as seizures at all: twitching of one side of the face, "fly catching" in the air, freezing with a fixed stare, rhythmic jerking of a single leg while the dog stays aware. Those are worth filming too.

A common confusion is leg twitching in sleep. A sleeping dog paddles its legs, whimpers and breathes faster; it wakes easily to your voice and is instantly normal afterwards. A seizure cannot be interrupted by calling the dog's name.

Epilepsy in Dogs: the Commonest Cause in Young Animals

If the first fit happened somewhere between six months and six years of age and the dog is entirely well between episodes, the most likely diagnosis is idiopathic epilepsy. It is a diagnosis of exclusion: it is made when a workup finds nothing else.

What matters for an owner:

• breed predisposition is real — beagles, labradors, golden retrievers, shepherds, dachshunds and several other lines are affected more often;
• fits tend to recur with some rhythm, often at rest or during sleep;
• the neurological exam between fits is normal — that is what separates epilepsy from a tumour;
• the decision about long-term therapy belongs to the vet, based on how often and how severe the fits are; drugs, doses and schedules are entirely their territory.

Poisoning and Metabolism: Sugar, Liver, Calcium

The second large block of common causes is when the brain itself is healthy but its fuel or the chemistry of the blood is not.

• Poisoning. Insecticides, rodent bait, antifreeze, large amounts of chocolate, xylitol from chewing gum, medicines from the family cabinet, toxic plants, some mushrooms. Seizures here come with vomiting, drooling and trembling — vomiting is covered in vomiting in dogs, and what to feed after the acute stage is in feeding after poisoning.
• Low blood sugar. Classic in toy-breed puppies, in working dogs after prolonged effort, and with a pancreatic tumour in adults.
• Liver. With a portosystemic shunt or liver failure, toxins are not cleared and act on the brain: fits, disorientation, drooling, often after a meal.
• Calcium. A sharp drop in calcium after whelping in a nursing bitch produces trembling, restlessness and seizures — an emergency in its own right.
• Kidneys and electrolytes. Severe kidney failure causes fits late in the course; the early signs are different — how to measure drinking is in dog drinking a lot.

Seizures in an Old Dog and in a Puppy: Different Circles

A first fit after six or seven years of age is not epilepsy until proven otherwise. In an older dog a brain tumour, a vascular event, liver and kidney disease and, less often, the aftermath of infection come first. That is why at this age a vet raises imaging straight away rather than watchful waiting.

In a puppy the circle is different: congenital malformations of the brain and of the liver vessels, infections including distemper, parasites, low blood sugar, poisoning. A puppy having fits is always an emergency because the reserve is minimal; alongside weakness and refusing food it is worked through as in lethargic dog.

What Not to Do at Home Between Fits

• Do not give human anticonvulsants, painkillers or sedatives. They are dangerous for dogs and distort the picture. Any medication for seizures is a vet's decision.
• Do not stop or change prescribed therapy on your own: abruptly withdrawing an anticonvulsant can itself trigger status epilepticus.
• Do not try home stomach washing or induce vomiting in an animal with impaired consciousness when poisoning is suspected.
• Do not postpone a first fit with "let us see whether it comes back" in an older dog.
• Do not feed or offer water straight after a fit — wait for full consciousness to return.

Which Tests and Scans Will Clarify the Cause

The workup after seizures runs from cheap and fast towards complex:

• complete blood count and biochemistry — glucose, liver values, urea and creatinine, calcium, electrolytes;
• bile acids — a targeted test for a liver shunt, especially in young small breeds;
• urinalysis — concentration, infection;
• blood pressure and ECG — when the picture resembles a faint rather than a fit;
• abdominal ultrasound — liver, vessels, pancreas, masses;
• brain MRI and cerebrospinal fluid analysis — for a first fit in an older dog, for neurological findings between fits, for a poor response to therapy;
• chest radiographs — looking for distant lesions in older animals.

How to read blood numbers is in dog blood test; what abdominal ultrasound sees is in abdominal ultrasound for dogs; how MRI differs from computed tomography and when each is needed is in MRI and CT for pets; how a survey image is taken is in dog x-ray.

A finished form can go into pet results interpretation and an imaging report into pet imaging interpretation: the service explains the wording in plain language and builds questions for the vet. If there are no studies yet, describe your symptoms and browse dog symptoms.

This article is informational. Diagnosis and treatment of your pet are the job of a veterinarian.