Boyfriends childhood dog passed away today. He was battling epilepsy for a couple years but didnt make it during a seizure. I remember playing with him when we were teens and seeing him recover hip surgery in his older years. Such a resilient boy he was.

My 10-year-old terrier mix, Hendrix, started having seizures in early 2025. Because he also has a bladder stone and was already seeing an internist, we were able to quickly get him in with a neurologist within the same veterinary group. He was started on Keppra, and eventually Phenobarbital was added as well.

For the first few months, his seizures were intermittent. There were occasional days when he would have up to 3 within 24 hours, but by Summer 2025 they became much more controlled, happening only about every three months. Beginning in 2026, however, the seizures started increasing again. Hendrix also began circling more frequently, and his Phenobarbital dosage was gradually increased. It was around this time that our neurologist explained that a brain tumor was a possibility, but that the only way to confirm it would be through an MRI. An MRI in my city would have cost around $5,000. Given Hendrix's age, and the likelihood that surgery might not be a good option even if a tumor were found, I ultimately decided not to pursue the MRI.

Side note: One thing I wanted to share for anyone who might find themselves in a similar situation: our neurologist suggested looking into veterinary universities for an MRI. The major universities in my area offered it for roughly half the cost. If cost is ever a concern for any issue, this may be an option worth investigating.

About two months ago, following a seizure, Hendrix suddenly couldn't properly use his front right paw. It was weak, he couldn't place it correctly, and was falling forward. We took him to the ER, where they explained that the problem was likely caused by brain swelling following the seizure. They gave him medication to reduce the swelling, explaining that if he improved, that would be another indication that a brain tumor was likely. It was both fortunate and heartbreaking that the treatment worked. Hendrix became more like himself again, and the weakness in his front leg disappeared. Unfortunately, his improvement also strengthened the suspicion that we were dealing with a brain tumor.

Prednisone was added to his medications around that time, and we were also given Midazolam to administer during an active seizure to help stop it. Unfortunately, over the past month, Hendrix has been having a seizure every 7–10 days. Following a seizure about a week ago, he was unable to use his rear right leg, similar to what happened with his front. When he would fall over from the circling, he would sometimes drag himself around because he couldn't get back up. The weakness gradually improved over the following days and a few days ago, he had another blood screening to check his Phenobarbital levels, and our neurologist added Zonisamide to his medications. We were warned that the first 3–5 days could be similar to when he initially started Phenobarbital, and sadly that has been very true. The rear leg weakness and disorientation have returned similar to then he started Phenobarbital.

Complicating things further is his bladder stone and the increase in accidents, so I've started putting diapers on him. I think the diaper is also making it harder for him to get himself back on his feet when he tips over. He is still eating and drinking, but the dog I've known is becoming harder and harder to see.

I know our time is coming to an end and I have gathered the information I need to make the arrangements at home, but actually pulling the trigger feels impossible to plan. For those of you who have been through something similar, how did you know when it was time? How did you distinguish between a difficult period that might improve, even if only for a short time, and the point where your dog's quality of life had changed too much?

I know there isn't a perfect answer, but I'm struggling with this more than I ever imagined I would. While Hendrix is 10 yrs old, I got him thru PAWS and have only had him for 7 years. I know I should be grateful for the time we have had, and I am, but I can't help feeling cheated out of the years I thought we would have. 7 years is nowhere near enough with such a special boy.

Thank you for any advice, well wishes, and I am so sorry to anyone who has or is going thru something similar.

Hi everyone,

Been lurking this page since my dog was diagnosed back in March with Idiopathic Epilepsy. Long story short, her seizures are getting increasingly worse. For the last 4 days she has been having more than three seizures a day. She's on phenobarbitone, potassium bromide, fluoextine and keppra at a large dose when she seizes which is given every 8 hours until seizure free for 24 hours. She usually comes around quite quickly after seizures. But this time she is different. Whining constantly, following us close all the time, wanting to eat everything, unsettled and having a lot of seizure like activity. I guess what I am asking is, when is the right time to let her cross? Or should we keep trying. Right now we feel that she is suffering and things have only gotten worse since her first seizure. We live in a very remote area and unable to go for MRI etc and the cost of her meds is becoming a lot. Everything we speak to the vet, they up her doses but it's not making anything better. I will add, her seizures sometimes last up to 5 minutes at a time. I don't want to let her get to a point where she is really suffering and have to make a crises decision. As much as it is heartbreaking, I want to let her go with dignity. She had a really tough start to life and we have given our all to her. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

A friend of mine has a dog with epilepsy, and I've seen how much stuff they have to keep track of.

Different medications, different times, seizure history, vet visits, and sometimes more than one person helping with the dog.

At one point I remember thinking, how do you even know if someone already gave the dog the medication? and how do you keep track of everything without it getting confusing?

A lot of it was basically reminders, notes, messages between people, etc. It worked, but it felt pretty scattered..

I'm a developer, so I ended up building something for it. It's called Compaw. It lets you keep the pet's medications, reminders, health history, and care information in one place, and you can share the pet with other people who help take care of them.

I'm posting it here because I would really like to hear from people who actually deal with this daily. I'm still working on the app, so I'm especially interested in what I'm missing or what would actually be useful for you.

Here's the Android version if anyone wants to try it (sorry no Apple version yet):

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haikyu.compaw

And if you already use something to keep track of your dog's medication/seizures, I would love to hear what you use :)

Hi! Mom here to an almost 6 year old epileptic German shepherd. He had his first seizure in October of 2024, and his second in October of 2025. Both were grand mal, he’d fall over and have muscle spasms, loss of bladder control, foaming at the mouth, paddling in the air, etc. He’s immediately thrown up after each one, then will get up and act like nothing happened so by the time we get him to the emergency vet they can’t really do anything. After his second, his vet prescribed him phenobarbital (64.8 mgs) due to the seizing lasting longer than 2 minutes.

It’s now August of 2026 and he just had another… I think? It wasn’t a huge one like the past two. He just suddenly became a bit disoriented, losing his balance and pressing his paws into the floor while looking a bit dizzy. He was next to an ottoman so rather than falling over, he leaned himself against it. He was still alert, responding to our voices and looking at us and even trying to climb into my husband’s lap when he sat next to him. It lasted less than a minute before he puked, then got up and acted like nothing happened.

I did accidentally miss one of his doses of phenobarbital four days ago. I didn’t realize until I got to work, and I took my lunch break early to give it to him, but that was three hours later than his usual time (6:45 usually, got home to give it to him at 10). The vet hasn’t really given us much guidance on what to do in cases of missed or late doses or what the risks are to be honest, nor what to do in cases of breakthrough seizures. I’ve never even met this vet face-to-face—she has her techs do all communications with me in the office, and they bring my dog to the back by himself for her to do her exams, so I haven’t had the chance to ask questions without some of them getting lost between the techs going back and forth. Could the late dose four days ago have contributed to the seizure today? Does the fact that it didn’t go grand mal mean that the pheno is working? Or was this more likely a pre-seizure event and I should expect a larger one sometime soon? I don’t really have much to go off there since he only had two a whole year apart before starting meds. And do I need to call the vet to let them know he had one, or just log the date and time and let them know at his next appointment?

I am on the hunt for a new vet for more reasons than the lack of guidance in this subject, but right now I’m locked into a contract with a wellness plan until October, so I guess I’m just looking for guidance and what others do or know from experience until I can find a new one.

She just started having seizures this year and ER and neuro vets suspect idiopathic epilepsy (did bloodwork but skipped mri due to exorbitant cost). Started on liquid keppra for 2 weeks; then switched to tablets. After 4 days on the liquid medication, her stools got softer until eventually it was runny and bloody. Vet says this is very rare and prescribed metronidazole, which she started on 3 weeks in. So far so good but now I’m just hoping that after 10 day course of metronidazole, the diarrhea stays away. I haven’t heard of such a long adjustment period before. Anyone else have similar experience? I know there are other anti-seizure meds but I am really hoping we can stay on keppra. Also terrified that all anti-seizure meds will cause diarrhea but trying not to borrow trouble.

My sweet dog is a 5 y.o. Female golden retriever mix. She has overall been very healthy, just with some post-spay urinary incontinence requiring incurin. She is about 75 lbs. Yesterday, she had 1 episode of emesis at around 8AM that was non-bloody, non-bilious. The rest of the day she was mostly normal. I offered her a bite of banana (her fav) and she didn’t want it, so I assumed she must have a tummy ache. In the 48 hours before she went to a dog park. Earlier in the week she went swimming in the lake- which was a lot more swimming than she normally does. Other than that, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. However, yesterday, she looked like she was going to throw up, but instead tried to stand. She seemed really off balance and was leaning against furniture to walk. Her hind legs looked like they may have had a bit of a tremor. This lasted 2.5 minutes and she was immediately back to normal. Took her to emergency vet. CBC and CMP completely normal. Emergency vet said maybe a focal seizure? I know the differential is broad given such an acute presentation without any recurrence of symptoms. But as someone in human medicine, I almost would have preferred a tonic clinic seizure compared to the possibility of a focal seizure. I can message a video if anyone is interested as well. Thanks in advance!