Why is my 2-month-old calf having seizures, especially at night?

The problem with giving your calf medication is that the medication that may work is very expensive for such a large animal. Your calf may have been infected with a disease (BVD) while he was in his mother's womb and these seizures may not ever go away. Phenytoin may not work right away, so you should give it for a few more days and see whether it does indeed reduce the seizures. Do not increase the dose without your doctor telling you to do so, as phenytoin has only a very narrow therapeutic range. Ask your veterinarian about a dosage adjustment or change of medication available for seizures in your calf. if the medications do not work, the problem may be another one, such as liver failure, a liver shunt, metabolic disease.

Hello and thank you very much for your question. Cavs that are not on their mother until fall weaning age of 6 to 8 months are susceptible to infectious gastrointestinal and pulmonary diseases. The scours could be due to a variety of diseases like E. coli, infectious colitis, coccidiosis, other internal parasites, etc. Most likely the cough is due to an acute or chronic calf pneumonia. The coughing may or may not have anything to do with the scours and can be due to Pastorella, IBR, RSV, PI3, etc Both of these clinical symptoms and their associated diseases can cause your calf to become quite sick and in some cases die. I urge you to schedule an appointment with your local large animal veterinarian as soon as possible so that they can do a full physical examination. they also may want to do a fecal analysis to get a diagnosis for the scours also. Your veterinarian will most likely prescribe something anti-inflammatory to get the fever down enough to eat, A strong antibiotic like naxcel/excenel etc, and antiparasitic medication. Thanks for the question.

Your calf may have coccidiosis, which is pretty common in bottle-fed dairy calves, especially those who've not received adequate colostrum upon calving. I'd recommend at least taking a fecal sample in to your local vet for analysis and treatment, as the antibiotics you've had him on may not be effective. Pneumonia is definitely a concern in these calves as well.

There are many possible reasons - spinal abscess, hip/pelvis injury, nerve damage, muscle weakness and even toxins such as lead can lead to such signs. A full neurological exam and blood tests to rule out infection and poisoning can be helpful to assess the possibility of recovery

I am assuming she is a blue merle Australian Shepherd. These often have congenital defects such as deafness. Young dogs sometimes suffer from what we call idiopathic seizures (cause unknown). You should keep a diary of the seizures: situation that triggers it, time start, time ends, what the seizure looks like. If the seizure lasts more than 4-5 minutes your dog needs to see a vet right away, as this can cause hyperthermia and damage the brain. If you can you should take a little video of one such seizure to take with you to the vet and show him. Please make an appointment with your vet for an exam. He may want to put her on anti-seizure medication such as phenobarbital.

At 7 months of age, I recommend a visit to your veterinarian to check bloodwork and make sure nothing abnormal is found. Idiopathic epilepsy, or seizures for an unknown reason, can develop at this age, but we want to make sure we aren't missing anything else. This might be the only seizure Jerry ever has, or there could be more. Write down the information about this event, and mark it on the calendar so you remember exactly when it happened. If there are more, then you veterinarian will need to take steps to properly diagnose and treat the condition.

Since Cali was having neurologically abnormal repeated behavior, seemed unaware of your presence, and lost control of her bladder, it seems likely that she had a seizure. One of the most common causes of seizures in a 3 year old dog is epilepsy, but other possibilities include liver diseases (portosystemic shunts), toxin exposure, or brain tumors. If another episode occurs, take a video to show to her vet. There is no need to rush to a vet after a one time occurrence, as she will likely not be started on any seizure control medications. However, should Cali have another seizure within a 24 hour period, she should go to an ER vet because this would be considered a "cluster seizure".