My dog has seizures. Can hemp treats help, or what else can I do?

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! There are no herbs or supplements that are known to be helpful for seizures unfortunately. Also, it is not recommended generally to combined supplements with the regular anti-seizure medications as some of these can interact with the medications. Good news is that usually dogs become more and more tolerant of the anti-seizure medications and become less and less groggy on them as the time goes on. Good luck and have a great day!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Frannie. When seizure frequency reaches every 4-6 weeks, I will commonly start anti-seizure medications. Every time a dog has a seizure, they become more likely to have another one. I would discuss starting her on a proven medication with her veterinarian. There are a variety of them such as phenobarbital, zonisamide, potassium bromide, levitiracetam, etc depending on her case specifics and medical history. There is even a prescription diet that can be fed in addition to medications to help decrease seizure activity. I hope this information helps!

Maocai is adorable! Unfortunately prolonged/severe seizures can cause permanent brain damage and personality changes. Purina makes a prescription diet called Neurocare that is highly rated by owners of dogs with seizures, dementia and other cognitive issues. VetriScience also makes a senior multivitamin that is highly rated by owners who report that their dogs appear to be more alert and responsive after taking them regularly. I recommend inquiring with your veterinarian about a prescription for the Purina Neurocare diet. Good luck!

Not all sheepdogs will develop seizures. Seizures have multiple causes and it is important to determine the cause in order to more effectively control them. Consider a second opinion with a different vetrerinarian or veterinary neurologist. There are several medications used in veterinary medicine to control seizure activity. You should also start a Seizure Log. Record such information as time of day, length of seizure, diet and activity before and after. This may help your veterinarian in pinpointing a cause or trigger.

I'm so sorry about your dog. I know this is a very scary time. There are multiple causes of seizures. I'm not sure how old your dog is, but in dogs under 5 years old who are completely normal in between seizure episodes, epilepsy is the primary cause of seizures. In older dogs it could be inflammation, a brain tumor, and infection or problems with the organs (particularly the liver). I always recommend blood work first to look for any problems there. If the blood work is normal, the next step is to evaluate the brain by doing an MRI. If blood work has not been done, I would highly recommend it. If problems are found in the blood work, then you should treat that. If everything is normal in the blood work, I would recommend starting seizure medication. Some dogs will have seizures very infrequently like your dog started out. Those dogs don't usually need medication. But when they become more frequent and are clustering (multiple in a 24 hours period) then I would definitely recommend medication at this point. There are multiple different seizure medications to choose from, so talk to your veterinarian about that. Many times the seizures will be manageable with medications, but it takes consistent medication multiple times per day and blood rechecks for the drug levels. Honestly, some dogs will be very difficult or impossible to control and will continue to have seizures despite being on multiple medications. So to answer your question, yes, there is something you can do to help your pet and based on the number of seizures he is now having, he needs to be put on medication. I hope this helps!

Poor guy. Since it takes this drug roughly 2-4 weeks to stabilize in your pets system, it is safe to do a mild tapering of the medication. Ask your vet for tapering instructions since this was prescribed by him/her only. I would then consider getting Kasey on an alternative anti-seizure medication called Zonisamide instead. CBD oil is not legalized in many states for pets nor does it have any proof to stop seizures in pets at this time, so it would not be a good option for Kasey. I hope that Kasey's seizures are managed well soon! Best wishes and take care. : )

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. CBD treatment in veterinary medicine is still fairly new so there really is not a lot of research right now on dosing and it's effects for various conditions. These products are now becoming more widely accepted as an alternative approach to managing chronic pain in animals. There have been some suggestions that they help reduce seizures. Products labelled for veterinary use seem to be safe so if you were to try a CBD product, there should be no I'll effects. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.