Lab seizure while hunting

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Pete Bauer

New member
Finished the season in SD over the weekend and had a little scare with my 6yo yellow lab. We had been hunting for a few hours and in the middle of a very large cattail slough, I believe she had a seizure – still trying to figure out exactly what happened.

I heard her yelping as if I had the e-collar on 10 but constant. I ran over to her, not knowing what was going on and immediately pulled the e-collar off (figured something broke with it). No change, still yelping and violently kicking. Checking as I figured maybe a foothold trap or something – nothing. She eventually quit yelping and kicking so hard - she got stiff and was trying to throw up/flem out the mouth also some poop/pee. Eventually she settled down more and laid on her side for over 10min without much movement looking blankly into the weeds. She nipped me a few times as I tried to console her so I just stood by watching. She started to come around as the other hunters I was with came from the truck with a blanket, water, and a doughnut. By the time they got to me she was coming around – eventually she stood up, ate the doughnut, had some water, and walked out of the slough by my side. From when she went down to when we walked out was probably 20min or so.

I watched her the rest of the night and she seemed quite normal. I decided to hunt her lightly on Saturday and Sunday and did so with no issues.

Has anyone else dealt with this? From what I’ve read, it seems like her blood sugar got too low. She’s an extremely driven dog and gave me no warning signs of this happening. This by no means was the hardest cover or hunt we have been on this year, however there were a lot of birds and she was going absolutely non-stop for over an hour. The whole experience was terrifying for me (and her I’m assuming) – I without a doubt thought my dog was going to die out there.

Looking for any advice or thoughts on how to prevent this from happening again. Change food or diet while hunting perhaps? I did buy some Karo syrup and carried it with me the last 2 days but didnÂ’t use it.
Thanks,
Pete
 
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Over the past several years, my Golden has had several seizures. These occur at different times, although none have happened while hunting - fortunately. They last about 2 to 3 minutes.

Google - "Seizures in Dogs"...lots have been written and you may find information that would help. Check with your Vet as well.
 
When I first saw your post, I thought Exercise induced Collapse, but it sounds more severe than what most afflicted dogs experience and she is older than when most exhibit symptoms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise-induced_collapse

A guy I have hunted with had a Lab with this issue, but he would just lose control of his rear legs after hunting hard. It was really sad to see the poor dog trying to drag himself around, but he didn't have any other seizure symptoms.

Jerry
 
Jerryv said:
When I first saw your post, I thought Exercise induced Collapse, but it sounds more severe than what most afflicted dogs experience and she is older than when most exhibit symptoms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise-induced_collapse

A guy I have hunted with had a Lab with this issue, but he would just lose control of his rear legs after hunting hard. It was really sad to see the poor dog trying to drag himself around, but he didn't have any other seizure symptoms.

Jerry
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Interesting. I wish I would have been hunting lighter cover when it happened so I could have seen her better. To the best of my knowledge, she didn't look wobbly or unstable. 3-4min before it happened she was right by me looking for a downed bird - she found it buried deep in the cattails and took off like normal. That said, we were in thick cattails and I couldn't really see her running very much.
 
I've witnessed 3 EIC episodes, twice with one dog and once with another. In both cases the dog appeared more or less normal aside from the loss of control of the back legs. IE both dogs still were wagging their tails and licking our hands and face as we carried them to the truck. If I remember correctly the dogs both recovered pretty quick, maybe around an hour or so. In both case it happened to the dogs when they were under 4 years of age and hasn't happened since. I don't know if they "grew" out of it or the owners became more aware of the triggers and avoided them. No matter what its horrible to experience and your mind envisions the worst.

I've only seen seizures a couple times and they were more like the OP described, maybe a bit less violent and the dog seemed a bit groggy for a few hours after. I wish I could add more, seizures are pretty common in dogs and I think easily treated.
 
Gatzby said:
I've witnessed 3 EIC episodes, twice with one dog and once with another. In both cases the dog appeared more or less normal aside from the loss of control of the back legs. IE both dogs still were wagging their tails and licking our hands and face as we carried them to the truck. If I remember correctly the dogs both recovered pretty quick, maybe around an hour or so. In both case it happened to the dogs when they were under 4 years of age and hasn't happened since. I don't know if they "grew" out of it or the owners became more aware of the triggers and avoided them. No matter what its horrible to experience and your mind envisions the worst.

I've only seen seizures a couple times and they were more like the OP described, maybe a bit less violent and the dog seemed a bit groggy for a few hours after. I wish I could add more, seizures are pretty common in dogs and I think easily treated.
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Yes,very common and can happen anytime.
 
Other than EIC it could also be first evidence of epilepsy which does occur in Labs. My son had an epileptic black Lab. That dog's seizures were very random and infrequent. That dog also lived to be over 15 years of age.

Does this sound like what happened?

There are three components of an epileptic seizure. The first is termed the "aura" in which certain signs indicative of an oncoming attack include restlessness, nervousness, whining, shaking, salivation, affection, wandering and hiding. These indications may persist only for a few seconds or for several days, thus they may or may not be noticed by the owner. The second stage is termed the "ictus" at which point the seizure occurs. The attack may endure only for a few seconds or for several minutes. During an episode, the dog usually falls on its side and there is involuntary motor response demonstrated as kicking or paddling motion. The dog will salivate excessively and lose bladder and bowel control. He will be unaware of his environment or his actions. http://www.labbies.com/epilepsy.htm
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Chestle said:
Other than EIC it could also be first evidence of epilepsy which does occur in Labs. My son had an epileptic black Lab. That dog's seizures were very random and infrequent. That dog also lived to be over 15 years of age.

Does this sound like what happened?
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Yes, very much so. I did a lot of reading on EIC and I don't think that's what happened to her. It definitely seemed like a full blown seizure, question being - what caused it... and maybe i'll never know.

The one thing I can think of is normally I feed the dog a little in the morning, very early, even before a big day of hunting. I know some people disagree with that but it's something I'd always done. That morning, she didn't eat her food. Seems odd that one small morning feeding a while before the hunt would cause her blood sugar to dip enough but possibly?

If it is epilepsy we'll have to learn more about that and how to deal with it as well.
 
Pete Bauer said:
The one thing I can think of is normally I feed the dog a little in the morning, very early, even before a big day of hunting. I know some people disagree with that but it's something I'd always done. That morning, she didn't eat her food. Seems odd that one small morning feeding a while before the hunt would cause her blood sugar to dip enough but possibly?
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I doubt it was because she didn't eat her food that morning. If you haven't already, see thread called "Dog feeding" whose last post was on 12-7-17 in this same category. I used to be concerned about the same thing - blood sugar level. But after hearing all these guys weigh in & doing a little more research, I'm no longer feeding my dog the morning before hunting & I'm no longer concerned about blood sugar level. I THINK I've noticed a tiny tick upward in energy level while hunting if he's not fed that morning. Yes, if we're out for a long day, I'll give him a treat here & there, but he hasn't seemed to react negatively to not eating breakfast.
 
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A5 Sweet 16 said:
I doubt it was because she didn't eat her food that morning. If you haven't already, see thread called "Dog feeding" whose last post was on 12-7-17 in this same category. I used to be concerned about the same thing - blood sugar level. But after hearing all these guys weigh in & doing a little more research, I'm no longer feeding my dog the morning before hunting & I'm no longer concerned about bloods sugar level. I THINK I've noticed a tiny tick upward in energy level while hunting if he's not fed that morning. Yes, if we're out for a long day, I'll give him a treat here & there, but he hasn't seemed to react negatively to not eating breakfast.
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Thanks for the feedback on switching to once a day. It's something I've done for years and truly believe in but its still nice to get to hear from someone who has tried both.
 
Pete Bauer said:
Yes, very much so. I did a lot of reading on EIC and I don't think that's what happened to her. It definitely seemed like a full blown seizure, question being - what caused it... and maybe i'll never know...

...If it is epilepsy we'll have to learn more about that and how to deal with it as well.
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We never found the cause with my son's black Lab. The seizures were so infrequent and unpredictable that we did not medicate on our vet's advice. It wasn't exercise or stress related or really any one thing we could link them too. The seizures were very difficult for us to watch but they never seemed to do any damage to the dog.

As far as dealing with it, we just monitored the seizure, cleared the area of any objects that might cause damage to the dog and then waited for it to be over. The dog was totally out of it during the seizure so petting or talking really didn't do anything.

As I mentioned, in all other respects the dog was normal and lived to be 15+.
 
I appreciate the feedback, guys. It's good to hear other folks experiences in similar situations.

She seems no worse for the wear right now and we'll continue to monitor her. Pheasant season is over but I'll get out and run her this weekend - see how it goes!

Thanks,
PeteView attachment 7955
 
I had a Golden years ago that would have seizures the day after hunting. Vet said to give him some kayro syrup after a day of hunting. Well as long as he got that on some burger any time he was really active he would not have a seizure. Not sure if that could be your issue but I do remember the vet saying if it started to happen in the field to give him some right away. He started getting them at about 3 years old. This was back in the early 90's. Something easy to try but still check with your vet. Good luck to you.
 
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