Hope its ok for me to post on this bit as it's not actually a springer - but I think a lot of illnesses present similar anyway.

I met a lovely couple this morning with a 4yr old lhasa called Brodie (offered them a swap for my Brodie but they were not having it )

Anyway, their Brodie has been having fits for the last 18months. They only happen two or three times a year, but are proper fits where he goes rigid and loses control of everything. Very distressing for them.

But the woman told me that just prior to them, he starts coughing and wretching as if he is choking. If they get to him quick enough and massage his chest, the fit is less severe. You immediately think a blocked airway - but would that cause a seizure?

He is not on any meds for it as it is infrequent and the vet can suggest nothing.

He does not get boosters or any other chemical treatments. To the best of their knowledge his littermates are all fine. But then the breeder could tell them anything

Any suggestions - or is choking prior to a fit sometimes normal?

The rigidity and losing body function control sounds very like epilepsy, but I'm not sure about the coughing/gagging etc, unless that is symptomatic of the dog's epilepsy "aura". Wish I could help with some suggestions.

Our cat has eplilepsy, and while he doesn't have the choking thing, he does scream as the fit starts. I get to him as quickly as I can - bearing in mind another feature of his fits is they are to do with him waking up, so they're usually 3am-4am - and pick him up, hold him really tight against me and stroke and sooth him, and that makes the fit less severe. He comes out of it more quickly now than he did in the first one or two before we learned how best to deal with them - it's usually a matter of seconds or a minute, instead of the 10 minutes it was to begin with.

So, maybe the stroking and massaging Brodie's chest is having a similar effect - not that it's stopping the cause as such, but the comfort of the contact is lessening the fit.

We were also told by our vet to reduce stimulation in the room as much as possible when he's fitting, so turn off all lights, tv, music etc. Our vet has pets of her own with eplilepsy, so she's well used to dealing with it, and her advice has been invaluable. She also gave us a supply of diazepam to be administered anally if the fit goes into the continuous fitting state, but luckily we've never had to deal with that so far!

Lastly, we're getting quite good at spotting other changes in him which usually mean a fit is likely in the next few days, so we can be prepared and react quicker.

I should also have said in his fits, Bruno doesn't go rigid, he tends to fall on his side and scrabbles with his legs and claws as if he's running. He also froths at the mouth and usually ends up losing control of his bladder. He has had nosebleeds at the beginning, but not now we know how to handle the fits.

I guess all animals are different, but that's our experience of epliepsy, so maybe if Brodie's fits are not like that, it might be another cause.

i had an irish wolf hound cross that used to have infrequent fits, his started with a cough and choking aswell and then he would seem to loose all cordination, he'd be trying to walk and its as though his legs just wernt his own they'd be going in all directions then he would collapse on the ground and he foamed at the mouth while it happened all very scary but we found if we rubbed his back when he was in an early stage the fits seemed to be over alot quicker, buddy was on no pills either and nothing was ever done for him, just a case of get on with it they dont happen often, makes you mad xxx

To be honest, from what we were told about the effects of eplilepsy medication and how difficult it is to get the right dose without significantly affecting the quality of life of the animal being treated, they are better off having no medication until the fits are more frequent than once a fortnight.

We have seen two vets at our practice with Bruno, Fiona who has the eplileptic cat herself, who taught us all the handling methods, and refused to take bloods etc because most epilepsy is not attributable to anything and so all the bloods would come back and clean as my wallet! The other vet, Eric, took bloods, to the tune of £120, which he promptly lost instead of sending to the lab. Fiona who owns the practice then called us to say she was so much of the opinion the blood -*test*-('")s were a waste of money she was just going to credit us back the £120, and just be available for monitoring Bruno's progress until his condition worsened dramatically.

Bruno has had one fit since last November 5th, and his have gone from every 6 weeks to 2 in 10 months. I'd rather have him on no drugs and as himself for all that time, and have to deal with two fits, than have him doped up and lifeless all the time to avoid fits.

It is scary and upsetting to see them like that, but I honestly don't believe Bruno has any less quality of life with the way we manage his fits than if he was 100% well. Of course, that's just our experience, and others might be having a worse time of it.

Thanks everyone. This is all reassuring so far and interesting to note that close contact and stroking or rubbing can lessen the fit.

I wonder why we don't do that with human epilepsy

anyhow.....

So like Buddy, the choking thing might be normal to him as fits are experienced in different ways. The only difference here being Brodie goes rigid whereas Buddy lost
co-ordination.

And I will mention the reduction of room stimulation to them too.

gosh it's amazing the things you learn on here. That is why I love this site.