Seizures in Dogs: Causes and What to Do

Watching your dog have a seizure is frightening, and the instinct to grab them and hold on is strong. The most useful thing you can do is the opposite: stay back, keep them safe from injury, and time it. This guide walks through what a seizure looks like, exactly what to do in the moment, when it becomes an emergency, what causes seizures, and how vets get to the bottom of them.

A seizure is a burst of abnormal electrical activity in the brain. Most last under two minutes, and the dog is not in pain or aware during it, even though it looks distressing. Epilepsy is the word for repeated seizures, and it is the most common long-term neurological condition in dogs, affecting an estimated 0.6 to 0.7% of dogs in the UK, roughly one in every 130.

What a seizure actually looks like

Seizures don't all look like the classic collapse-and-shake. There are three broad types, and knowing which you're seeing helps your vet.

Generalised (grand mal) seizures are the most recognisable. The dog collapses, loses consciousness and their whole body stiffens or jerks. You may see paddling legs, a clenched or champing jaw, drooling or frothing, eyes rolling back, and often involuntary weeing or pooing. It looks violent but usually lasts only seconds to a couple of minutes.

Focal (partial) seizures affect only part of the brain, so they're subtler and easy to miss. You might see rhythmic twitching of the face or one leg, repeated blinking, lip-smacking, sudden snapping at the air, or a brief spell of odd, trance-like behaviour. Focal seizures can sometimes spread into a generalised one.

Absence seizures are rare and very brief: the dog goes vacant, stares into the distance and stops responding for a few seconds before carrying on as normal.

Many dogs show a change just before a seizure, called the pre-ictal phase or aura: they may become clingy, restless, anxious, hide, or seem to be seeking you out for a few minutes to a few hours beforehand. Afterwards comes the post-ictal phase, which we cover below.

What to do during a seizure

Keep it simple. Your job is to prevent injury and gather information, not to stop the seizure, which you can't.

1. Stay calm and start a timer. Note the time it began. The length of the seizure is the single most important thing you'll tell your vet. 2. Clear the space and prevent falls. If your dog is near stairs, furniture or a hard edge, gently slide them to a safe open spot on the floor, ideally by pulling on a blanket underneath rather than lifting them. Move anything they could bang into. 3. Keep your hands away from their mouth. Dogs cannot swallow their tongue. Reaching into the mouth risks a serious accidental bite and does nothing to help. Never force anything between the teeth. 4. Dim the lights and lower the noise. Turn off the TV, draw the curtains and ask everyone to be quiet. Reducing stimulation can help the seizure settle. 5. Keep the room cool. Seizures make body temperature rise fast. Open a window; don't wrap or cover your dog. 6. Don't restrain or try to wake them. Don't shout, shake or hold them down. Let it run its course. 7. Film it if you can. A short phone video of the seizure and the recovery afterwards is genuinely valuable to your vet, who will almost never see one in person. Keep other pets and young children out of the room, as a seizing dog can be accidentally injured or lash out unaware.

Once it stops, ring your vet for advice, even if your dog seems to bounce back. A first-ever seizure always warrants a check-up.

When a seizure is an emergency

Most single seizures stop on their own and, while alarming, are not immediately life-threatening. These situations are different and need a vet now, day or night, through your practice's out-of-hours line:

• A seizure lasting longer than five minutes. This is called *status epilepticus*. The clinical definition is continuous seizure activity for more than five minutes, or repeated seizures without the dog fully regaining consciousness in between. Prolonged seizures cause dangerous overheating and can lead to lasting brain damage, so this is a true emergency.
• Cluster seizures, meaning two or more separate seizures within a 24-hour period. Clusters can escalate and often need medication to break the pattern.
• One seizure running straight into the next without your dog waking up properly between them.
• A first-ever seizure, a seizure in a very young puppy or an older dog, or seizing after a known poison, head injury or heatstroke.
• Trouble breathing, a blue tongue, or a seizure that follows a suspected toxin such as chocolate, xylitol, slug pellets or rat bait.

A practical threshold to remember: pick up the phone if a seizure passes the two-minute mark, and treat anything beyond five minutes, or a second seizure the same day, as a dial-the-emergency-vet situation.

Research on dogs admitted with cluster seizures and status epilepticus found that dogs never previously started on anti-seizure medication fared far worse, which is a strong reason to follow your vet's treatment plan rather than "waiting to see" if seizures recur.

After the seizure: the recovery phase

The minutes and hours after a seizure, the post-ictal phase, can be as unsettling as the event itself. Your dog may be dazed, disoriented, wobbly, temporarily blind, pacing, extremely hungry or thirsty, or simply exhausted. This can last from a few minutes to several hours and is normal. Give them a quiet, dimly lit, comfortable place to recover, offer water once they're steady, and don't crowd them. Let them come back to themselves in their own time.

What causes seizures in dogs

Causes fall into three groups, and your dog's age at the first seizure is a big clue to which one it is.

| Type | What's happening | Typical picture | |---|---|---| | Idiopathic epilepsy | No visible structural cause; largely genetic | Most common cause in dogs aged 6 months to 6 years; dog is normal between seizures | | Structural epilepsy | A physical brain problem: tumour, inflammation, infection, stroke, trauma, developmental fault | More likely under 6 months or over 6 years; may have other neurological signs | | Reactive seizures | Brain reacting to something outside it | Low blood sugar, liver disease, kidney failure, low calcium, or a toxin |

Idiopathic epilepsy is the single most common cause and is diagnosed largely by ruling everything else out. It tends to start between six months and six years of age, the dog is completely normal between episodes, and there's a known genetic component in several breeds, including Border Collies, Labradors, Boxers, Border Terriers, Belgian Shepherds and, among others, French Bulldogs. If you have a predisposed breed, it's worth knowing the signs early. Our guides on how long French Bulldogs live and their wider health quirks give useful breed context.

Common toxins that trigger seizures are worth committing to memory: chocolate, xylitol (birch sugar) in sugar-free products, metaldehyde slug pellets, rodenticides, and some antifreeze. If a seizure follows anything your dog might have eaten, tell your vet or ring the Animal PoisonLine (01202 509000).

Other reactive causes include a sharp drop in blood sugar (in diabetic dogs, tiny puppies, or hunting dogs after heavy exercise), liver disease, low blood calcium in nursing mothers, heatstroke and head trauma.

How vets diagnose the cause

There's no single test for epilepsy; it's about building a picture and excluding treatable causes. Your vet will typically:

• Take a detailed history, which is where your timings, notes and video pay off. How old was your dog at the first seizure, how often, how long, and what happened before and after.
• Examine your dog, including a neurological check for anything abnormal between seizures.
• Run blood and urine tests to look for liver, kidney, blood-sugar, calcium and toxin-related causes.
• Consider referral for advanced imaging (an MRI scan) and analysis of the fluid around the brain and spinal cord if a structural cause is suspected, more likely in very young or older dogs, or if the neurological exam is abnormal.

A healthy dog aged one to five, normal between seizures, with clear blood tests, is often diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy without needing a scan straight away. Keeping a simple seizure diary, the date, time, length, what your dog was doing and how they recovered, is one of the most helpful things you can do to guide treatment.

Treatment and living with epilepsy

If a treatable cause is found, such as a toxin or low blood sugar, treating that resolves the seizures. Idiopathic epilepsy usually can't be cured, but it can be well controlled with anti-seizure medications (often called AEDs). Vets typically start medication when seizures are frequent, severe, come in clusters, or involve status epilepticus.

It helps to have realistic expectations: the goal is to reduce how often and how severely your dog seizes, not always to stop every seizure completely. A commonly used marker of success is at least a halving of seizure frequency. Many dogs on the right medication live full, happy lives. Medication is usually lifelong, doses are adjusted with blood monitoring, and it should never be stopped suddenly, which can trigger severe cluster seizures. Some vets also recommend a specific diet alongside medication.

Because idiopathic epilepsy is inherited, affected dogs should not be bred from. Sadly, a small proportion of dogs have seizures that prove hard to control despite treatment; if you ever reach the point of difficult decisions, our piece on what the Rainbow Bridge means may be a gentle place to start.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Putting your hand in the dog's mouth. They won't swallow their tongue, and you're likely to be bitten.
• Trying to move or comfort them mid-seizure. Handling can prolong things and risks injury to you both; wait until it's over.
• Not timing it. "A few minutes" feels like forever; an actual clock reading changes what your vet does.
• Dismissing a single seizure. Even one deserves a vet call, both to check for a cause and to set a baseline.
• Stopping medication once seizures settle. Abrupt withdrawal is dangerous; only change doses on vet advice.

Between seizures, most epileptic dogs are perfectly normal and enjoy ordinary life. Low-stress routines and mental stimulation, such as gentle indoor enrichment and puzzle toys, suit them well. The reassuring headline is that a seizure, while horrible to witness, is usually survivable and often very manageable once you know what to do and when to pick up the phone.

Sources

• PDSA – Seizures and epilepsy in dogs
• PDSA – First aid for fits and seizures in pets
• The Kennel Club – Epilepsy in dogs
• Charalambous et al. – Risk factors for poor outcome in dogs with cluster seizures and status epilepticus (PMC)
• Veterinary Poisons Information Service – Animal PoisonLine