Dog Potential Brain Tumour

elainers

Our family dog had a seizure last Sunday. This was after a couple of days of twitching and being extra clingy. She's been on anti-seizure medication since but had another smaller seizure today.

The vet says it's likely to either be something she came into contact with or a tumour on the brain. However he doesn't have any diagnostic equipment to confirm if there is a tumour there.

Just wondering if anybody knows of a vet in Ireland that could scan and figure out what's causing this?

seamus

Most of the larger vet hospitals will have MRI & X-Ray machines to carry out this kind of diagnosis.

The UCD Veterinary college is generally advised as the port of call, but it's not the only one. Your vet should be able to refer you?

They will advise you on what's required. General anaesthesia is nearly always required, so that's a whole decision in itself; an older or larger dog has a higher risk of not waking up.

Hopefully everything works out for her and it's something you can get under control.

elainers

seamus wrote: »

Most of the larger vet hospitals will have MRI & X-Ray machines to carry out this kind of diagnosis.

The UCD Veterinary college is generally advised as the port of call, but it's not the only one. Your vet should be able to refer you?

They will advise you on what's required. General anaesthesia is nearly always required, so that's a whole decision in itself; an older or larger dog has a higher risk of not waking up.

Hopefully everything works out for her and it's something you can get under control.

Thanks - she's ten so the general anaesthesia is a consideration.

Ms2011

Bit strange that your vet jumped straight to a brain tumour.
I have a dog with epilepsy & it manifested in her in a similar way to how you describe though she was 3 at the time.
She has been on medication for the past 6 years but she will still has a clump of seizures every 3 months or so.
She was diagnosed in UCD.

cocker5

What breed OP?

For an MRI etc they only give a small sedative .. not anesthesia.. and either way OP it’s better to know exactly what your dealing with .. rather than treating something not diagnosed properly

DBB

Ms2011 wrote: »

Bit strange that your vet jumped straight to a brain tumour.
I have a dog with epilepsy & it manifested in her in a similar way to how you describe though she was 3 at the time.
She has been on medication for the past 6 years but she will still has a clump of seizures every 3 months or so.
She was diagnosed in UCD.

It's quite a different scenario when a dog starts having seizures prior to 5 years of age, to a dog of 10+ suddenly starting to have them. The vast majority of dogs with true epilepsy develop it before 5 years.
OP, I have been in an identical situation to you, but my dog was older again, she was 12 or 13.
A full range of tests was carried out to rule out any problems with the major organs, as organ failure can cause toxins that bring on seizures, so this is something that should be done as a first step.
There are a few signs a vet can look for to indicate whether there's something weird going on in the brain, but their absence doesn't mean there's nothing wrong, if you see what I mean. To definitively diagnose her, she'd have had to have an MRI, which at that time would've cost somewhere around the €1500 mark (3 yrs ago), and my vet was quite clear that even if a brain tumour was diagnosed, there's not actually all that much we could've done about it.
So, we treated her for epilepsy... She had seizures around about once a month at first, they got somewhat more regular over time. In the end, she was having a lot of small absences. At this stage, she was around 14 or 15, she was deaf, vision not great, her social interactions became less and less, and her general quality of life deteriorated, and so we let her go with huge heartbreak.
I'm not posting this by way of advising you, more to give you a similar example to what you seem to be going through. Obviously, if you can stump up for an MRI, it'd be nice to have a diagnosis, or at least to be able to rule things in or out.
The one thing I wish I'd tried, but I didn't know about it until a few months after she was gone, was CBD oil... Some great reports from users here of seizure activity in their epileptic dogs and cats subsiding substantially.

elainers

DBB wrote: »

It's quite a different scenario when a dog starts having seizures prior to 5 years of age, to a dog of 10+ suddenly starting to have them. The vast majority of dogs with true epilepsy develop it before 5 years.
OP, I have been in an identical situation to you, but my dog was older again, she was 12 or 13.
A full range of tests was carried out to rule out any problems with the major organs, as organ failure can cause toxins that bring on seizures, so this is something that should be done as a first step.
There are a few signs a vet can look for to indicate whether there's something weird going on in the brain, but their absence doesn't mean there's nothing wrong, if you see what I mean. To definitively diagnose her, she'd have had to have an MRI, which at that time would've cost somewhere around the €1500 mark (3 yrs ago), and my vet was quite clear that even if a brain tumour was diagnosed, there's not actually all that much we could've done about it.
So, we treated her for epilepsy... She had seizures around about once a month at first, they got somewhat more regular over time. In the end, she was having a lot of small absences. At this stage, she was around 14 or 15, she was deaf, vision not great, her social interactions became less and less, and her general quality of life deteriorated, and so we let her go with huge heartbreak.
I'm not posting this by way of advising you, more to give you a similar example to what you seem to be going through. Obviously, if you can stump up for an MRI, it'd be nice to have a diagnosis, or at least to be able to rule things in or out.
The one thing I wish I'd tried, but I didn't know about it until a few months after she was gone, was CBD oil... Some great reports from users here of seizure activity in their epileptic dogs and cats subsiding substantially.

Thanks for this. It's good to hear from someone who's experienced it. The vet is of the view the best thing is to control the seizures. So we're doing that. But part of me feels we should be doing more for her. But even if we put her through the stress of an MRI I guess it's true there's not much to be done.

DBB

elainers wrote: »

Thanks for this. It's good to hear from someone who's experienced it. The vet is of the view the best thing is to control the seizures. So we're doing that. But part of me feels we should be doing more for her. But even if we put her through the stress of an MRI I guess it's true there's not much to be done.

Did your vet do blood tests to check organ function? That's the first step after more than one seizure.

elainers

DBB wrote: »

Did your vet do blood tests to check organ function? That's the first step after more than one seizure.

No but she's been very well to date so we don't think it's down to liver or kidney disease. This is the first thing ever really wrong with her.

DBB

elainers wrote: »

No but she's been very well to date so we don't think it's down to liver or kidney disease. This is the first thing ever really wrong with her.

It's up to you op.
Just be aware that It's not possible to tell for sure if an animal presenting with seizures is otherwise in full health until and unless blood tests are done. The liver in particular remains outwardly asymptomatic until a significant amount of damage has been done.

elainers

DBB wrote: »

It's up to you op.
Just be aware that It's not possible to tell for sure if an animal presenting with seizures is otherwise in full health until and unless blood tests are done. The liver in particular remains outwardly asymptomatic until a significant amount of damage has been done.

The vet's rationale is that seizures tend to be a later stage symptom of liver and kidney disease so if we found out it was that, the vet reckons it would be very end stage. She hasn't been tired or less energetic which apparently she would be with organ failure to the degree there'd be seizures. Plus she gets very worried at the vets so we don't want to stress her out which could trigger another one.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions though. I'm just hoping it's something she ingested/came into contact with and that it'll pass.

cocker5

elainers wrote: »

The vet's rationale is that seizures tend to be a later stage symptom of liver and kidney disease so if we found out it was that, the vet reckons it would be very end stage. She hasn't been tired or less energetic which apparently she would be with organ failure to the degree there'd be seizures. Plus she gets very worried at the vets so we don't want to stress her out which could trigger another one.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions though. I'm just hoping it's something she ingested/came into contact with and that it'll pass.

OP all I would say is over the past 3 years my vet has come up with "rationales" on 3/4 occasions.. that have been WRONG.... I insisted on further tests, scans / blood tests etc.. and found the real issues

regardless of whether your dog gets stressed at the vet this is her health your talking about .. get the tests its only fair

my dog gets REALLY stressed at the vet so I only bring him in when we are called for appointments not sitting around for him to get cranked up... you can get some stress relief stuff to help them prior to going to the vets but to not get tests to get a 100% diagnoses in my opinion is madness

Knine

To be honest I would not put an old dog through a whole load of tests. Especially an old dog who got stressed by vets visits & when the end result is going to be the same. I woild rather the dog enjoyed his remaining time how ever long that may be.

We had one such dog who simply was laid prone, all 50kgs of him. No amount of testing was going to change the outcome. Vet said either meningitis or a stroke & he never recovered. Similar happened to our Cocker.