"A pet seizure is one of the scariest emergencies an owner can witness, and knowing what to do in those first moments can make all the difference."— Julie Schwenzer
Episode summary
Dr. LoSasso opens with something he says every owner needs to hear: a seizure is not the same thing as death — even though it feels exactly like watching a pet die. He speaks from personal experience, describing his own first-year vet student panic watching his own dog seize for the first time. The convulsing itself typically lasts only 25 to 45 seconds, but he calls it the longest 45 seconds of an owner's life — full mourning can set in before the seizure has even ended, only for the dog to stand up minutes later looking mildly confused about why its owner is crying on the floor.
"By the time they come to me, they're still crying because they know their dog is dead — except that their dog looks perfectly normal on physical exam and he's happy and healthy."— Dr. Michael LoSasso, DVM
After the active seizure ends, dogs go through a recovery period — usually 10 to 30 minutes — that can include wobbliness, temporary blindness, drooling, and loss of bladder or bowel control. A small number of dogs vocalize during a seizure, which Dr. LoSasso says is genuinely distressing to hear but carries no medical significance beyond which part of the brain happened to be involved — it doesn't indicate a worse seizure. Epilepsy and brain tumors are both about five times more common in dogs than in people, and epilepsy is diagnosed entirely by ruling out other causes, since nothing about it shows up on routine blood work. A full workup to rule out a brain tumor requires an MRI, running about $4,500 in his area. Most epileptic dogs have their first seizure between ages two and six; a first seizure in an older dog raises more concern for a mass, though geriatric-onset epilepsy does happen.
Stay calm, keep hands away from the mouth (dogs cannot swallow their tongue — that's a myth), and clear the area of hazards, especially anything involving water. Recording video of the entire seizure is genuinely useful — not for anything visually dramatic, but because it gives an exact timestamp and duration your vet can use to track whether seizures are getting longer or more frequent over time. Picking up and holding a seizing dog won't stop the seizure any faster (it was only ever going to last ~25 seconds regardless), but Dr. LoSasso says do it if it helps you.
A first seizure doesn't automatically mean starting medication — there's no way to predict if or when a second one will happen. Anticonvulsants become a real conversation once a dog is seizing at least monthly, or has multiple seizures within a single day.
A seizure that doesn't stop after a few minutes — called status epilepticus — is genuinely dangerous, separate from the seizure activity itself. Sustained muscle contractions generate enormous heat, and Dr. LoSasso has treated dogs that seized for two or three hours and arrived with body temperatures of 109-110°F, with resulting damage to the liver, blood vessels, brain, and GI tract severe enough that euthanasia became the only humane option. A seizure that won't stop needs emergency veterinary care immediately — don't wait it out at home.
His closing point is one worth sitting with: epilepsy does not shorten a dog's lifespan. The disease itself is far less dangerous than it looks from the outside — it's genuinely, as he puts it, much worse for the owner watching than for the dog experiencing it.
Questions answered in this episode
The following questions are answered by Dr. LoSasso in this episode, drawn directly from the conversation. These are real clinical answers from a practicing emergency veterinarian with 30+ years of experience.