Siberian Husky 4 Months
Gualtar Pennington
This week I have been discussing the implications of Zinc Deficiency and Malabsorption in Huskies. Today I will discuss another issue that has its roots firmly planted in Zinc Deficiency and Malabsorption, seizures in Huskies.
Whether your dogs have been diagnosed as having Epilepsy or Idiopathic Seizures, there is no more heartbreaking sight than to be forced to stand by helplessly watching your Husky convulsing on the floor having a seizure.
You may know, one of my Siberian Huskies, Jhett, was diagnosed with Idiopathic Seizure activity when he was 14 months old. When I took him to the Vet, she determined that he did most likely have a Gran Mal seizure. I was certain he had a Gran Mal seizure because Jhett was not my first Husky to have seizures.
How was it that in over 30 years of medical advancements this condition in huskies was no better understood? Nor were there any real advances made as far as solutions to this problem were concerned? Are all Husky owners just relegated to being at the mercy of this condition? Why does nobody offer new answers or information as to what we can do to save our dogs from this fate?
And so began a 4-month long regime of looking for answers from everywhere. I read breeder blogs, asked questions, looked for patterns. I compared notes, read books on genetics, biology, animal husbandry, homoeopathy, and medicine. Determined to find answers to how this non-genetic condition manifests itself like an inherited disease in our Snow Dogs.
I have a diverse background in Science and Alternative Medicine. This allowed me to start slowly and painstakingly start piecing together a picture of what is truly at the root of this issue. This is where I first started to make the zinc deficiency and malabsorption connection. I realised how pervasive and important this issue is for this breed of dog.
In the other two articles, Zinc Deficiency: The Hidden Cause Of Chronic Sickness In Huskies and Correcting Zinc Deficiency In Huskies, I discussed the issue of how a lack of Zinc causes so many of the medical problems that can plague Huskies.
In the other articles, I also described how there are two major issues for Zinc Deficiency in Huskies: either there is an insufficient amount of Zinc contained in the Husky diet via poor quality food, OR there are sufficient quantities of Zinc in the body, but it cannot be properly absorbed in the intestine and utilized by the body. Both cases result in Zinc being unable to fully supply the daily amounts needed to complete all the body processes. Long term Zinc Deficiency is a powerful catalyst for many of the common medical conditions that exist in Huskies and Malamutes, one of those conditions being Seizures.
If your dog has had a seizure event, your Vet will want to make an accurate diagnosis. Unfortunately, seizure activity is diagnosed oddly. The Vet will test to rule out other contributing factors for the seizures. If they do not find evidence of other underlying factors, then Idiopathic Seizure activity becomes the diagnosis. Once the seizures begin happening with some regularity (more often than once a month), then the diagnosis changes from Idiopathic (seizures with unknown causes) to that of Epilepsy. For the diagnosis of Epilepsy to be made, the seizures must happen often, and the episodes must be similar in nature.
A seizure is a temporary convulsion due to erratic and uncontrolled bursts of neurological firings in the brain. These firings can be localized and show up in just one limb or the face, or they can affect the whole body causing twitching, paddling, or jerking of the limbs.
This kind of seizure originates in a localized area of the brain, so it tends only to involve limited regions of the body. There is no loss of consciousness, only loss of control of the affected body part.
This kind of seizure manifests itself with the animal doing certain involuntary behaviours like whining, barking, howling, snapping at the air, or walking in circles. At times this Psychomotor Seizure may be followed by a full Generalized Grand Mal Seizure.
It is vitally important that you help keep your dog safe before and after this experience. Because a dog has no real control of his seizures, that means that when a seizure strikes, he will fall over and have the seizure regardless of where he is at the time. You may have to move the dog to a place where he can be safe while he has the seizure. Move him away from furniture that he can bang into. Move him to the floor so he will not fall off from furniture during the seizure. Make sure that there is nothing for him to get his teeth caught on during the seizure.
Jhett once had a seizure in his wire crate. He often ran to hide in his crate if he felt a seizure coming on. He fell over in his crate sideways, and his teeth clamped down on the wire bars of his crate as the seizure struck. Because of the violent nature of the convulsions, I had to dive into his crate with him (good thing it was a large crate) and hold his head as still as I could so that he would not break off his teeth during the thrashing that is associated with the convulsions.
After the convulsing stops and the dog begins to regain consciousness, you have to supervise them to keep them physically safe during the post-ictal stage. Because there can be some temporary blindness and deafness, these dogs can easily hurt themselves by running into walls, furniture, or by falling down the stairs but because these dogs will also feel the need to pace during this phase you really cannot just put them into their crates to keep them safe.
While it is believed that most seizures are not lethal for your dog, some are. In April of 2014, after being seizure-free for a record 89 days, Jhett had a seizure while he was sleeping on the couch. I ran to help him, but instead of his normal seizure pattern, he began to have back to back a cluster of seizures.
He had a cluster of 13 seizures in under 30 minutes, and he died in my arms. I had no chance to take him to the hospital or to say goodbye to him. I felt helpless and useless as stood by watching him have seizure after seizure. Jhett endured 33 seizures (not counting the final 13) in the 4.5 years of his young life.
It is believed that 25% to 30% of dogs who take a combination of Phenobarbital and Potassium Bromide will still not have their seizures completely controlled by these drugs. If your Husky is still having seizures, your Vet may suggest using some of these other anti-seizure drugs:
There are many supplements that you may wish to consider giving your Epileptic Husky. Many of these can be given in conjunction with anti-convulsive medications. Always check with your Vet for possible drug interactions.
Canine Chiropractors are often not thought of when it comes to Epilepsy, but due to the violent nature of the convulsions, the neck and head are often out of alignment. Nearly everyone who has violent seizures will have C1 jammed up into Axis in the skull. When the spine is out of alignment, it interferes with how electric impulses travel in the body.
You are what you eat holds true for dogs too. To make sure that the brain functions optimally, a good diet is a must. Foods should be high-quality food, with good protein sources, no animal by-product, and no chemical preservatives.
Lastly, if you are feeding an all Raw Diet or a Home Cooked Diet make sure that you understand how to feed a diet that is properly balanced in vitamins and minerals to avoid creating a zinc deficiency in your dog. Please refer to my article, The Husky Diet: Raw Food and Cooked Homemade Diets for more information on this topic.
The best way to avoid the heartache of being relegated to your managing this disease in your Husky is to avoid the circumstances that yield Zinc Deficient Huskies. Prevention of this condition is crucial to having a healthy husky. If you are thinking of obtaining a Husky and it comes from one of the following situations, rethink your purchase!
Our Siberian Husky Coda started having fits 5 years ago the day after our other husky died. We did not think that this was related and have been giving him Levetriacet daily. The fits carried on at about 1 per month. otherwise he is in top condition. About 3 months ago we aquired a new Piebald husky, and at the same time I started giving Coda 22mg of zinc per day. He has not had a fit since the. I am not sure if this is coincidence or one or the other intervention. What ever he is very happy and still the best dog in the world. He is now 9 years old.
I have 2 huskys boy and girl my girl has had 3 fits since we had her at 6 months of age there was no pattern or time limit the firat two she had were mintues till she was back up and ok the last one was a week ago she was in it for over an hour we took her the vets who ran a blood test and checked her stomach and they came back clear and could not diagnose her with anyrhing till theae become more frequent she is now 7. I am co stantly worried this is going to happen again and i would like some help of what i can do to help her with not knowing her diagnosis if she has another one could anyone shed any light please
Thank you for writing this, my husky has lived 8 very healthy years and just had a 10 minute gran maul seizure. We have never experienced anything like this before and so it was nearly as intense for us a it was for her. Your article is calming and informative. Appreciate it very much.
Thanks a lot ! I am so glad to hear about Mika. Love from Summer and Saurabh. Hope we could connect more if possible. Finding someone who had seen same weather is so helpful and brings the ray of hope for us. If possible, mail me on er.saurabhsharma1991 [at] gmail.com
This is really a very very helpful site/article that you have here. My boy Zeev have been having seizures for the a few months now . he is 17 months old . we just witnessed his third seizure this morning .
MY husky zeev occasionally has a ear twitch sort of thing . His two ears are most of the time standing up , but occasionally his ear twitches and instead of pointing up it points almost horizontally with an angle . This stays for about 20- 40 minutes . He kind of struggles when this happens , trying to rub his ear . I massage the back of his ear and head and sometimes that works and is back to normal again and sometimes he has to take his own time to bring it back to normal.
c80f0f1006