Raising awareness of seizure triggers and pre-seizure behaviour changes in dogs

Owners of dogs with epilepsy are often expert record keepers; whether it is via lists, calendars or smartphone apps, keeping track of their dog's seizures and anti-seizure medication regimen can be an onerous task, with seizure-free streaks becoming an important marker of success in their dog's management.

Epilepsy is the most common chronic neurological condition in dogs and is currently estimated to affect around 70 000 of the 11.6 million dogs kept as pets in the UK (0.6%). Owners can feel distressed, devastated, and dejected when seizures occur, often compounded by feelings of unpredictability and lack of control over their dog's seizures. As such, the Canine Epilepsy Research Team at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) are motivated to find ways to make seizures more predictable.

From studies of human epilepsy patients, it has been shown that up to half (47%) of people with epilepsy can identify changes in their mental or physical state before a seizure, with this pre-seizure period known as the ‘prodrome’. Prodromal changes can occur hours to days before a seizure occurs. In addition, many other patients were able to identify ‘triggers’ for their own seizures, stimuli that when they were exposed to, reliably led to a seizure. Finding whether these phenomena existed in dogs with epilepsy is of high priority as a potential way of improving epilepsy management.