Dog Seizures

Seizure, convulsion, fit, epilepsy. These terms all describe the same thing - what happens when a sudden and uncontrolled burst of neurological activity occurs in the brain. Sometimes the neurological disturbance remains localized to a small area, such as the face or one limb. Usually, however, the uncontrolled firing of neurons spreads from the brain throughout the body, causing generalized convulsions, lasting from seconds to many minutes. 

​

Seizures are quite frightening when they occur in your beloved dog.

​

It is often hard for traditional MDs and vets to find the cause of seizures. According to Functional Medicine MDs and vets, the approach is quite simple. Seizures are very often the result of poor liver health and poor gut health. The health of the gut & liver is considered the foundation of all health.

​

The main causes of poor gut & liver health, in my experience, are poor nutrition, an improper diet (often with too much animal protein and/or cooked foods) and exposure to toxins including medications & vaccinations.

​

The so-called balanced canned and dried foods made to feed dogs for the past 70+ years and touted by pet food companies and health professionals as being healthy is the main cause for many ailments facing our pet population today. The nutrients in these foods don't even come close from a chemical point of view to what the complex configuration of nutrients in real foods are. If a dog is nutrient deficient for long enough from eating this diet, then chronic disease occurs.

 

There are also dog foods now that have better ingredients than these traditional kibble and canned foods of the past. But many of these newer dog foods are very high in animal protein or are all cooked formulas with no raw nutrition in them. This will create chronic health problems also.

​

If a dog eats a proper whole food diet, their gut & liver remains efficient and can do their jobs. But if dogs eat a highly processed, chemical filled diet or improper foods, their outraged gut & liver cannot do its work. Whether the gut & liver breaks down early or late depends upon how good an organ it was at birth, which has to do with the nutrition supplied by the mother.

​

But the gut & liver will break down at some point. This may be at birth, or it may be later in life. But break down they will.

 

And when the liver fails to filter and neutralize toxins from the blood, an extra line of defense must come into play. This defense is carried out by the endocrine glands, which try to direct these toxins into other eliminative organs. The principal endocrine glands called upon for this effort are the pituitary, which lies at the base of the brain, the thyroid, situated in the neck, and the adrenals, which fit like a cap over each kidney.

Glands of internal secretion then are pressed into hyper-function, forced to manufacture more of their secretion. However, since the amount of a gland's secretion is in exact ratio to the volume of blood entering it, the gland is enlarged by this extra blood supply, which often can have disastrous physical and health consequences.

The pituitary gland, for example, does not have much room in which to swell, encased as it is in a bony cup at the base of the skull, and very little swelling can take place without creating a pressure on the brain. This pressure can cause alarming symptoms. Different diseased states, all arising from a toxemia of the blood, can result from this pituitary pressure:  migraine headaches, the common types of seizures, and even blindness.

 

If a dog's liver health continues to decline, then seizures get longer and longer, and the seizures happen closer and closer together, to the point of being life threatening.

When a dog eats a proper real, whole food diet, the excessive dietary burden is taken off the liver. The liver is then able to cleanse the blood and restore a balance between the pituitary, thyroid and adrenal glands. The pituitary gland remains it’s normal size and seizures are eliminated.

My recommendation for eliminating seizures is simple: your dog needs to be on a proper, real food diet and whole food-based supplements that will support the intestinal tract and liver so that the pituitary gland is not under stress. Seizures may then likely be eliminated once and for all, based on my experience with 1000’s of dogs.

  

I can help your dog also. Please click on the FREE CONSULTATION button so that I can give your dog individualized help. 

​