What is Epilepsy?
Most instances of idiopathic epilepsy initially occur when the dog is between 1 and 5 years of age although it is increasingly common for dogs as young as 6 months to be diagnosed with primary epilepsy. Dogs that start seizuring after the age of 5 years will almost certainly have a secondary condition.
Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain where brain cells create abnormal electricity that cause seizures. Periods of abnormal electrical activity will trigger a seizure.
Epilepsy in dogs is broadly divided into two distinct types - idiopathic and symptomatic.
Idiopathic (id-ee-uh-path-ik) epilepsy (also called primary epilepsy) is diagnosed when there is no known cause and possibly inherited. It is generally accepted in veterinary medicine that idiopathic epilepsy is partially hereditary, because some breeds and lines seem to have a higher incidence rate.
The second type is called Symptomatic epilepsy (also called secondary epilepsy). This diagnosis is used when a specific cause for the seizures can be found.
How common is epilepsy?
Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological diseases in dogs, but no one knows for sure just how common it is. Some studies estimate up to 4% of all dogs are affected. In some breeds, the incidence may be higher and some families may have up to 14% epileptics. Epilepsy occurs less frequently in cats and other pets, presumably because they do not have a hereditary form of the disease.
How is epilepsy treated?
Ideally, we would like to be able to remove the cause of the epilepsy so that the animal will never seizure again. If the epilepsy is symptomatic, sometimes treating the underlying disease (for example, removing the brain tumor) will cure the epilepsy. More often than not, we either can't find the cause (idiopathic epilepsy) or even if we can find and eliminate the cause, some damage has been done and the epilepsy continues. Then we need to use medications to control the seizures.