Idiopathic Epilepsy - History

The first and perhaps most important step in diagnosing idiopathic epilepsy is gathering a detailed history of your dog's seizures. Your veterinarian will ask a series of questions to help narrow down potential causes. The following are just some of the questions they may ask to help understand if your dog is truly having seizures and to develop a list of potential causes of your dog's seizures.

A few examples of questions that might be asked include:

How often do the seizures occur, and how long do they last?

What are the seizure characteristics, in other words, what do the seizures look like?

What does your dog do before, during, and after the seizure? For example, does your dog seem anxious or exhibit unusual behavior before the seizure?

Is there any pattern to the seizures, such as occurring during sleep or after eating?

Does your dog have a history of head trauma or exposure to toxins?

Are there any changes in your dog's overall health or behavior?

We now want to give you the opportunity to answer a series of very detailed questions that you can keep in your email and share with your veterinary care team. You should take a moment every year at the annual recheck to update the history to include what may have happened in the last year! If you wish, you can skip this exercise, or come back later and do it at another time.

Keeping a seizure log can be extremely helpful for tracking these details. Include the date, time, and duration of each seizure, as well as any unusual behaviors before or after. There are many different types of seizure logs that you can utilize.