Diagnosis of the etiology of an epileptic dog involves prudent history acquisition coupled with clinical signs, neurological examination, blood chemistry, cerebrospinal fluid evaluation, and urinalysis

Anderson, Paul

Carithers, R. W.

English

Diagnosis of the etiology of an epileptic dog involves prudent history acquisition coupled with clinical signs, neurological examination, blood chemistry, cerebrospinal fluid evaluation, and urinalysis.</p

Carithers, R.

Digital Repository @ Iowa State University (ISU)

nasal, oral, and ocular lesions are observedalong with a persistent high temperature,enlargement of peripheral lymph nodes,and terminal encephalitis. The diagnosiscan be confirmed histologically by demon-strating perivascular, mononuclear cell ag-gregations in brain, liver, heart, and kid-ney tissues.The differential diagnosis should in-clude BVD-MD, Rinderpest, InfectiousStomatitides, IBR, and Pneumonic Pas-teurellosis. BVD-MD, Rinderpest, and theInfectious Stomatitides are not accompan-ied by the typical ocular lesions, lymphnode enlargement, or encephalitis andthey each have a distinctive histopathol-ogy. IBR is not usually fatal, recovery israpid, the lesions are restricted to the up-per respiratory tract and the disease isreadily transmitted. Pneumonic Pasteurel-losis is not accompanied by oral, nasal, orocular lesions and responds well to treat-ment.Treatment and ControlBecause malignant catarrhal fever iscaused by a virus, treatment is of little orno value.Because association with sheep is usu-ally in the history, separation of cattle andsheep herds is recommended and has re-sulted in the disappearance of the diseasein some cases. The introduction of sheepfrom areas where the disease has occurredshould be avoided. Very few animals sur-vive, but those that recover are immuneto further infection for four to eightmonths.Bibliography1. Ramsey, F. K. and Kluge, .T. P., Class notes, 1973.2. Blood, D. C. and Henderson, J. A., Veterinary :Medi-cine, Third Edition, Williams and \Vilkins Co., Balti-more, 1971, pp. 479-482.3. Jensen, Rue and l\'Iackay, Donald R., Diseases of Feed-lot Cattle, Second Edition, Lea and Febiger, Philadel-phia, 1971, pp. 18-24.4. Gibbons, W. J., Catcott, E. J., and Smithcors, J. F.,Bovine l\!Iedicine and Surgery, First Edition, AmericanVeterinary Publications, Inc., 1970, pp. 85-90.5. The :Merck Veterinary :Manual, Fourth Edition, :Merckand Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., 1973, pp. 266-268.History as a Diagnostic Aidin Canine EpilepsybyPaul Anderson *R. W. Carithers D.V.M., M.S., Ph.D.tSummaryDiagnosis of the etiology of an epilepticdog involves prudent history acquisition*' ~1r. Anderson is a fourth year student in the Collegeof Veterinary :Medicine at Iowa State University.t Dr. Carithers is an Assistant Professor in VeterinaryClinical Sciences, Iowa State University.6coupled with clinical signs, neurologicalexamination, blood chemistry, cerebro-spinal fluid evaluation, and urinalysis.The histories of five clinical cases arepresented to show the variations in theamnesis and the significance these varia-tions might have.Iowa State University Veterinaria1lCase History #1A five-year-old intact female coon houndwas presented on September 14, 1974.The owner had observed the episodes hecalled seizures occurring about every tendays to two weeks beginning in July. Theseverity of the episodes were about thesame and inter-seizural duration remainedconstant.The owner said the animal would gethighly excitable, run around with no pref-erence to either side, go into a convulsion,and then pass out.Upon closer examination of the convul-sion, the animal became tense in all fourlimbs, trembled, sank into sternal recum-bency with her head between her fore-limbs, and lay there for a period of time.At no time did the dog lose consciousness,exhibit opisthotonus, tonic or tonoclonicmuscle spasms, or subsequent paddlingmovements. Instead, if the owner calledor petted the dog, she would try to re-spond at any point during the episode.This history directed attention to theheart, and a diagnosis of syncope due todirofilariasis was confirmed.DiscussionOne must have a clear picture in hisown mind of exactly what the dog is do-ing. In this case, the dog was not havingcOl~vulsions as the owner had believed,but was actually having episodes of syn-cope.Case History #2A fifteen-month-old, forty-three poundm'ale dog of mixed breeding was admittedwith a history of having convulsions. Hehad his first convulsion three months pre-viously, and had had five convulsionssince that time. The convulsions were oc-curring with increasing severity, and theinterseizural duration was approximatelyone week to ten days.The dog exhibited a brief period of an..xiety before each convulsion that lastedabout ten seconds. He would then showopisthotonus and tonic spasms of the frontforelimbs. This would cause him to be-Issue No.1, 1975come rigid and fall to one side. (He didnot show any preference·, for- either side.)Tetany would continue for about ten tofifteen seconds and then the legs, especial-ly the front ones, would begin to kick to-gether. This would last another fifteen totwenty seconds, and would be followedby running movements which lasted twoto three minutes. After all of this wasover, the dog would then lay exhausted forten to fifteen minutes before he got up andblindly staggered around, gradually im-proving to near normalcy in thirty min-utes.This history prompted a probe into thevaccination history of the dog. He hadreceived one canine distemper vaccinationat the age of eleven weeks at the pet store.The dog, however, had not shown anysigns of illness before or since that time.The convulsions became refractory tohigh levels of anticonvulsant drugs withinone year, and the dog was subsequentlyeuthanized. Lesions consistent with post-distemper demyelination were found inthe central nervous system upon necropsy.DiscussionEpilepsy due to post-distemper demye-lination usually occurs in dogs less than1~~ years of age that have had inadequateor no vaccination, for canine distemper.The dog mayor may not have had a mild"cold" usually 1 month or 6 weeks priorto the first convulsion. The duration ofthe convulsion is usually measured in min-utes rather than seconds and the inter-seizural period is initially less than onemonth.Anticonvulsant medication usually hasto be increased frequently to control fitsand all too often the condition terminatesin status epilepticus.Case History #JA sixteen-year-old spayed female Labra-dor-English Pointer cross was admittedwith a history of convulsions.The episodes began one month previ-ously, but were not really convulsions. In-stead, they were spells of weakness afterthe dog had been outside in the morning.7These weak spells progressed ulllil oneweek prior to admission. At this time, shestarted having actual convulsions. Theconvulsion~ occurred every morning afterthe dog woke up and moved around a lit-tle bit. The dog was lethargic for two tothree hours after these seizures, and thenfelt reasonably good in- the afternoon.The seizures were characterized byshaking, severe twitching of the head, andfalling over backwards. Tonic or tono-clonic spasms would then continue. forfive or six minutes.Because of the dog's age and the dailyearly n10rning seizures, hypoglycemia wasconsidered. Laboratory tests suggested anislet cell tumor which was confirmed onnecropsy.DiscussionA number of diseases increase in inci-dence with the age of the animal. Heartdiseases, abscesses, feline infectious peri-tonitis, toxoplasmosis, cryptococosis,lymphosarcoma, primary reticulo~is, andneoplasms are commonly underlyingcauses of epilepsy in older animals. If thefirst convulsion is beyond five years mucheffort is exp~nded in excluding these dis-eases from the differential diagnosis.History is very important to giv~ one afeeling for the progression of the disease.Case History #4A three-and-a-half-year-old m'ale mina-ture poodle was presented with a historyof having had four convulsions. He en-joyed good health otherwise, and had agood vaccination history.The dog's first convulsion occurred atthe age of two years. The second occurredsix months later. And the last two oc-curred about one month apart. Both theowner and his wife worked, and the dogwas home all day. The convulsions didnot have any predeliction for a particulartime of day. Thus, the dog could havehad a number of convulsions that theowners would not have known about.The first convulsion lasted only two tothree seconds, and the owners were noteven sure what it was. Only one convul-8sian was observed all the way through, themost recent one. The dog exhibited someapprehension with an anxious look andwhining for about four to five minutes.Then the dog ,went into a tonic spasn1with opisthotonus developing, fell on theleft side and becam:e more rigid. Theseizure progressed to the clonic state withwhole body jerking. This reduced in se-verity and duration until the animal re-laxed. The ictus lasted only about ten sec-onds but seemed like an hour to the own-er. After a thirty second rest the dog be-gan moving about in a stupor, staggeringand running into things. This lasted forabout ten minutes.Subsequent work up rendered a diag-nosis of hereditary epilepsy.DiscussionThe first seizure in hereditary epilepsyusually appears between 2 and 4 years inthe poodle, beagle, brittany, and Irish set-ter. The Saint Bernard and Gern1an shep-herd may have the first seizure as earlyas 1Y2 years of age. Initial seizures arelight, and of short duration with a preictal,ictal, and post ictal con1ponent. The seiz-ure is symmetrical with no lateralizingsigns. There are no jnterseizural signs.The interseizural duration initially mayvary from 3 to 6 months but reduces toone month or less after a few seizures.Case History # 5A three-and-one-half year o~d, spayed,standard-bred poodle was admitted to theStange Memorial Veterinary Clinic withno history of previous illness. The chiefcomplaint was a transient mental behav-ioral change of two to three seconds dura-tion. The animal showed no abnormalsigns until the next episode.These episodes were manifested as bit-ing the owner. The dog had never bittenanyone else. The bite was of a severe,trauD1atizing nature. A laceration requir-ing five sutures in the owner's handprompted them, to seek help. The epi-sodes began two years previously andwere infrequent in occurrence. They werebecoming more and more frequent. Dur-Iowa State University Veterinarianing a ten day camping trip, just prior toadmission, the dog bit the owner once aday for seven of those ten days.After further investigation, a diagnosisof psychomotor or behavioral epilepsy wasrendered.DiscussionThis case was included because it meetsthe criteria of the definition of epilepsy.The neuronal discharge was occurring onlyin a localized part of the brain, the hy-pothalamus. It did not become generalizedand include the motor cortex, 'so no pat-tern of muscle involven1ent or loss of con-sciousness was seen.General DiscussionThe previously mentioned cases are byno means presented to exhaust the variouscauses of epilepsy but intended only to actas guide lines for the types of questionsthat should be asked.Consideration must be given to the age,breed, vaccination record and life style ofthe animal. The presence and duration ofthe preictal, ictal, post ictal and interictalstages should be defined.A search must be made for presence ofany interseizural 'neurological signs. Lat-eralizing signs during the early stages ofthe fit or between fits are very important.If an old trauma is to be considered asan etiology, the presence of a concussionat that time may n1ake this informationrelevant.Once the veterinarian has recorded anaccurate and complete history, he is readyto continue with the examination, butwithout it, he may have already lost thebattle. Of all the tools he has at his dis-posal, a good history is one of the most im-portant.Case ReferencesCase no. 1 Iowa State University Veterinary Clinic Caseno. 58661Case no. 2 Iowa State University Veterinary Clinic Caseno. 90168Case no. 3 Schellenberger, C. R. and Carithers, R. W.Canine Insulinoma. Iowa State UniversityVeterinarian. Vol. 36, No.2, 1974.Case no. 4 Iowa State University Veterinary Clinic Caseno. 70-C-0488Case no. 5 Carithers, R. W. Psychomotor Episode of aPoodle. Iowa State University Veter£narian.Vol. 35, No.2, 1973.General References1. Breazile, James E. Convulsive Disorders in Dogs. Cur-rent Veterinary Therapy IV. W. B. Saunders Co. Phil-adelphia, Pa., 1971.2. Canin.e Medicine. American Veterinary Publication,Inc. Wheaton, Illinois. 1968.3. Cunningham,.J. G. Canine Seizures and Metabolic Dis-orders. Paper. Michigan State University.4. Ettinger and Sutter. Canine Cardiology. W. B. Saund-ers Co. Philadelphia, Pa. 1970.5. Kay, William. Epilepsy. Current Veterinary TherapyV. "". B. Saunders Co. Philadelphia, Pa. 1974.Salmonellosis: A Case ReportbyLinda Schlater *Salmonella sp. is known to infect manydifferent species of animals. This paperwill describe a. case of Salmonellosis in aconure. The term canure refers to birdsin several neotropical gel1era of the Psit-tacine family found in South and CentralAmerica.5* Mrs. Schlater is a third year student in The College ofVeterinary Medicine at Iowa State University.Issue No.1, 1975The bird in this case was from a groupimported from Mexico to be used for re-search at the National Animal DiseaseCenter, Ames, Iowa.4O'ne bird of the group died of a peracutesepticemic disease, and tissue samplesyielded Salmonella serotype 1, 4, 12: imonophasic.2On l1ecropsy, the liver showed multi-9

History as a Diagnostic Aid in Canine Epilepsy

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History as a Diagnostic Aid in Canine Epilepsy

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