Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Seizures in dogs under primary veterinary care in the United Kingdom: Etiology, diagnostic testing, and clinical management.
- Journal:
- Journal of veterinary internal medicine
- Year:
- 2020
- Authors:
- Erlen, Alexander et al.
- Affiliation:
- Institute of Pharmacology · Germany
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
Seizures are a common issue in dogs, but there isn't a lot of information about how they are diagnosed and treated in regular veterinary practices. In a study involving over 455,000 dogs, researchers found that out of nearly 2,800 dogs that had seizures, about 20% were diagnosed with epilepsy, which can be either idiopathic (no known cause) or structural (related to brain abnormalities). Many dogs did not receive any medication for their seizures, and those that did were often given just one type of anti-seizure drug. The study highlighted that younger dogs and those with pet insurance were more likely to get thorough testing, suggesting that financial factors and age can affect how these cases are managed. Overall, the findings indicate a need for clearer guidelines on diagnosing and treating seizures in dogs.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Although seizures are common in dogs, limited published information is available on the classifications of seizures, diagnostic approaches, or clinical management of seizure-affected patients in the veterinary primary care setting. OBJECTIVES: Explore seizure etiology, diagnostic testing, and clinical management of seizure-affected dogs in the primary care veterinary setting. ANIMALS: A total of 455 553 dogs in VetCompass. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis by cohort clinical data. RESULTS: From 2834 incident seizure cases, we identified 579 (20.5%) dogs with epilepsy based on the International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force (IVETF) classification system, including 484 (17.1%) with idiopathic epilepsy, 95 (3.4%) with structural epilepsy, and 179 dogs (6.3%) with reactive seizures. In their clinical first opinion records, 245 (8.6%) cases were recorded with epilepsy. Overall, 1415 (49.9%) cases received diagnostic evaluation equivalent to or higher than IVETF Tier 1 diagnostic testing. Being <12 years of age and being insured were risk factors for receiving IVETF Tier 1 or higher diagnostic evaluation among seizure cases. Anti-seizure drug (ASD) treatment was not prescribed for 1960/2834 (69.2%) dogs in association with the incident seizure event. Of the remainder, 719 (25.3%) dogs received 1 ASD, whereas 155 (5.5%) an ASD combination. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: The differences between seizure classifications in the clinical records and those retrospectively assigned by the researchers support the need for clearer diagnostic guidelines in clinical practice. Insured dogs and dogs <12 years of age were more likely to receive advanced diagnostic evaluation, suggesting that financial and perceived prognostic factors influence case management.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33128852/