Seizures in Dogs and Cats: What to Notice and Record

Watching an animal seize is one of the worst things an owner ever sees, and the feeling that dominates it is uselessness. You cannot stop it, you cannot comfort them out of it, and the instinct to grab hold and do something is overwhelming and wrong.

Here is the part nobody tells you: there is something genuinely valuable you can do, and it is not physical. A seizure is almost always over before a vet can see it. What they get instead is your account of it - and the quality of that account has a real bearing on what happens next. Watching properly and writing it down is not a consolation prize. It is the contribution.

Watch the clock, because you will get it wrong

Time distorts badly during a seizure. Owners routinely report several minutes for something that lasted under one, and occasionally the reverse. Duration is one of the first things a vet will ask about and one of the least reliable things owners provide.

So look at a clock, or start the stopwatch on your phone, at the moment you register what is happening. Note the time it stops. Note the time your pet seems properly themselves again, which is usually much later than the time the movements stop, and is a separate and useful figure. If there is a second episode, note that time too. Three timestamps beat any adjective.

What to watch for - describing without diagnosing

Seizures do not all look the same. Some are dramatic and whole-body; some are a limb, or one side of the face, or a period of staring and unresponsiveness that an owner might not label a seizure at all. Describe what the body did, in plain words. Do not try to categorise it - that is the vet's job and your description is the raw material for it.

• What the body did. Stiff, paddling, jerking, twitching, collapsed and still, trembling. Whether it involved all of the body or part of it.
• Whether one side differed from the other, and which side.
• The head and face. Eyes open or closed, where they were looking, blinking, chomping, drooling, foaming, vocalising.
• Whether they were aware of you at any point - did they respond to their name, to touch, to the room.
• Whether there was loss of bladder or bowel control.
• How it started. Out of sleep, out of rest, during activity, after a noise, after eating. Anything odd in the minutes before - clinginess, restlessness, hiding, staring, seeking you out.
• How it ended, and what came afterwards: wobbliness, blindness or bumping into things, pacing, disorientation, ravenous hunger, exhaustion, and how long that lasted.

If someone else is in the room, or the animal is safe where they are, film it. Ten seconds of video is worth several paragraphs and vets genuinely welcome it. Do not stand over your pet composing a shot, and never let filming delay a call - but if the choice is between filming and standing there feeling helpless, film.

The context that turns a description into information

Two identical-looking episodes can mean completely different things depending on what surrounds them. These are the things the practice will ask and the things you can gather while the phone rings.

• Has this ever happened before? If so, when, how many times, and how does today compare.
• Everything they take. Read every medicine, supplement, flea or worm treatment off its packet, with the strength printed on it. Say when the last dose was given, and say honestly if a dose was missed or given twice.
• Any chance of access to something. A bin, a garage, a handbag, a shed, a neighbour's garden, a plant, a spillage, a visitor's medication left out. This is one of the most important questions on the whole call - if there is any possibility at all, say so. See My Dog Ate Something - What To Do, the poison control directory and the poison control directory, all of which exist to make you a better-informed caller rather than to replace the caller.
• Recent health. Illness, injury, a knock to the head, a recent procedure or anaesthetic, weight loss, changes in drinking, appetite or behaviour over recent weeks.
• Who the pet is. Species, breed or best guess, age, rough weight, and any diagnosed condition.
• Anything else in the environment that changed - new food, a new product used in the house, building work, a new pet.

Why this page does not tell you what to do to your pet

This page used to carry a list of physical steps. It has been removed on purpose. A seizing animal is not conscious of you, cannot cooperate, and cannot be reasoned with, and almost everything an owner instinctively wants to do falls into one of two categories: useless, or harmful to one of you.

What can be said safely is the set of refusals - things not to do, which are not techniques and do not depend on judging the individual animal:

• Nothing near the mouth. Not your hands, not an object, not a cloth. The old belief that an animal can swallow its own tongue is untrue, and the jaw of a seizing animal will injure you badly without any intent behind it.
• Nothing by mouth. No food, no water, no medicine of any kind, including a prescribed one, unless a vet has specifically told you to give it, for this animal, in this situation.
• Do not restrain the movements or hold your pet down. It does not shorten anything and it risks injury on both sides.
• Do not try to rouse them. Shouting, shaking, splashing and slapping do not interrupt a seizure and add to what the animal has to recover from.
• Do not reach for anything from a human medicine cabinet. This is one of the most common routes to a second emergency on top of the first.
• Do not decide it does not need a call because it stopped. That it stopped is expected, and it is not the same as an explanation.

Beyond those refusals, anything involving your animal's surroundings, position or handling is a judgement about a specific situation, and the person on the phone is the one who should be making it. Ask them, and do what they say. The general version of this reasoning - why confident step-by-step first-aid advice for pets survives on the internet despite being dangerous - is on Pet First Aid Truths - What Not To Do and Why.

Afterwards, when they come round

The period after the movements stop is often longer and stranger than the seizure itself, and owners are frequently unprepared for it. An animal may be disoriented, unsteady, unable to see properly, pacing, unusually hungry, unusually thirsty, exhausted, or not recognise you for a while. They may also be uncharacteristically snappy - this is not aggression and it is not personal, it is confusion, and it is a good reason to give them room rather than reassurance.

Watch, note the times, and keep the household quiet. Do not use this period to test whether they are back to normal; let them arrive there. And make the call - the recovery period is exactly when people talk themselves out of phoning, on the grounds that the crisis has passed. The crisis passing is not the same as knowing what caused it.

Saying it when they pick up

Lead with the event and the times. For example: "My dog had a seizure that started at ten past eight and lasted about ninety seconds by the clock. He was stiff and paddling, he was not aware of me, he wet himself, and he has been wobbly and confused since. He is a six-year-old collie, about twenty kilos, on no medication, and this has never happened before."

Then let them ask, write down what they tell you, and read it back. Two questions worth asking: what should I watch for tonight, and what would make you want to see him sooner. Tell them whether you are coming and roughly when. The full preparation is on Before You Call the Vet, and if you are unsure how urgent the whole picture is, the emergency triage helper will point you at the call rather than away from it.

If this becomes something you live with

For some households a seizure is a one-off with an explanation. For others it becomes a long-term condition managed over years. If that turns out to be your situation, the record above stops being an emergency tool and becomes the single most valuable thing you bring to appointments: a dated log of every episode, its length, its shape and what surrounded it. Patterns that are invisible one episode at a time become obvious across twenty.

Keep it in one place, keep it boring and factual, and bring it every time. Note anything that changed - a dose, a brand, a routine, a stress. Never adjust or stop a prescribed medicine on your own judgement; that decision belongs to your vet, and stopping some treatments abruptly causes serious harm. If money is a live constraint, say so early and openly at the practice rather than quietly skipping appointments; our vet costs guide is calm-day background, not a reason to delay a call.

And do the boring preparation on an ordinary evening: your practice's number and an out-of-hours number saved under names you can find while shaking, the printable emergency pack on the fridge for anyone who looks after your animals, a quick home safety walk-round for anything reachable, and a little time spent learning what your own animal looks like when they are not right - reading your pet's body language is the unhurried version of that skill.

Where this page sits

One of four situation pages built the same way - notice, record, prepare, call. The others are heat illness, choking and bleeding and wounds. The reasoning is on Pet First Aid Truths, the phone preparation on Before You Call the Vet, and anything swallowed starts at My Dog Ate Something. See also the pet emergency hub and the emergency vet finder.