Seizures...

I h ave never had any experience with any of my dogs having seizures.  The one time I thought kayCee was having one turned out to be a vertigo episode due to inner ear infection.   I wish i could offer some advice or help, but i can't.  so i am just wishing you the best with your fur kid.

Our Saber has had gran mals. None since he has been on medication. What you describe sounds like gran mals too. Are you keeping a seizure journal? Do you crate Kota when you are gone??

I second the suggestion of keeping a journal of the seizures and anything else Kota does out of the ordinary.  Years ago I had a poodle that had seizures and she was on meds to control them.  For your peace of mind you should take Kota back to the vets for a recheck and have a discussion with the doc.  Wish you the best, I will keep Kota in my thoughts and prayers.

Thank you.  I do keep a journal on them. 
 
He is not crated when I'm not home, but is confined to a single room by a large baby gate with one other loose dog about his size.  I didn't think anything of this until yesterday when I happened to be home during the work week.  The other dogs didn't seem to care or react differently to him during it so I don't think they'd be a problem.  But do you think they would?  I was considering leaving all 4 dogs out as a trial because I hate to leave them caged for so long during the day.  But now I'm rethinking that idea...
 
But for grand mal seizures, how do you know that they lose consciousness?

From my previous experience I would keep him separate from the others when you are not home.  Since he is in a room by himself, why not keep the other dogs loose on the other side of the gate?

What's the concern with other dogs around?  Is it that they might attack him or something?

Yes, he *could* be attacked while he is down, although that doesn't mean he will!  It all depends on your dogs, if you trust them and they haven't shown any signs of aggression towards him  then he will probably be okay.  I just wouldn't take the chance myself.     

Well, the one that is loose with him, is the only one that has ever shown aggression, but it was more of an alpha thing between the two of them.  Combining two households if you know what I mean.  They didn't even care about him yesterday when he was down and between my legs.  They just wanted my attention cause I was on the floor.  We usually have someone grab the others when he has one, but I was home alone this time.

It doesn't matter if the dog has never shown aggression before. It's a survival of the fittest thing. Dogs who have seizures should be seperated from the other dogs when you can't watch.

It's a hard call but as Jennie said survival of the fittest.  I had a similar situation not with seizures but one had cancer and undergoing chemo.  The "fittest" Dachsie would attack when she saw an opportunity  and would kill her if we weren't there.  We finally had to separate them permanently. 

We just recently lost our GSD from complications from epilepsy.  Since Dec. I think he may have had 20 full blown Grand Mal seizures and 3 episodes that were cluster seizures and we had to administer vallium to stop the seizuring.  And every day since his diagnosis...he had constant "tics' that are a milder seizure, but a seizure non the less.  So my experience is much more severe....but I thought I would post.
 
If you are asking about whether or not to leave the dogs together, then I think it would be best to at least isolate your dog from the others.  Dogs that are having seizures are giving off diff. vibes than when they are normal.  During the post ictal phase (after a seizure) they are still vunerable and not themselves.  If your dog is having grand mal (it does sound that way....) then it is probably taking him some time to come around after wards.  He may not know where he is, or what has just happened, or why he feels the way that he does.  This might make HIM aggressive towards the other dogs, or your dog that he has had alpha issues with might decide that its a good time to try rough housing with him.
 
Also consider the fact that he could do harm to himself in a room when a seizure happens.  Falling down and banging around against things...he could fall head first onto a table or something that would crack his skull, or if he fell into something that were to topple over on him, he could be injured that way too.  And if left alone with the other dogs, they could wind up getting hurt....if his legs are going as bad as I have seen seizures get...then anything near him is likely to get injured.
 
If this were my dog, it would be a hard decision to make..if he is not having the seizures very often...then you dont want to keep him crated if he is good in the house.  But I would look over your journal, and try to figure out what is triggering his siezures.
 
Keep things like time of day, what the dog was doing before, anything new he has eaten, or new experiences, ...try to find something that will help you spot diff. in his behaviours.  Maybe if you can start predicting them, then you know that he would be better off in his crate that week, etc.
 
MHO, would be if you can get his seizures under control, and sort of predict when he is going to have one...I would hold off on the meds.  Unless of course they start to get more frequent.  My vet did suggest to us that a dog that has more than 4-6 seizures a year would be on Phenobarbitol.  Our dog experienced all the side effects and it took a LONG time for his personality to start showing after his system was getting used to the meds.  But the meds were necessary in his case.  They are known to raise certain levels in your dogs system that will eventually harm the kidneys.  If you can start to handle the seizures without the meds I would try that first.
 
I am writing a book here...if you have any questions feel free to PM me, and I will try to be as helpful as possible!
 
Good luck with your dog!

Shaggy_Dog, if you don't mind, so others may also learn, I'll respond here...
 
Kota's seizures last only 8 minutes with 5 being severe, meaning he can't get up cause his legs are spastic.  In the last few minutes, he begins to lick a bit then pant as he comes out.  The previous times, he's been ok after 10 minutes or so.  This time he seemed a bit more shaky and I thought he might go into another but he didn't...
 
We don't have anything in their room that could fall on him and he's only 23 pounds and 14 inches at the shoulder, so he's a little guy.  My baby bud.... 
 
I've tried to record what might cause it.  The only common occurrence in 3 of them that I can remember off the top of my head, is that we had a lot of people over or there was a lot of excitement going on.  Yesterday, it was all quiet at the house.  I was reading and he came in acting kind of weird.
 
What other kinds of "ticks" might be a sign that he's having smaller ones?  They started when he turned 3 years old... well, that I know of I guess.

Thats fine, I dont mind to continue the post....just didnt want to take it over, or make a book out of it! LOL
 
Lets see...the excitment was a biggie for us.  Him getting really worked up...we took him to my parents like we sometimes do, but after being on the meds, and getting to a somewhat stable point, we took him for a ride..and he had some that night.
 
Any sort of facial or body type of tick..like if they have a bug on their face, or an itch in the muscle..thats a little sign.
 
You would sometimes catch our boy just staring off into space, or "looking through you" at times, and we knew that he was not just right.
 
Stumbling, clumsiness..things out of the ordinary.  Sometimes you will notice them acting strange and it will be days before the seizure happens.
 
Our vet had some pretty decent experience in treating dogs with epilepsy...and had mentioned that sometimes the most off the wall things will trigger one.  He even mentioned that he has noticed through the years that a lot of dogs tend to have more seizures in the winter months when the nights are longer. 
 
In the end it seems that whatever our boys seizures were occurring from were more hidden than we knew and maybe more along the lines of a brain tumor or something.
 
Has the vet done any blood work on your dog to rule out any kidney prob.s or any other reasons for seizures? 
 
And if your dog has more than one seizure in a small period of time..you def. need to go to the vets. I think more than 2 large seizures in a 24 hr. period are considered a cluster.  And if they start coming one right after another, without much/or any/ time in between seizures..that can be dangerous...and you may need vallium to stop the cycle.

He has been to the vet's about them but that was probably two years ago.  And they said basically unless there's more than 1 a month, to just monitor them and record them.  He's had two that we know of in the last year.  It's the ones we may not know of that concern me I guess.  I'm going to try and figure out some kind of doggie cam type of thing so I can watch him when I"m not home.  We actually are taping them today.  We did that yesterday too and they all just slept all day.  A few barks here and there but that's it.
 
I don't know that I've noticed any kinds of tics or staring into space kinds of things but I will try to be more observant about them.