Cocker Spaniel loss of muscle control

Question
Hi, we have a 3 year old English cocker spaniel and he just had an episode where he totally lost control of his legs. He was not convulsing nor were his eyes rolling around like when he had a seizure back in December. Instead he could not sit, stand, walk, etc. He was very panicked and scared and was crawling between the two of us into our laps for about 5 minutes. His eyes were extremely dilated also. After the initial 5 minutes he regained his ability to stand, sit and walk, but his eyes were still dilated and he was still very scared. Another 2 minutes later he was fully recovered and just wanted a lot of love and attention. He was panting and we gave him water to drink to help him calm down. He did not urinate, convulse, or roll his eyes around as I said before. When he had a seizure in December he did all of those things. Any information as to what this might be or what might have caused it would be very helpful and very much appreciated. Thank you

Answer
This sounds like a seizure, even though it was not the same as the last one. Dogs can have many types of seizures, but they fall mainly into two main categories: Petit mal, which are small, focal seizures, or Grand mal, which is the type he had back in December.

Petit mal, or focal seizures, can be as scary as the grand mal type, but typically affect one part of the body only. They can be as inconspicuous as a twitching eyelid or as pronounced as losing control over their legs, yet without the eye rolling, vocalization, etc.

This warrants a trip to the vet and a check up. Any type of hind end paralysis needs to be investigated. He could have had some other type of brain disturbance, but from what you are describing, with his subsequent recovery, sounds more like seizure activity.

Time to make an appointment with the vet.