Puppy seizure

Question
Hi Melinda,
I got my yorkie from a pet store (I know not ideal, but he is in a wonderful loving home now) when he was 10 weeks old.  On our first visit with the vet, he was diagnosed with mild kennel cough - we were told the pup had it while at the pet store and to give him meds for 2 weeks to clear it up.  A few days later, he developed a more serious cough (something I had not heard before with him) and the vet checked him again, giving us a cough suppressant.  The next evening he had a seizure.  We rushed him to critical care and he was diagnosed with "severe pneumonia."  He had 2 seizures that night.  Fortunately, a week later, he is seemingly back to normal, he is a playful, energetic puppy and back at home.  My question to you is, have you ever experienced seizures with your yorkies?  It was very scary for me and the vet could not tell us what caused it.  There was mention of distemper, which would be devastating.  Your thoughts?

**This is a helpful arena for first time yorkie owners, I'm glad I came across it.

Thank you,
Katy

Answer
Katy,

I am really sorry to hear you went through such a bad time with your baby.  Because your baby was sick when you got him you need to speak to the pet store about paying for his medical bills, they are responsible.  As far as seizures go small dogs are more likely to have them than large dogs, it is a flaw with the small breeds.  I have unfortunately had experience with seizures.  I had a girl who started having seizures when she was about 6 years old.  She had them occasionally and when she did have them it was so very frightening and heart wrenching to see her suffer.  She always could tell when one was coming on and she would come to me and stand there looking at me as if to say its happening again help me.  The seizures became more frequent as she aged and we had to put her on phenol barbital tablets every day.  This helped to calm her seizures down and when she had them they were not as bad.  She died in my arms when she was 11 years old, the vet said the seizures over the years had taken their toll.

I have had other yorkies that have had seizures but it was just the one and it never happened again.  OK, now that I have said all that I will tell you that your puppy is too young to start having the seizure disorder that mine had.  I suspect that the reason she had the seizure is because her temperature was high because of the pneumonia.  Dogs are a lot like people and when children have a high temperature the concern is always that if it gets to high they will have a seizure.  You will have to watch him over the next few months to see if he has seizures again but I would say chances are it was the fever.  As far as distemper, if he had his shots when he was supposed to there is no danger of that.  I hope for your sake and your babies that he does not have the seizure disorder.  It is a gut wrenching experience every time they go through that.  But again, I think you will be all right.  I hope this helps a little bit to put your mind at ease.