Something is wrong with our dog

Question
Hi, we have a very active hound. He is about 6 years old, he has seizures and is medicated for it. But starting about 3 days ago, he started acting a little funny. Like not so active, not wanting to climb the stairs, started shaking his ears. Now he can't walk, barely stand if you stand him, won't barely move at all. He is favoring his back legs, continues to shake his head a lot, but hasn't lost his appetite. He also shakes like he is cold, for awhile we thought that it was just another seizure coming on, but now we believe that it could and probably is something else. Please help, we don't know what to do, and I can't find anything that sounds like what this could be. Thank for you time and effort.
Missy

Answer
Depending on what kind of seizure medication he is on, sometimes they can actually get it built up in their system and it can make them sort of deadened, where they don't do much because they're pretty much out of it.  I don't know if that is the case, but if he hasn't had it done recently it certainly wouldn't hurt to have a blood test run to make sure his levels are still within the therapeutic range.  If he is shaking his head a lot I would certainly take him in so the vet can check for an ear infection too.  It's possible the two are related, or they just happened about the same time.  Since he is a hound, he's got floppy ears which don't air out well and love to harbor bacteria and yeast.  Another possibility is that he is developing hip or joint problems.  If his hips are bothering him, then he certainly isn't going to want to go upstairs, or move around a lot.  The shaking could be attributed to pain from that as well.

Amanda