Gretchen's seizures started when she was 15-1/2 months old. She's now 9 years old (she'll be 10 on March 6th) and has had approximately 242 of them that we know of. Disturbing as they are now (when they're first starting), you learn to get used to them and when they're over, life goes on until the next one. As your vet said, try to remain calm. If you fall apart, it'll only upset your dog further, who's already got to be scared to death over something that's happening to them they can't and don't understand. Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I use to cry like a baby every time Gretchen had one. But, as I said, when you go through as many as we have, you learn to get used to them. Some other recommendations I have for you: 1.) Your dog won't be able to walk or stand while this is happening, so keep them away from stairs and off furniture to prevent falling and possibly fatal injuries. 2.) Keep your hands and fingers away from their mouth or they may involuntarily bite you. 3.) Light and sound is believed to make a seizure worse so turn off any equipment making noise (like the t.v.) and take them to as dark a room as possible to wait it out. 4.) Gently stroke them and talk to them in as soothing and loving a voice as possible. 5.) And whatever you do, DON'T put them on prescribed seizure medication unless it's absolutely NECESSARY (and by that, I mean they're happening multiple times a day, every day, and probably won't stop without medical intervention). From what I understand, the main drug of choice for seizures is Phenobarbital, which is a barbiturate that causes depression and sedation (which changes their personality drastically) .... it's a lifelong drug for them .... excessive thirst, urination and appetite are not uncommon side effects .... and it can damage their liver, causing irreversible failure (and if that happens, they WILL die), so they have to monitored and tested frequently to watch for that possibility. For the last 2-1/2 years, we've had Gretchen on (2) vitamins: B6 (100 mg.) and Magnesium (250 mg.) (and they're not special dog vitamins either; they're regular people vitamins you can find at Wal-Mart or wherever). The B6 I cut into 4 pieces with a pill splitter and she gets 3 pieces a day -- 2 with her breakfast and 1 with her dinner. The Magnesium pill is a little bit bigger, so I try to cut it into 6 pieces. She gets one piece in the morning with her breakfast and one in the evening with her dinner. I put them in her wet dog food and since she's a food gobbler when it comes to (her wet food), she never notices a thing and they go right down without any problem at all! Despite the alarming-sounding number of seizures she's had over the last 8-1/2 years, we truly believe the vitamins have slowed the progression down so that she hasn't had nearly as many as she MAY have had by now, and they're very, very mild when they happen. They used to last anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes from start to finish and she'd be very sluggish for the rest of the day and evening. Now they're only about 5 to 10 minutes long from start to finish and when they're done, she's happy, playful and energetic again. You'd never know looking at her that she suffers from a seizure disorder. One minute, she can't walk .... and the next, she's running around out in the yard as though nothing in the world had just happened to her! Her bravery is just SO uplifting to us!!! We hope to be able to keep things this way for as long as possible and NEVER have to put her on prescribed meds. Good luck and I hope I was able to provide you with a little bit of helpful information and advice! ~ Connie and Gretchen Post A Reply >>>