QUARTERLY BEAT / JULY 2024
DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF NON-GRAND MAL SEIZURES
DR. MISSY CARPENTIER DACVIM (Neurology)
In this 30-minute, VETgirl Real-Life Rounds, Dr. Missy Carpentier-Anderson, DACVIM (Neurology) will discuss diagnosing and treating (or better yet managing) patients that have non-grand mal seizures. Tune in as she reviews seizure types, from focal seizures to orofacial and the controversial fly biting.
IS IT EVEN A SEIZURE? The straightforward grand mal (tonic-clonic) seizures can be tricky enough to manage, then you add in all the other types and things can just get confusing! Let’s try and make it easy. Regardless of what the seizure looks like, a seizure is a seizure PERIOD and needs to be treated as such. Most types of seizures can all be managed similarly, however, there are a couple of focal seizure nuances that you should be aware of and will be discussed below. Before you start managing a seizure patient, you need to first confirm that the patient is truly experiencing a seizure. By far the best tool that we have to assist us is a video of the suspect seizure event, but if that isn’t available we need to do some investigating. Here is a list of information that you will want to get from the owner about the possible seizure, as well as a chart for signs that you will be looking/listening for during the three different stages of a seizure.
SEIZURE INFORMATION
SEIZURE ACTIVITY STARTED
ANY KNOWN TOXIN EXPOSURE
TOTAL SEIZURES
SEIZURE FREQUENCY
DESCRIPTION OF SEIZURE ACTIVITY, TIME OF DAY, ACTIVITY PRIOR TO SEIZURE ONSET, ETC
LENGTH OF SEIZURE
PRE-ICTAL PHASE
POST-ICTAL PHASE
BEHAVIOR BETWEEN SEIZURES
AED'S CURRENTLY BEING ADMINISTERED AND ANY RECENT DRUG BLOOD LEVELS
IF PATIENT CHRONICALLY ON AED'S, HAVE RECENT LEVELS BEEN CHECKED, HAVE ANY DOSES BEEN MISSED, ETC
IMPROVEMENT OF SEIZURE ACTIVITY WITH AEDS
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