Breeds like Saint Bernard, Labrador, German Shepherd, Siberian Husky, Great Dane and Pomeranian were included in the study. Six male and six female dogs were targeted for unbiased result outcomes. Two dogs were aged under one year, six dogs were under five years of ageand four dogs aged more than five years. The duration of epilepsy was nearly one month in six dogs, one month to 1 year in four dogs and more than a year in two dogs. All the dogs received phenobarbitaland still, epilepsy was present.
Haematological examination revealed non-significant (p>0.05) alterations in the level of hemoglobin, red blood cells, white blood cells and packed cell volume. A non-significant (p>0.05) difference was also observed in albumin and creatinine levels in all twelve dogs. Albumin and creatinine values remained within range on the day of treatment and after 30 days. The serum calcium level was under the normal range (4.76±0.14) at the time of presentation. A significant (p<0.001) increase in the level of calcium (7.41±0.17) was observed after 30 days of treatment. Improvement in epilepsy was observed after one month of treatment, with a decrease in episodes and severity.
Epilepsy is a complicated brain disease where sudden and irregular activity in neuronal networks causes the projecting clinical sign of seizures characterised by motor, autonomic and behavioural features
(Berendt et al., 2015). All dog breeds are prone to epilepsyand
Hulsmeyer et al., (2015) documented breed predisposition for different disease conditions.
Breeds like Beagles, British Alsatians, Keeshonds, Labrador retrievers, Golden retrievers, Boxers, Shetland sheepdogs, Vizslas, English Springer Spaniels, Irish wolfhoundsand Standard Poodles are supposed to develop epilepsy
(Bielfelt et al., 1971; Jaggy et al., 1998; Patterson et al., 2003; Plonek et al., 2022). Heynold et al., (1997) reported different aspects of epilepsy in labrador retrievers, which supports the findings of the present study, in which 33.33% (4/12) of dogs were Labrador retrievers. Siberian husky and German shepherd breeds of dogs are more prone to epilepsy, as per reports of
Hulsmeyer et al., (2015) and
Czerwik et al., (2018). In contrast to these studies,
Monteiro et al., (2012) documented that German shepherds and boxers were significantly (P=0·04 and 0·01, respectively) more likely to suffer from epilepsy compared to Labrador retrievers.
In a study of 99 client-owned dogs,
Ghormley et al., (2015) discovered that 2 out of 7 dogs older than 14 years old and 7 out of 30 dogs (23%) and 8 out of 29 (45%) and 10 out of 33 dogs (39%) had primary epilepsy. The findings are contrary to the results of the present study, which showed the highest occurrence of epilepsy in dogs aged between 1 and 5 years. According to
De Risio et al., (2015), the chances of epilepsy are 2.65 times higher in dogs aged between 6 months and six years. The findings are in accordance with the results of the present study. Epilepsy can occur in male and female dogs. Sex predisposition has been reported in male dogs, but no explanation for this alteration in prevalence between sexes has been provided (
Van Meervenne et al., 2014).
Calcium is an essential element required for various physiological activities. Low levels of calcium result in muscle fasciculation, tremors, epilepsy and behavioural changes (
Holowaychuk, 2013).
Brauer et al., (2011) reported that calcium is the second-highest cause of epilepsy in canines after intoxication. Ionized calcium is commonly used to diagnose and establish a correlation with the disease condition
(Whitehead et al., 2015). Ionized calcium was not estimated due to the unavailability of facilities for the same. Results clearly agree on the role of calcium in epilepsy development in dogs.
