What is a seizure?

I read a few times here about Maltese and seizures. What are the symptoms and how does a dog react when having a seizure?
Kelly

• Ours had big time seizures. He would get crazed look in his eyes. A completely different dog. Wouldn't respond to any stimulation. Commatosed. He would drool, deficate (in projectile fashion/always soft), and urinate all over himself. We thought it was rabies. The doctor told us it was seizures. We were given primidone in 50 mg tablets. That stopped the seizures. However, the vet said that our Simba would have to take the medication for the rest of his life. It started out as 2 pills/day. That was 1 1/2 yrs ago. We cut that in half about 9 months ago with no problems. 3 weeks ago, we cut it in half again and still no problems. Hopefully, we can soon quit giving it to him at all. There have been no personality changes since the medicine took effect.
  Wendy in Okinawa

• I have worked for a vet and seen dogs go into seizures, they will get a faraway look in their eye and lose control of bodily functions. Sometimes they shake and grit their teeth. If you have a young puppy that is doing this, it's a possibility that they are hypoglycemic, which means they have low blood sugar and giving them a little Karo syrup in their water will take care of it and ususally they will grow out of it. IF YOU THINK YOUR DOG IS EXPERIENCING SEIZURES, I WOULD TAKE THE DOG TO YOUR VET IMMED IATELY AND HAVE A CHECKUP. Your vet will be able to tell you exactly what is wrong and what you can do to help the situation.
  Taram

• A sudden period of abnormal, involuntary behavior is known as a seizure. Usually, during the seizure affected dogs are unconscious and manifest uncontrolled muscle activity. There are different types of seizures. In one, the entire body is involved. Your Maltese will lie flat on its side, paddle its legs and perhaps chew uncontrollably. The other type also causes loss of consciousness without involuntary muscle movements.

  Its very important to note that a seizure in itself is a sign of a disease. Many diseases will cause dogs to have seizures. Epilespy is one such disease and is one of the more common. Others could be severe head trauma, lead poisoning and eclampsia. Unfortunately, in most cases, the specific cause for the seizure is unable to be found by your veterinarian. If the later diseases are ruled out, then idiopathic(cause unknown) epilepsy is presumed.

  By all means, take your Maltese to your vet if he/she has any of these signs. Your vet will probably want to do a EEG to confirm a diagnosis of epilepsy.

  As far as treatment, not real good news here. Treatment usually involves lifelong use of anticonvulsant drugs. The problem is of course that your Maltese will gradually adapt to the drugs and need larger and larger doses as time goes on. The prognosis is poor, as the seizures may become uncontrolled even with progressively larger doses of these drugs.

  I feel epilepsy does have a genetic cause.
  Jay

• My silky terrier who died last year had epilepsy. The first time he had a seizure, I thought he was dying (he was only a few months old). He went absolutey rigid and lost control of his bowels. He was diagnosed with epilepsy and was on drugs for it all his life; however he still had "breakthrough" seizures from time to time. The good news for Higgens is that he was 14 when he died, so seemingly the epilepsy didn't make for an early death. The seizures are very frightening for owner and pup. Higs always seemed to know they were coming and would find me and crawl into my lap to be held until it was over. He would be shaky on his feet and basically "out of it" for a few minutes after they were over, and often threw up. If I can be of any more help on this let me know. I sat through enough of them to answer some specific questions about behavior even though medically I have no answers.
  Cathy Brown