My dog is having a seizure right now — what do I do?

If he is seizing right now, if he has had more than one seizure today, or if a seizure has run longer than about five minutes, this is an emergency: get to a vet or an emergency clinic now. A first-ever seizure needs to be seen too, today, even if it stops on its own.

While it is happening, keep your hands away from his mouth. He cannot swallow his tongue, and a seizing dog will bite without any idea that he is doing it. Do not restrain him. Move the furniture, the hard corners and anything he can crash into away from him instead. Dim the lights, turn off the television, keep the room quiet, and get children and other pets out.

Look at the clock and note the time it started. Time distorts terribly in that moment, and the duration changes everything about what happens next. If there is a second person in the house, film it. Thirty seconds of video tells a vet things that no description ever conveys.

Most single seizures stop by themselves within a minute or two, and are followed by ten to sixty minutes of a dog who is dazed, apparently blind, stumbling, ravenous or clingy. That phase is normal and it is frightening, and it is not a second seizure.

Write down anything he could have eaten in the last day, whether he has been very hot, and whether he has had a knock to the head, and bring that list with you. The cause is worked out from the exam, bloodwork and sometimes a scan. Nobody can tell you from a distance.