Study highlights differences in how epilepsy is diagnosed
One in 160 dogs under first opinion veterinary care are affected every year by seizures.
Substantial differences between how veterinary clinicians diagnose epilepsy compared with current guidelines have been highlighted in new research.
Researchers say their study, published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, supports the call for clearer diagnostic guidelines for application in clinical practice.
The study reveals that around one in every 160 dogs under first opinion veterinary care are affected every year by seizures. Many of these dogs have underlying epilepsy, defined as dogs with two or more unprovoked seizures at least 24 hours apart.
The study was led by the Royal Veterinary College’s VetCompass™ programme.
Study author Dr Dan O’Neill, senior lecturer in companion animals epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), said: “Watching your dog undergo a seizure can be an incredibly scary moment for any dog owner. It is really important that dogs that seizure are rapidly diagnosed to decide whether they need no further treatment beyond careful monitoring or alternatively require a clinical work-up to define the cause of the seizures.
“There are now some excellent treatments for many seizure-related diseases. This study helps up to understand the current state of play for seizure management in dogs and identifies opportunities for improved care of these affected dogs.”
Currently, little information exists on the classifications of seizures, diagnostic approaches, or clinical management of dogs with seizures in the veterinary first opinion population.
For the study, researchers assessed clinical records from first-opinion clinics across the UK. The team identified 2,834 incident seizure cases from a population of 455,553 dogs attending VetCompass™ participating practices during 2013.
The most common breeds among seizure cases were Labrador retrievers (8.6%), Staffordshire bull terriers (6.1%), Jack Russell terriers (5.8%) and Yorkshire terriers (5.0%), with the annual incidence risk of seizures in all dogs being 0.62 per cent.
Researchers also found that 579 (20.5%) of seizure cases met the criteria for epilepsy based on the International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force (IVETF) classification system, compared with just 245 (8.6%) that were formally recorded with epilepsy by the attending veterinary team.
Companies marketing medicines for small pets exempt from authorisation must submit their annual return to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) by 30 November 2026.
