Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / March 2006

Three or four minutes is dangerously long for grand mals, but not for
petit mals (absence, partial).  Cruiser the IG's seizures last much
longer than that, but they're petit mals and occur less frequently
than once a month.

Mustang Sally

You can use the lancet on a footpad, and usually get a good sample.  It's
painful, but if the dog is out of it during a seizure that might not matter!
It's a lot less painful than quicking a nail.  The ear flap, at the very
margin, where you can see vessels, usually works, but is much easier on a
cat than a dog.  To get a good sample from a dog, you probably need to shave
the inner ear flap, and then apply a warm compress for 5 minutes to increase
blood supply.  You can also use the lancet on the inside of the gum, but
dogs rarely hold still for this procedure long enough for you to get the
blood to the monitor.

Then there are the issues with how accurate human glucometers are on
animals....but that's a whole other posting!

Has your vet run bloodwork at all on your dog?  I'm assuming you have an
adult dog, and honestly low blood sugar is usually only a cause of seizures
in puppies or very small toy breeds.  Liver problems can also cause
seizures, and abnormalities there would show up all the time.  I usually
tell clients that the best time to run bloodwork is immediately after a
seizure, sometime within the first 30-60 minutes.  While you might miss the
lowest point if the blood sugar is low, in a normal animal it often goes up
after a seizure (stress), so a low normal glucose might be significant.  But
even bloodwork done in between episodes can rule out some major causes of
seizures.  And give you a baseline in case you need to start medication.

Deborah, DVM