If your dog is having seizures in a row right now
Call your vet or an emergency clinic now. Veterinary guidance is to seek emergency care when seizures come in clusters, and immediately if any single seizure passesfive minutes or your dog does not fully recover between seizures.
If your vet has already prescribed a rescue medication for cluster days, use it exactly as they instructed, and call them regardless.
What counts as a cluster
The International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force (IVETF) defines cluster seizures as two or more seizures within a 24-hour period. A dog who seizes at 7 am and again that evening has had a cluster, even if both seizures were short and recovery looked complete.
Clusters matter because seizures that arrive in groups carry a higher risk of escalating, including into status epilepticus, the emergency state described in ourguide to seizure duration. That's why vets respond to a cluster day differently than to a single, isolated seizure.
What your vet will want from you
On a cluster day, the facts are the whole story. Vets adjust a dog's plan based on the pattern, so write down:
- the time each seizure started, to the minute if you can
- how long each one lasted
- recovery between seizures: full, partial, or none
- what each seizure looked like, and whether it differed from usual
- any rescue medication given, with the time and amount
- food, sleep and anything unusual in the day before
A phone note or a photo of a scribbled timeline is fine. What matters is times, not neatness. If you'd rather have paper ready in advance, ourfree printable seizure log gives each seizure its own block.
Rescue plans exist. Ask about one.
Many vets prescribe an at-home rescue protocol for dogs who cluster: a medication kept ready for seizure days, given exactly per the vet's instructions. If your dog has ever had a cluster and you don't have such a plan, that's a conversation worth having at your next visit. What that plan contains is entirely your vet's call.
Questions worth asking your vet
- At what point on a cluster day should we come in, versus phone first?
- Should we have a rescue medication at home, and exactly how do we use it?
- What should we record on seizure days to make your decisions easier?
- Does this cluster change anything about the current medication plan?