Dog Seizures: What To Do While It Is Happening

Everything you want to do while your dog is seizing is the wrong thing. The most useful person in the room is the one doing almost nothing.

Your dog goes down. The legs are paddling, it is foaming slightly, and it is not responding to its name. This is the moment almost every owner reaches for their dog, and it is the moment to keep your hands to yourself.

A seizing dog is not aware of you. It cannot hear you and it is not in pain in the way it appears to be. Most seizures stop on their own within a couple of minutes, and your job for that time is small, unglamorous and genuinely important: keep it safe, keep the room dull, and watch the clock.

What to do

1. Hands off. Move furniture and hard objects out of the way instead.
2. Get it onto the floor if it is on a sofa, a bed or a chair. Falls during a seizure cause head injuries and broken legs, and this is the one bit of handling that is worth doing.
3. Dim the lights and make the room quiet. Send other pets and any onlookers out. Noise and light prolong seizures.
4. Start timing, and film thirty seconds if you can. A short video tells a vet more than five minutes of you describing it, and you will not remember it accurately afterwards. Nobody does.
5. Keep the room cool. Open a window, put a fan on. Body temperature climbs during a seizure.
6. Wait for it to stop before you travel, unless your vet tells you otherwise.

When it stops being something to sit through

Ring and go, immediately, if:

• The seizure lasts more than two minutes
• It is the second seizure within 24 hours, even if the dog seemed completely normal in between
• It is your dog's first ever seizure

That middle one is the one owners get wrong. Two seizures in a day is an emergency even when the dog looks fine between them, because clusters tend to escalate and prolonged seizure activity causes lasting brain damage.

What not to do

Do not put your hand near the mouth. A seizing dog cannot control its jaw and will bite through a finger without any intention of doing so. The idea that a dog can swallow its tongue is a myth carried over from human first aid, and it has cost owners the use of a hand.

Do not try to snap it out of it by shouting, shaking or slapping. Stimulation makes seizures longer.

Do not restrain it. Holding a dog down does not shorten anything and risks injuring you both.

Do not wrap it in a blanket to comfort it. Its temperature is already rising. A folded blanket can go between the dog and a hard surface it keeps hitting, but not around it.

Do not give anything by mouth, including medication, water or food, during a seizure.

Afterwards, and why it looks so strange

What follows the seizure unsettles owners almost more than the seizure itself. The post-ictal phase can leave a dog wobbly, disorientated, temporarily blind, restless, pacing into walls or not recognising you. It can last from half an hour to several hours, and gradual recovery is normal.

Keep the space safe and quiet, and do not offer food or water until your dog is fully alert and steady on its feet, because a wobbly dog inhales what it swallows.

What you will see, so you recognise it next time

• Restlessness, clinginess, hiding or staring into space beforehand, sometimes hours before
• Paddling legs, even when lying on the side
• Foaming and drooling
• Stiffening, jerking, or full-body convulsions
• No awareness of you at all
• Urination or defecation, which is normal and not a sign of anything worse

If your dog has had a seizure for the first time, it needs investigating even if it recovered completely. Seizures have many causes, from epilepsy to liver disease to toxins, and the treatment depends entirely on which one you are dealing with.

Sources

This article was written using guidance from PDSA, the UK's largest veterinary charity, whose Pet Health Hub is written by its own vets and nurses; AVMA, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the professional body representing US veterinarians; and RSPCA, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the UK's oldest animal welfare charity. This guidance is for general information and does not replace a consultation with your own veterinarian. In an emergency, always contact a vet. Read [how we write our health guidance](https://rochsociety.com/how-we-write-our-health-guidance/). Last reviewed July 2026.