Hypoglycemia experience today. Scared me

My pointer went down with hypoglycemia 2 hours into the hunt today. When I first got to her she was laying on her side with all 4 legs stiff. Shaking, foaming in the mouth. Eyeballs bulging. A minute or two later she gets up and doesn't recognize me. Barking furiously at me like never before. Starts to run off. Couple minutes later she calms down but still a bit disoriented. Luckily on 300 yards from truck. Walked her to the truck and she can't stand up anymore. Kept falling over. Fed her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Put her in her crate and 30 minutes later she as normal again but tired.
Will start carrying Karyo suryp from now on

Was your dog showing signs of low blood sugar before the seizure or was it sudden? Only two hours hunting into a cool day and your dog dropping into a seizure may be a sign of something else going on, so do please have your vet do a blood workup on your dog. Addison's disease or liver problems for example can cause the severe hypoglycemia. And having a seizure caused by something else can cause the low blood sugar.

I've seen it once in fifty years. It's scary.

Keep in mind that syrup will work short term. When his body gets to hypoglycemia that bad, it's used up all the reserves in the pancreas. It will take days to replenish and stabilize those reserves. Substantial carbs and protein are needed ASAP after an event like that to prevent a reoccurrence.


Note: I know nothing about dog medicine. I treat humans.

Had it happen to me. The vet who treated my dog (he saw a lot of bird dogs) recommended a small snack (like two strips of bacon, an egg or some sardines) about .5 hour before the hunt.
Did that and it never happened again. (A lot of dogs don't eat well in bird camp and may hit in late afternoon if your practice is to feed nothing until after the hunt. A small amount of protein won't hurt--the problem comes when they get a large portion of dry dog food before a hunt. Like someone pointed out Karo syrup is really only a short time fix. Feeding a small portion of high protein is probably a better solution.)

Dang man. I've seen a few hypoglycemic dogs but they were small pups usually. I would definitely go to the vet have have some blood work done. Best case is its all normal and this was just a freak occurrence.

I'll second that, I'd have a vet examine the dog after an episode. What you observed could be caused by other issues. Diabetes, thyroid, epilepsy. Stiff legs, convulsions, and exhaustion after the episode sound like an epileptic seizure. However, it is quite likely a glycemic episode.

I had almost the exact same thing happen to my 13 y/o (now 14 y/o) GSP last Feb. Cold morning in the 30's... he had only been on the ground for about 15 minutes tops. On the second covey flush after I shot he broke to get the bird and when he was coming back he stumbled and went head first into some blackbrush. Then got up all wobbly and by the time I got to him he collapsed and went into seizure. i tried to get water in him but all I could do was hold & comfort him... I knew he was going to die in my arms. he finally started breathing slower and came out of it some what so I loaded him up and got him to camp. I fed him Karo, peanut butter, etc thinking it was hypoglycemia and it seemed to help him but he stayed wobbly and out of it for almost 24 hrs.

Got him back home and to the vet and he was diagnosed with CHF and a stage 4-5 heart murmur that the vet said most probably either caused or significantly contributed to the seizure. needless to say he's been retired ever since and is now 14 y/o and king of the house!

Get your dog checked out, because if I would have hunted my dog again thinking it was hypoglycemia and I had it covered... I probably would have killed him.