Pedigree Dentastix and Doggy Epilepsy

11/12/2018

Update from Hayley: Finn is 5 years without seizures after giving up Pedigree Dentastix!

August 7, 2013 by HMCWriter (RE-BLOG)
Around six months ago we ended up at the vet with our Finnish Lapphund, Fin. It was terrifying. My relaxed, easy going (sometimes a little slow in comparison to our intelligent Keeshond, Pudding) was all of a sudden whacking out.

He was barking at the fence, something either dogs rarely do, and then came the frothing. Fin was rubbing himself against the panels as if trying to get something off him and the foam from his mouth had me scared he’d tried to engulf a toad. I’d seen it before in my mother’s Bull Terrier, Milly, who thankfully survived (rest her soul now, our beautiful family dog). I got hubby and he freaked out so much so, that all of a sudden I became the brains of the business, and he the brawn. We lifted him and took him to the vet emergency clinic.

After an examination and blood test, Finny boy came back fine. Right as rain, in fact. Ants? A spider? The vet wasn’t so sure, but we could go home. So, we let it go.

Two months later, it happened again. This time, he barked and went off his head so ferociously I thought he’d devoured the next door neighbour’s cat. I raced around the side (the same safe haven he retreated to last time) and there he was having a seizure on the grass. My poor beautiful, gentle-natured doggy. I knew then, he had epilepsy … or at least was prone to some type of seizure.
As any mamma would do, I did some research. Doctor Google, I believe the professionals call it.

I know a bit about epilepsy, as friend of mine has it, however I knew nothing of doggy seizures. Firstly, Fin comes from a prized breeder with no genetic epilepsy in the family. The only thing I came up with was that maybe he was allergic to something.

Vets will swear black and blue that diet in dogs has nothing to do with epilepsy and they simply need to be medicated. Being the hippy I am, I called bullshit. Every disease is aggravated by certain foods … EVERY disease. Call me out in the comments if I’m wrong. So I wondered what might have triggered the seizures in Fin.
There was only ONE thing we’d done differently in the past six months with his diet and that was DENTASTIX.
I was feeding them one a day for their teeth.
I stopped feeding it to them that day and Fin hasn’t had a seizure since.
Maybe he will down the track, maybe he won’t. What I want to know is, what do people think? Has anyone had any experience with foods and seizures? Lastly, could it be caused by an allergen to a specific ingredient?
Thanks for the visit!

HMC

20 Comments

Ken Hewitt

1/27/2021 01:45:51 am

My golden retriever had a gran mal seizure from Pedigree Dentastik. I thought my dog was going to die.

DO NOT GIVE YOUR PETS THIS PRODUCT !!!!

Our Vet confirmed our belief.

Hayley link

1/27/2021 08:42:18 am

So sorry to hear this.
I'm glad you've found the blog, and that you've got some answers.

Shannon Ross

1/11/2022 11:07:03 pm

My golden retriever had several grand mal seizures for the first time yesterday after giving her this. How terrible

karen m rains

6/13/2022 08:33:32 pm

My sisters dog has seizures on occasion. I found this post becauI believe it is the Pedigree Dentasiks also. My mother dog sits and this is her treat. My sisters dog has seizures after visiting.

American Bulldog Owner

8/31/2022 01:47:48 am

I thought I was super paranoid or something because I have a beautiful fully healthy American Bulldog and someone gave me a bag of these. I gave him one and I don’t remember how long but was just looking at me and his eyes were telling me “I’m trying to bark” so I called his name a few times and he was stiff as a bored. Then fell exactly like a statue before he went into violent convictions and all I could do was kneel down and hold him and talk calm saying it’s ok buddy calm down calm down. Finally, he did and a few days later gave him another one close to bed time and he came whimpering in my face, like he needed to go potty then the exact same thing happened. I did the same response and he recovered but the pour guy had horrible trauma for days after and scared to even walk around. The second he came out of the seizure I put a glove on and walked those three dumpsters down. I didn’t know for certain and I’m far from a medical doc but no way ever again. Just to be safe

Debra clarkson

4/30/2021 05:35:13 am

My mixed breed Nysa had her first seizure start of last year, came out of nowhere and we hoped was a one off. Was 2 months later before had another and one thing stuck in my mind! The first we had bought a tin of chappie as had ran out of our usual dog food and 2nd time we had done same. I've since never bought chappie and she's never had another seizure until tonight. I bought her the green dentastix as noticed her teeth are getting a little tar build up. Half hour after having one she proceeded to have a seizure. I've been online and discovered it's mars pet are UK that produce both chappie and dentastix so I'm convinced there's a link. There must be an ingredient they use in both that effects my Nysa

Nancy

1/26/2022 04:44:14 pm

We just started giving our dog 1 dentastix daily. A couple of days ago he started vomiting violently and having seizure like shaking all day and night. We wound up having to bring him to the emergency vet at midnight and stayed till 7 a.m. we would not leave his side. They did blood work, took x-rays... they couldn't find anything wrong with him. They gave him fluids and an anti-nausea medication and over the next couple of days he has started to recover. He is a very good dog and never eats garbage or anything weird off the ground and we are with him 24/7.
Did some research and found this site telling of other people experiencing the same horrible thing with their poor dogs. By the way, I spent about $900 to make sure my baby wouldn't die. This is really terrible and we need to sound an alarm on this! This will be going on Facebook!

H Ngyyen

8/10/2022 10:56:48 pm

Sooo my Shiba inu has been having those and monthly seizures I took him off it because we ran out and for the last few months he hasn’t been having seizures. Well the other day as I was standing there to give him one I thought what if it’s the denstix? And I’m calculating everything and I seriously think it is. I’m throwing them away.

Nan Damone

8/11/2022 06:52:38 am

My Australian cattle dog mix has been healthy as a horse his whole life. A friend recommended Dentastics cuz their dog's teeth were real clean from them. I started giving my dog one stick a day and shortly thereafter he was so sick I thought he was going to die. We had him to the emergency vets and slept on the floor all night next to him at the emergency vets office. He was drooling and shaking and falling over.
They could find nothing wrong they said he was very healthy just as blood level was off a little bit on one test. I contacted pedigree and spoke to their vet. Of course their vet is going to be on their side. I had $1,000 vet bill. I stopped the Denta sticks after doing some research online, and found that many people's dogs have been sick from these and some dogs have even died.. They are poison. After stopping the Denta sticks my dog was normal once again. Thank God your dog is okay and that you discovered this just like we did! Our dog is doing great now! We need to get the word out so that people's dogs will be prevented from going through these horrible situations.

Darby

10/6/2022 11:14:35 am

My 14 month of Cockapoo started having seizures and I give him one a day!! Vet did blood work Monday afternoon but haven't heard back from it yet but this is very disturbing. I used to give him Greenies but tried the DentaStix about a month or so ago and he has two this month.

Allyson

12/31/2022 05:33:44 pm

My Golden Retriever started having seizures 3mo after his first birthday. It was extremely random and caught us off guard. I took him to the vet right away to be sure it wasn’t an infection or something he ate. His labs were clean as a whistle. He had 2 that day. So 2 in March, 3 in April, 2 in May. All random and not provoked by anything we can see or had given to him. I had been keeping a diary which I shared with my vet, she would call every couple weeks to check on him (She’s the absolute BEST! Hands down the most caring vet I’ve ever seen) we discuss a good change from grain free to grain (one of my three is allergic to grain 😕) she listened to my concerns and my desire to try CBD cookies to see if that could control things before we talked about seizure meds. Well June rolled around and he started having cluster seizures. I called the vet and said I think it was time to start meds. This sweet pup’s quality of life was now threatened. We start Keppra 12hr release. This seemed to do the trick and we didn’t witness another seizure until October. We went to Hawaii for a working trip for 3 weeks. My SIL watched the pups, no incidents. We got home in October and did our restock of food and treats, one being Pedigree Dental sticks . A couple weeks go by and he had another seizure. Nothing was new except the dang Pedigree Dental sticks. It was one seizure. My husband left again and I wasn’t giving them the dental sticks because that’s my husband’s thing with them, they usually get a milk bone from me because the sticks are hard for me to break 😅. He gets back and he gives the rest of them to them and we were out and waiting for them to go on sale again. Flash forward to a few days ago Petsmart had them on sale so my hubs bought 3 boxes and was giving them routinely again. Well tonight out of nowhere he had 1 seizure this afternoon while home with my hubby. Poor pup had a rough one. Another after dinner 4hrs later, He fell asleep snuggled between us and had another one 4hrs later. So 3 seizures in a 10hr span. So I’m here doing my research because I have a gut feeling it’s those damn treats! Needless to say I am throwing them away and never going to purchase them again! Im praying we are settled for the night and the Vet can see him for a check up in the AM. This thread is the only proof I need to never buy this product again!

Catherine Modlin

2/5/2023 06:22:25 am

Today my German Shepard had a seizure at age 4 yrs. of age. Never before has he had a seizure. I bought Dentastix and gave him one yesterday. This morning he began seizing at 7:30 am. At first I thought he was choking. Then, his jaw was locked shut, he was frothing, eyes rolling back, whole body spasms.. Unbelievable.. The ONLY dietary and/or environmental change in over a year was Dentastix.. NEVER again.

Nancy Damone

2/5/2023 12:18:02 pm

Please contact Pedigree!!!! I have threatened to sue them with a class action suit. They refuse to admit that something is dreadfully wrong with their product. I think that it is atrocious that this continues to happen and they take no responsibility.
Please write to them and call them and complain loudly!!!!

See my comments above: Nancy 1/26/22

MARS PETCARE USA
1 800 525 5273
1 800 833 5330
1 800 261 2683
Here is their contact info: [email protected]

I talked with their vet on staff, sent them medical records about my dog, even a video of my dog seizing and drooling, they investigated my case, and denied any responsibility. I am sending them every case that I get notified about until they get sick of me! They turned the case over to Liberty Mutual Insurance ( I suppose they wanted to get me off of their back because I threatened a class action suit.)
Liberty Mutual looked over all of the facts that I provided, and THEY denied me as well. I wanted my vet bill costs reimbursed. I think all of us should be reimbursed, but more importantly, they should investigate what ingredient is doing this to unsuspecting dogs! Dentastix contain tripolyphosphate, which can be a very dangerous chemical which may cause:
irregular heartbeat
vomiting
fainting
seizures
rash
hives
itching
swelling of the eyes, face lips tongue mouth or throat

I am hoping that your sweet pup is better after such a horrible experience. God bless you!

2/6/2023 11:40:22 am

I contacted Mars via email. We're going to see the Vet tomorrow. As of now (and no Dentastix treats), he appears to be back on track... I will continue to monitor this blog to see how others are doing..

Catherine Modlin link

2/15/2023 10:45:39 am

Just to follow-up on my post on Feb 5th.. Sam, my German Shepard, has had no Dentistix since this event. He has had NO further seizures. I'm not a Vet, but that is enough for me..

Dentastix Seizure

2/7/2023 08:17:01 am

Vet recommend the dentastix for my dog's tarter.
I gave him one around 10-11am, he had a seizure around 4-5pm.

Coincidence? Apparently not since others have the same experience.

Katy

3/15/2023 01:27:56 am

Our 6 yr old, 75lb Border Collie-Labrador mix,Luca, has had 4 terrifying seizures (in the last 2 yrs).

These episodes have been late at night, after giving him a medium Dentastix in the late afternoon.

These events start with him frantically 'run-stumbling' into corners/trying to get under furniture, or trying to crawl up into our laps -- which we encourage.

He has been to the emergency vet twice (35 to 40 mins away (the only option at night)....after tests were done, the vet couldn't find a physical source, and said they were likely 'transient seizures'.

We have managed two of these four events with prescribed Trazadone.

This morning the penny dropped, and I recognized the link between the timing of the consumption of the Dentastix and the seizures 5-7 hrs later.

Thank you for your attention to this. With appreciation, Katy

Kimberly

7/25/2023 06:36:23 am

I too am in the same boat as everyone else here as I had given my little chihuahua a dental stick bone for her stank breath- this was the FIRST time I ever gave her a dental chew- within four hours my baby had a seizure- I thought she was going to die. I rushed her to the ER where the DR.S confirmed she had a seizure but didnt seem to think it was linked to the bones ( they didn't even care to look at the bag of the dental bones I brought in just wanted to throw medication at her). They asked me if there was anything she could have gotten into (marijuana) or ate outside (mushrooms) etc. and I said NO WAY- BUT SHE DID EAT THAT DENTAL BONE - that was the ONLY thing that was different in her diet (up until this point she has had zero health issues, etc. Thankfully she is now back to her prissy, yappy, bossy, sweet little self <3 and needless to say- those dental shit chews are in the garbage where they belong BUT as a momma who knows her baby- I REALLY think the seizure was triggered by the dental chew and that it basically POISONED HER (shes only 5 pounds)!!!

Linda Maglione

12/24/2023 01:55:11 am

First I would like to thank everyone here for sharing their experiences. It has been so helpful for us. We have an Akbash and a German Shepherd. Recently we purchased the Pedigree Dentastix hoping they would remove a bit more tarter and plaque than the DuoClenz we had been using. We used the Pedigree product twice. Within 24 hours of ingestion our Akbash had a partial seizure both times. He is 9 with no history of seizures. There were no other changes in his food or environment. I believe what protected our Shepherd was the fact she is on a medication for a nerve injury—it is a seizure medication that is commonly used for such injuries. We threw the crap in the trash. I gave it lousy review on Amazon. I will also post on FB. I may call the company next week, although that making any difference appears doubtful.

Grosman Eileen

1/29/2024 05:03:42 am

Same issues with my dog having seizures after eating dentastix.

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