What do you do when your dog has seizures?

We've taken our dog to the vet as needed for shots and yearly checkups since he was a pup. It was when he was 3-years old he started having seizures all of a sudden on a monthly basis. The third seizure lasted way too long and we got him to the vet while it was happening for evaluation. They wanted to take all kinds of bloodwork, xrays, start IV's, start meds etc. I had to tell the vet Stop--I only have $200 and won't spend any more. If its life threatening he may need to be put down. Of course my dogs seizure stopped and he was as playful as ever like nothing happened. The vet got mad at me for limiting health care for my dog, but come on. When it comes down to feeding my family or health care for the dog---even though I love my dog dearly--the family comes first. Here is what I was told by the vet: seizure meds don't cure seizures, they sedate the dog to handle the next one with no worries, seizures will progress, lead to blindness, eventually aggression because he won't know us and have to be put to sleep. Once meds are started can't stop them, every 2-3 months bloodwork & office visit is required to continue meds, kidneys and major organs can be harmed with meds and cause other problems. Without meds--seizures will continue the same (sedation doesn't stop the actually pain of seizure), same ending result. My husband and I decided to pay a few $ more a month to get hollistic dog food to see if that would help first. Sure enough seizures stopped. Why didn't the vet recommend food change --possible allergy testing before meds and huge expenses. Worse yet why the drama & trauma to my family as if he'd die tomorrow if meds weren't started immediately? Thank God the bloodwork done was normal and we found the allergy. He is allergic to salmon & corn fillers.

I know pets are like family members and if its unbearable to lose them an option to limit healthcare expenses is to get a medical insurance to help. Unfortunately for me, its a pet. If its his time to go, I'll have to say goodbye. My children were heart broken too but Bottom line is who lives...family or dog. I feel some vets are like any other doctor, they see dollar signs in cases like ours and don't come up with reasonable options first. I'm thankful it was just an allergy and we found a cure.

yes, we too considered the meds which only would have sedated our dog not cured the seizures, but would have run up a huge vet bill. We choose to switch to hollistic dog food (all natural no chemical or corn fillers). It is a buffalo based food instead of salmon based. We've discovers he's alergic to salmon and the corn fillers. He's had one short 1-minute seizure since, but come to find out my son gave him some salmon from the table. Proved our theory. No problem since.