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Most of us have been told tales of lunar lunacy where bad or crazy things tend to happen in great frequency when the moon is in its full moon part of its cycle and animals and people tend to act weird. This belief has some parents taking care to tell their kids to exercise extra caution because of a full moon and spawned the birth of legends like the werewolf. The question is, however, is there some truth to the full moon exerting some kind of physical or psychological influence on animals?
As a past emergency and critical care veterinarianin New York, I saw wild and crazy things just about every night regardless of the lunar cycle. Although I did not take the time study or even casually pay attention whether there was an increase in accidents or epileptic seizures during the full moon phase, I cannot say that I ever observed a disproportionate incidence of emergencies during the full moon phase.
That stated, the conversation about an increase in seizures specifically in dogs and cats that lived with conditions like epilepsy that predisposed them to seizures was taken seriously enough that veterinary neurologists decided to study the possibility of this potential phenomenon. Veterinary neurologists Laura Stainbach and Leveque subsequently conducted a retroactive study of 211 epileptic dogs and cats from 2000-2008.
The results of their study proved conclusively that there is no correlation between the full moon phase of the lunar cycle and increased seizure activity in these dogs and cats. As much as many believe that the full moon produces physiological and psychological changes that trigger illness and odd behavior, at least in the case of seizures, any link to an increase in seizure activity during a full moon is little more than medical urban legend.
Dr. Roger Welton is a practicing veterinarian and highly regarded media personality through a number of topics and platforms. In addition to being passionate about integrative veterinary medicine for which he is a nationally renowned expert, Dr. Welton was also an accomplished college lacrosse player and remains to this day very involved in the sport. He is president of Maybeck Animal Hospital , runs the successful veterinary/animal health blogs Web-DVM and Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care, and fulfills his passion for lacrosse through his lacrosse and sport blog, The Creator’s Game.
