Seizures in Dogs

[elgerber]

10 months today, and counting!

 

[elgerber]

10 months today, and counting!

11 months and counting.

 

[elgerber]

We are now at 1 year and 1 hour! In the year from 11/7/20-11/7-21 he had 14 seizures. In the year since, he has had ZERO!

 

[dvcgirl67]

We are now at 1 year and 1 hour! In the year from 11/7/20-11/7-21 he had 14 seizures. In the year since, he has had ZERO!

That's great news! What meds is he on? My 11 year old Airedale just had one a few weeks back, but her previous seizure was over 18 months ago....so very good control.

 

[elgerber]

That's great news! What meds is he on? My 11 year old Airedale just had one a few weeks back, but her previous seizure was over 18 months ago....so very good control.

He is on Potassium Bromide, and generic Keppra XR. But those alone did not control them. He was on those when he had 14 the year before. It's the Purina Neurocare food that has made all the difference.

 

[dvcgirl67]

He is on Potassium Bromide, and generic Keppra XR. But those alone did not control them. He was on those when he had 14 the year before. It's the Purina Neurocare food that has made all the difference.

Oh wow...interesting. My girl is on potassium bromide, but when her seizures started to tick up in numbers several years back my Vet put her on CBD oil as well. I don't know if it works for all dogs, but it was a game changer for my girl. Thankfully her epilepsy has never greatly affected the quality of her life....she started having them as a pup at age one, and so she's had them for ten years now, but once we added the CBD it really was a huge difference. Glad you found the solution for your boy

 

[elgerber]

Oh wow...interesting. My girl is on potassium bromide, but when her seizures started to tick up in numbers several years back my Vet put her on CBD oil as well. I don't know if it works for all dogs, but it was a game changer for my girl. Thankfully her epilepsy has never greatly affected the quality of her life....she started having them as a pup at age one, and so she's had them for ten years now, but once we added the CBD it really was a huge difference. Glad you found the solution for your boy

That's great. We tried CBD, it did nothing, and he hated it, we had to basically pin him down and force it down his throat. The food he loves and happily scarfs it down at every meal.

 

[elgerber]

wow, it's been awhile. Today we are at 15 months!!

 

[dvcgirl67]

That's great news!!

 

[Cris04]

10 months today, and counting!

Our dog started having seizures about a year ago. All test came back normal. He was put on potassium bromide and phenobarbital. We took him off the sodium bromide and kept him on the phenobarbital. We have always bought Purina dog food. Changing it up now and then. Just by chance I checked our dog food and it contained #40 Red. He was having seizures 2 times in one day. We took him off the food and bought Purina Bentaful , it doesn’t contain red # 40. Since then he hasn’t had any seizures. It been almost a month now. He too would wounded the house pacing after his seizures. If anyone is reading this please check your dog food or anything else that your feeding you dog to make sure it does not contain red #40. Please let me know if this has help your dog. If it helps we can try and stop the dog food industry from putting this in their food. Please email me at randycrishawkins1@gmail.com if this helps you’re dog. Mavericks Mom. Ps we have 6 do and he is the only one who has this reaction.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Our dog started having seizures about a year ago. All test came back normal. He was put on potassium bromide and phenobarbital. We took him off the sodium bromide and kept him on the phenobarbital. We have always bought Purina dog food. Changing it up now and then. Just by chance I checked our dog food and it contained #40 Red. He was having seizures 2 times in one day. We took him off the food and bought Purina Bentaful , it doesn’t contain red # 40. Since then he hasn’t had any seizures. It been almost a month now. He too would wounded the house pacing after his seizures. If anyone is reading this please check your dog food or anything else that your feeding you dog to make sure it does not contain red #40. Please let me know if this has help your dog. If it helps we can try and stop the dog food industry from putting this in their food. Please email me at randycrishawkins1@gmail.com if this helps you’re dog. Mavericks Mom. Ps we have 6 do and he is the only one who has this reaction.

Welcome to the DIS....do you own a dog food company by chance?

For my dog, it wasn't the food....as she's been on many over her 10.5 years of living with idiopathic epilepsy. Our Vet's goal was always to do everything possible to do just the opposite of what your vet has suggested.....keep the dog on potassium bromide only, again if possible, as the phenobarbital is very hard on the liver over time. We've managed our girl's seizures with potassium bromide only for years, and added CBD oil a few years back and that has been miraculous for us taking her 4-6 seizures a year down to being seizure free for up to 18 months at at time. She just had her annual check-up and her CBC and Chemistry were all normal.

I'd worry a lot less about coloring in food than I would about the phenobarbital. Hope your dog improves.

 

[ajlsjl]

My dog was epileptic, very common in his breed. The vet prescribed phenobarbital, and his seizures decreased significantly. He would have occasional seizures while on the phenobarbital, but nowhere near the frequency and severity of before.

 

[Cris04]

Welcome to the DIS....do you own a dog food company by chance?

For my dog, it wasn't the food....as she's been on many over her 10.5 years of living with idiopathic epilepsy. Our Vet's goal was always to do everything possible to do just the opposite of what your vet has suggested.....keep the dog on potassium bromide only, again if possible, as the phenobarbital is very hard on the liver over time. We've managed our girl's seizures with potassium bromide only for years, and added CBD oil a few years back and that has been miraculous for us taking her 4-6 seizures a year down to being seizure free for up to 18 months at at time. She just had her annual check-up and her CBC and Chemistry were all normal.

I'd worry a lot less about coloring in food than I would about the phenobarbital. Hope your dog improves.

No I don’t own a dog food company. We still have Maverick on the phenobarbital as for now because we will wait for a few more days and then cut him down and see what happens. Hopefully all will be good! We don’t like him on the medication because of the side effects and it has changed his personality. I’m hoping it was the dye res#40 that was causing the seizures. I have looked into the cbd oils but wasn’t sure what one to put him on. Can you suggest any? Thanks for responding. Cris

 

[dvcgirl67]

My dog was epileptic, very common in his breed. The vet prescribed phenobarbital, and his seizures decreased significantly. He would have occasional seizures while on the phenobarbital, but nowhere near the frequency and severity of before.

Yes, phenobarbital will help most dogs. My vet wanted to see how my girl did on potassium bromide first and luckily we were able to keep her to four seizures or less per year....for over eight years. When they ticked up a few years back he said we could add phenobarbital, but said it was worth a shot to try CBD oil along with the potassium bromide. I was skeptical, but he said he'd seen some real positive effects. I use ElleVet CBD oil and the number of seizures she was having dropped off precipitously. It's been amazing. My girl will eat anything, and so the kind of "weed-like" smell of the oil doesn't bother her. Some dogs do better withe the capsules.

I own a pet-sitting and dog walking company and so I've seen many dogs with seizures over the years. And while they can and do live really wonderful lives in most cases, I have seen dogs who have been on phenobarbital for years start to have a big jump in liver enzymes/function. In the end it was what ended the life of a welsh terrier who was the same age as my Airedale, and they were diagnosed at the same time. We use the same vet, but the Welsh Terrier had more frequent/longer seizures than my girl, so he had to go on phenobarbital.

I know that there are neuro-prescrption foods out there but we've never gone that route. But I'm really confident that the food never played a role in her seizures, she was just born that way. And she's still going strong at 11.5.

 

[elgerber]

My dog was epileptic, very common in his breed. The vet prescribed phenobarbital, and his seizures decreased significantly. He would have occasional seizures while on the phenobarbital, but nowhere near the frequency and severity of before.

Pheno worked great for my guy, until it almost killed him. He is one of the more rare cases, where he has a bad reaction to Pheno. It's a great drug for many many cases.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Pheno worked great for my guy, until it almost killed him. He is one of the more rare cases, where he has a bad reaction to Pheno. It's a great drug for many many cases.

It's interesting as both are *old* drugs. They used to give Potassium bromide to people, but the side effects were terrible. Phenobarbital was an old school anxiety medication for people way back too.

My vet has to prescribe phenobarbital, but he's told me it's become more of a pain because it's a controlled drug. He won't carry it, you'd have to go to the pharmacy for it, and has been frustrated when the same pets seem to always have low phenobarbital blood levels, which leads him to believe that the owners are taking the meds.

I've seen a lot of stuff like this change over the years. I barely see tramadol prescribed for pets anymore....that was a biggie years back, but again, it's a controlled substance and people were taking it. Now I see a lot of gabapentin prescribed for pain...as well as trazodone. He told me he suspects some owners abusing gabepentin as well, which isn't a controlled substance, but he believes should be.

We live in a crazy world for sure.

 

[elgerber]

18 months yesterday!!!

 

[Snowflakey]

18 months yesterday!!!

WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Snowflakey]

My DD's dog does still have seizures but they are few and far between - about 3 a year. So we still haven't started the Purina Neuro. Trying to keep costs down as long as we can. Plus, he is still only taking the Keppra which the vet initially said would most likely only work for about 6 months and he's been on it for a few years now. Praying things just continue as is and not get any worse.

 

[elgerber]

My DD's dog does still have seizures but they are few and far between - about 3 a year. So we still haven't started the Purina Neuro. Trying to keep costs down as long as we can. Plus, he is still only taking the Keppra which the vet initially said would most likely only work for about 6 months and he's been on it for a few years now. Praying things just continue as is and not get any worse.

3 a year I could have lived with. I'm glad they have not increased.
Our neurologist said at 18 months we could talk about decreasing his Keppra. It's a terrifying though, yet I don't think Keppra ever worked for him anyway. And he takes so many pills, it would be nice to take less. But still scary. We aren't sure. We are going to wait until we get his next bromide level results in a few weeks to talk about it.