I know what you are going through. My dog (12 year old Beagle) started having seizures in Jun 2014. My dog went through about the same thing your dog is going through. Apparently, my dog is very sensitive to PB. Have tried several dosages on her & she does ok with a very, very low dose but the seizures come back in 2-3 wks. Right now she is taking 1/2 tab in a.m., 1/2 tab in p.m and every other evening she takes 1 full tab (this is 16.2 mg).
My dog Bella started having seizures a few months ago (she is 5 years old). Her first seizure started as a focal seizure and then into a grand mal seizure that was followed by two more seizures over the next 8 hours. After that she was having cluster seizures weekly.
The vet did bloodwork and put her on zonisamide 100mg twice a day. She continued having them so vet doubled her dosage to 200 mg twice daily. She continued having them but they were much shorter in duration.
I have a 1 year 4 month old German Shepherd named Melo who's been having seizures since he was 1. I just wanted to share my experience because I know its comforting to hear stories of other people that are going through what you're going through, makes you feel less hopeless. Melo had 4 seizures in the span of 2 hours, he's taking 300mg of Zonisamide every 12 hours but before take refill arrived he had ran out and that's when the seizures happened.
It's time for your vet to do some more investigative work. It was reasonable to suspect a drug interaction, but that apparently isn't the problem. It's time to do some imaging studies like x-ray or an MRI to see what, if anything, is happening in the brain. This is particularly important given your information about his recent fall.
Your vet may want to look into possible problems in other areas of the body as well, so expect some blood and urine work.
I have a 1 1/2 year old, male English Bulldog. He's has had cluster seizures since this past March- once a month until August when they worsened. He was taken to the emergency room and treated. He was then diagnosed with epilepsy after a full eval, seeing videos and MRI. He's been on 1 1/2 grain on Pheno in the AM and PM but he continues to have cluster seizures once a month. His latest blood test was 26 for pheno.
My rescue terrier of 9 years of age is totally deaf. He also suffers with seizures. Initially, the vet provided zonisamide 50 mg.
He was a severely abused little fella and trusted no one and was always on the offensive. Although the medication caused the seizures to stop he became more aggressive and paranoid.
He is currently taking 150 mg x2 daily of gabapentin. Aggression has completely ceased. Time has been on our side and he has become a very loving demonstrative guy.
OUR 2 YR OLD MIN SCHNAUZER HAS BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH FOCAL SEIZURES. SHE WILL BE PLAYING OR JUST BE SITTING AROUND AND WILL STOP AND BEGIN BOBBING HER HEAD UP AND DOWN THEN PAW AT HER EYES. THIS LAST FOR ABOUT 15 SECONDS BUT SHE WILL DO IT QUIET OFTEN. WE HAVE HAD HER TO SEVERAL VETS, LAST TIME WAS AT UNIVERSITY OF TENN VET HOSPITAL WHERE SHE WAS DIAGNOSED. SHE WAS PUT ON ZONISAMIDE 50MG TWICE A DAY. SHE HAS BEEN ON THIS FOR A WEEK AND A HALF AND WE CAN TELL NO DIFFERENCE IN THE HEAD BOBBIN.
My three year old dog Jasper had about 15 seizures in a 24 hour period without full recovery in between. The day he started having them I brought him to the vet and he was prescribed phenobarbital, which I gave to him at 7 pm that night. His seizures continued through the night and finally at three am I called the vet again, who advised me to give him a half a pill ( his regular dosage is 30 mg tablets twice a day).
He seemed to be glazed over and not aware of his outbursts. I have had a dog with seizures before, and never had seen anything like this. There where two incidents of real aggression at this point. She suggested we try him on phenobarbital to give him another chance. This was a week ago. He has had all the side effects, but his behaviour has deteriorated tremendously. He just gets crazy. We call it going into attack mode. He nips and jumps around like a crazy dog.
The leading causes of seizures in a two year old dog are abnormalities in the brain such as hydrocephalus, idiopathic epilepsy (unknown cause) and head trauma.
Other causes of seizures include: many infectious diseases including Lyme disease, endocrine disorders, hypoglycemia, toxins, parasites, cancers, and many more.
Thanks for your post...it was the first fit she has ever had and was fitting for only a minute....thats what I find strange,she was scavaging out of a bin bag a couple of days before that some travellers had left near where we go for a walk...was wondering if she had been poisoned....up until the fit there has never been anything up with her...thanks for your time.
A Vet prescribed Deramaxx for my friend's dog, and ithe dog began having seizures within 24 hours- (never had seizures before). And then it was one problem after another. May have been coincidental, but my friend didn't think so. Maybe Metacam would be a safer alternative (?) There are over the counter (herbal/supplement) type painkillers available at pet stores or on-line, though I don't know if they'd work for the particular ailment your dog has.
She had been diagnosed with valley fever almost two years ago. It's a fungal infection common to humans and animals in Arizona. We had her on antifungal medication for about a year and a half and stopped it. Evidently, the infection resurfaced again and caused the seizures. So now she's back on diflucan, probably for the rest of her life according to the vet, and phenobarbitol until the infection gets under control.
ve read many many many blogs about how dogs are reacting to Phenobarb treatment for seizures. It is so concerning and I am so confused what to do. For a few months after a lipoma removal surgery, our dog Ranger started to 'trip' while walking. Then a few days ago he had a seizure during the night and again about 9 hours later.
We took him to the vet yesterday and were told they could try treating him for epilepsy, but it could also be a brain tumor causing the issue.
You can HELP to minize seizures by avoiding feeding him treats with dyes in them. For some reason, food dye seems to be one of the triggers of epileptic seizures. Even in epileptic humans, one of the main things they can do to try to minimize seizure activity is to avoid dyed foods (colored cereals) and drink only clear sodas like 7-Up or Sprite, avoiding colas and other dark or brightly colored sodas.
It seemed the Lyrica and Effexor combined worked for the pain, I went to a neurologist and he took me off the Lyrica, which made me gain 60lbs! lol... and put me on Zonisamide. It has been great for my pain. But now that aI have been on it awhile I am feeling sick to my stomach every morning and my head feels fuzzy.
I asked if I could get off the Effexor as it was raising my blood sugar levels, I am a diabetic & Cymbalta and Effexor raises my blood sugars).
My dog, Sadie, (70 lb border collie / shepherd mix) started having seizures a few days ago and has had (7) that we are aware of in the last 72 hours. Our vet gave us Phenobarbital which we are administering and also gave us valium in case she has prolonged or cluster seizures. The seizures came out of nowhere so fast and now they are happening a few times a day. One of her liver enzymes was high and she is now on meds for that. We changed her food from Eukinuba (sp?
He checked his blood sugar and he said it was 68 which he explained was very low for a dog that age. He also had a fever of 104.
The vet decided to keep him and he told me the prognosis was not good, that he believed that he was poisoned.
To make a long story short the vet called me Saturday morning and told me that Chewy had a seizure 15 minutes after I left him at the vet. He also told me that he started him on Phenobarbital 3 ml morning and evening.
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