seizure help

hey everyone i am new to the forum one of my dogs is a saint she has been having seizures for a year and shes only 2 years old we have done all the test possible mri, spinal flood etc... And they cant find anything wrong with her so it just one of those she is an epileptic dog. We have her at the moment on phenobarbital 200mg twich a day and keppra 1500mg 3 x a day. in the summer she has a seizure it seems 1 x a month and in the winter it went to 1 x every 3 months but in the month of march she had 2 seizure 2 days apart. I decided to go see another nerologist just to get a second opinion. so we did all the blood test to see the phenobarbital levels and how her liver is and everything is perfect she believes we could up the phenobarbital to 250mg 2 x a day and she wants to weive her off the keppra because she doesnt believe its and try her on zoniasamede or something like that. Also i am trying out ancupuncture for her next week to see if that will help at all.

My question is any other peoples saints having seizure on the forum and if so how much phenobabrital are you giving them i am just worried thats a high dose and any luck with ancupuncture or zoniasamede

thanks in advance

whoooo hooooo kathy where are yooooooou!!!

hopefully kathy can give you some advise.
welcome to the forum

cheri x

Hi Stav

I have too much experience (Sadly!) with seizures in the breed.

We have tried Phenobarbitol, Epiphen & Bromide. Sadly the seizures were so severe, our dogs didnt make it, but i hope that your girl does.

The only trouble i found with the medication is that it has a sedative effect & made the dogs very drowsy, & can affect liver function, hence the need for regular blood tests to check liver function & levels of pheno in the bloods. We were giving 6 Pheno & 4 Kbr (Bromide) per day

I have no experience with acupuncture, so i would be interested to find if this helps at all.

One thing i think is very important, there is major research going on at present in the USA to find a DNA marker for this awful condition, to help develop a test of some kind & from what I understand, there has been a breakthrough in Belgian Shephereds i believe it is, that they have indeed found something to work on. The researchers desperately need blood from dogs who are either suffering or related with this condition, so if possible if i send you the details, would you be able to send some off?

Are the seizures worsening around the time of her heat? Maybe that could be a reason why they are increasing at certain times?

I pray it all works for you!

There is another lady on the forum, Vicki, ho currently has a dog with Seizures & he has had them for over a year now & they have managed very very well with medication, to the point that he lives a regular life & seeing him, you would not know he has them!

This is also a very good website that I have referred to alot over the years http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/site_map.htm

Hi Stav

I also have a saint bernard the is epilptic he is two. Hes been fitting for a year it started on Christmas Eve 2010. We have him on lots of medication he is on 4 60ml Pheno in the morning with 2 100ml of Bromide then on a night another 3 60ml of pheno and when he fits he gets dimzapan. he fitts about once every 8 weeks ish sometimes it more regular and it seems to be more often in the summer. I have found a website which gives advice can't remeber excatley what its called but its got angles in the name I find the advice on colling him down works. It takes a long time to get the meds right and my saints still aren't perfect its hard to give him all the pills and sometimes he will spit one out which can make the differents between a fit or not. Good luck with your girl hope shes ok

I keep this website in my favourites, i refer to it often, just to read up on things & try to keep myself informed

Its packed full of info

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/

Hope all is going well x

I use that website a lot to I found the ice pack on the back works great if its a hot day once barney was fitting and he was out of it for ages it was about 3 in the morning and I went on this site for the ice pack and within minutes it colded him down I sware it saved his life