Dog seizures (Milwaukee, Lake Mills: school, pharmacy, taxi)

[fasiionpol]

Hi, I live in the Milwaukee area and my 1.5 year old dog has been diagnosed with epilepsy. I have been to several vets in the area but am looking for one who has experience with seizures. Anyone have a dog with seizures and a vet they would recommend. Thanks for any assistance.

[SickOfTheSunbelt]

Don't put your dog on seizure medication unless the seizures are happening all the time or putting your dog in danger. I have had multiple vets tell me that the side effects of the seizure medication is far harder on the dog than the occasional seizure is. But cluster seizures are potentially deadly and must be addressed. My dog has epilepsy and seizes approx once every 3 months for a couple of minutes at a time. As long as you keep the dog secure and out of danger, there is no need to medicate. From personal experience and talking to other dog owners, the best thing to do is to give the dog a safe place to go to when they are having a seizure, ie...your lap. When the pet dog that you love is having a seizure it's very scary, but they are relatively common, for whatever that's worth.

[slamont61]

Do you know what is causing the seizures? What type of dog is it?

I had a Cocker-Spaniel we got from Lake Mills and there was some food item that would cause the dog to have a seizure. This took a long time to isolate and we found it to be Sodium-Nitrate. Go figure, it turned out to be a ingredient in many meat products.

As soon as we figured out what it was, we could keep him from coming across it in his diet and he never had seziures after. Never did we consider medication that the Vet recomended.

Although scary at first we found ways to help him through the episodes. They did not seem to harm him at all and recovery was amost instant.

[Niftybergin]

Originally Posted by SickOfTheSunbelt

Don't put your dog on seizure medication unless the seizures are happening all the time or putting your dog in danger.

This is very good advice. There are basically two types of anticonvulsant meds prescribed for dogs these days. Potassium Bromide (KBr) is the newer treatment. Phenobarbital is the old-school treatment. I've tried both out on my epileptic Siberian Husky, and we've had good luck with the Phenobarb. They can, however, be used in tandem. The whole process is trial-and-error and it can take time to land on the formula that works for your naimal.

The danger of phenobarb is that it's very hard on a dog's liver, so you may not want to go that route until your dog is older, or unless the seizures are coming regularly (at the rate of once per month), frequently, or in clusters. Bandit has had NO side-effects with the Phenobarb and after about 18 months of being on it, it's gotten really good control of his seizures. He has the rare breakthrough petite mal these days, but that's it. He has to have his levels and liver enzymes tested twice per year (about $100 each time) to ensure that all is well. You can get your Phenobarb prescription filled at the local drug store, and it's fairly inexpensive each month -- I pay $11 for Bandit's prescription, and he takes a fairly high dose.

KBr was the first drug we tried with him, starting when he was about 5. It was awful! The side-effects are extreme thirst and hunger, as well as ataxia (a discoordination of the back legs). Bandit had all of those. His hunger was so profound that he just couldn't stop eating, and he gained a lot of weight very quickly, no matter what I did to give him low-calorie food and exercise. His hunger drove him to behave in ways that were uncharacteristic for him: he started counter-surfing and getting into the trashcans and doing destructive chewing while he was alone. It also impacted his temperament and he became edgy and unpredictable. I got to the point where I just couldn't trust him around other people and dogs -- and up until that point, he'd been the most trust-worthy dog I'd ever known!

KBr takes about 3 full months to get into a dog's blood system at the right levels, so unfortunately our hellish experience lasted a long time. Finally, after about 9 months, I told the vet I'd had enough and he and I stopped Ban's medication. Once he was off the KBr, Bandit lost the 20 pounds he'd gained -- 20 pounds! -- and he became his well-behaved, good-natured, trustworthy self again. The KBr comes in liquid or crystal form, but which form your dog can take depends on size, etc. It was ghastly expensive for us: $48 per month and had to be purchased from this one specific compounding pharmacy located 20 miles away. Horrible.

My biggest tip for anyone dealing with seizures in their dog is to keep the dog as cool as possible during the seizures. Keep ice-bags in your freezer, and when your dog seizes, put them against his lower back/spine, chest, belly. Dogs can't pant while they're seizing, and their body temperatures go up very quickly. Hyperthermia is a VERY real concern and can be fatal. (We lost my brother's dog about a year-and-a-half ago this way. He was cluster-seizing, and by the time my brother got him to the vet, Bodie's core temperature was 116 degrees and the vets euthanized him on the spot.) Don't put anything on your seizing dog that could contribute to overheating. During a seizure, minimize sensorty stimulation as much as possible: make it dark, cool, quiet, and still. Being too tired, too stressed, too hot, too...anything! can push your dog past his seizure threshhold, so keep a diary and start watching for triggers.

Good luck. I'm not in your neck of the woods so I can't refer you to a vet, which was your original request. I just have a lot of experience as the mom of an epileptic dog and felt compelled to post.