Seizures and a dog's health
Hi everyone,
I have had numerous posts before about seizures and I still need help. My corgi has been on pheno. for 8 months now. It has increased from 2 to 3 to now 4 pills a day. She has a set of seizures it seems like once a month and exactly a month. Lately though she experienced 6 severe seizures a couple weeks ago and now last night experiences 1 seizure that lasted longer than 30 seconds.
At the moment I cannot talk to a vet but I am very concerned about her health now. She is only 3 (the vet believes since she was a rescue) and I have no idea how she will be in the future. Does anyone know how a seizure can effect her body as a whole over a period of time of having seizures? Can it do anything to her heart? brain? anything?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rachael & Waffle on
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Not sure about the seizures, but pheno greatly increases the risk for pancreatitis, a potentially deadly inflammation of the pancreas. You may want to consider putting her on a low fat (<10%) diet with limited fatty table scraps to reduce the risk.
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Permalink Reply by Tomahawk and Fences on
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I had a cocker spaniel with epilepsy caused by distemper when he was younger, so any brain or nerve disorders he had was cause by the distemper and not the seizures. Does your corgi have grand mal seizures? I was told by my vet that if they lasted for more than several minutes, that it make cause permanent brain damage.
Also, phenobarbital is what my dog was on as well and we needed to do liver panels every few months to make sure his liver was alright. I know after a certain time, they reduced Ari's pheno pill amount and added potassium bromide.
I'm sorry you are going through this, it broke my heart every single time Ari went into a seizure. I always felt so helpless and so guilty I couldn't do more for him. If you see a change in your corgi's seizure amount, go to the vet, especially if having a seizure for more than 30 seconds isn't a normal thing.
After a while, the pheno wouldn't work for Ari, he was having a seizure every single day to the point he was having them right after the other. I stupidly waited a couple days before going to the vet, and I regret that every single day. When I finally took him, while waiting in the lobby, he went into a grand mal and they rushed him into the back. After about 10 minutes they told me he was still in it and wanted to know if I wanted to continue trying to get him out of it, and that since it has been a really long time, they couldn't guarantee he wouldn't have mild to severe brain damage. Fearing I would hurt him more by keeping him alive, I had to make the worst decision and put my poor little old man asleep. Now I'm super sad, but talk to your vet, see what they tell you.
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on
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I had a very similar situation with a german shepherd/husky mix. She started when she was 2, and had cluster seizures every month, and when storms would come in. She was on phenobarbitol and just did not do well. I had to take her to the vet every month where they would have to give her pentobarbitol to knock her out so they'd stop. Finally we added potassium bromide to her meds and she did great the rest of her life. If she seized, they were short and usually only one or two short ones. They said she wouldn't live to be 6. She lived until the ripe old age of 12, when I had to put her down for presumed liver cancer. She really did have a good quality of life once we added the potassium bromide. It was cheap and very easy to give. So don't give up!
Usually brain damage will occur if they seize for a very long time, as seizures decrease the amount of oxygen getting to the brain (you don't breathe during a seizure). The meds have side effects, and cancer is one of them, but usually if only used long term. If you have their blood levels checked appropriately, then this is greatly minimized. I also had a newfoundland that seized occasionally....when I was working nights one time, I got up during the day and found him outside (we had a dog door) lying in the sun where he had obviously been seizing for hours. I rushed him to the vet, and ended up having to take him to the vet school the next day. He spent a week there, and when we went to pick him up, he didn't recognize us at all. It was very sad...but he came around after a week, and was the same happy goofy dog he had always been. I don't know if he fell in love with us all over again, or got his memory back, but he was the same as he was before. I know it's very hard to deal with and to see, but it IS manageable and doesn't have to be a death sentence. Let me know if you have any questions...I've been there twice!
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Permalink Reply by Taylor K on
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Thank you for your help. Her seizures have been maintained for the past few months (1 or 2 in the middle of the night that would last 15 seconds) but lately there have been more and they last longer. A few times the valium we would give her would not even work. I hear so many stories where the bromide works wonders in dogs with continours grand mal seizures but my vet only continues to increase her phenobarbital (which worries me for her liver). We do get her blood levels check and they always come back in the normal range. It is just very frustrating and I don't know what else to do.
She always has them in the middle of the night and the next morning she;s her crazy self again. Jumping, running all around, playing, you name it. It's just getting very hard to see her go through these seizures because it's just like when she was diagnosed.
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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on
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Hi Taylor,
Print this out and take it to your vet, ask him about the "PROTOCOL FOR THE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OF CLUSTER SEIZURES", he'll teach you proper dosage and time frame.
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Hi Taylor,
PB level should be check every 6 months, is she on any other rx? Whenever you get a new drug, make sure the person know that your dog is on PB. Do not give her acepromazine, it lowers the seizure threshold. PB is a highly protein bound drug, when two highly protein bound drugs are given together, they may interfere with each others absorption and distribution through the body/bloodstream.
Has she been on the same schedule everyday? If she is regular and experiencing cluster seizures (multiple in 24 hours), talk to your vet about adding KBr, a lot of times when you pair PB with KBr, it eliminates seizure entirely. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Allison on
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My Romeo has seizures. He was on Phenobarb twice per day but still had seizures so they upped the dosage. This worked for about 2 months but the seizures became more frequent again. His vet put him on Potassium Bromide. This did not work for him at all. He didn't have seizures but he had awful side effects. We had to stop the Potassium and start him on Zonisamide. This is the best combination for him so far. No side effects and no seizures.
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I have talked with another vet within the same facility and they want to put her on the potassium. What kind of side effects were present with your dog?
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Romeo was pitiful. The day we started the loading dose he was so drugged he could barely walk. Days after that couldn't lift his front paws off the ground without falling over, would stumble, run into walls and furniture and lose control of his back legs. He wasn't the same dog at all. Most days he would barely move the entire day. It was incredibly sad.
He took the Potassium for a month but never got over the side effects. We were afraid for his physical safety so the vet had us stop and just give him the Phenobarb for a week then started him on Zonisamide twice per day in addition to the Phenobarb. He continues to have his blood tested every other month to check on his liver since he has had pancreatitus. Sorry for the long reply!
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Taylor,
The biggest problem with the Potassium Bromide is stupor. You have to load them with a big dose in the beginning (we actually had to stop the loading dose because Tasha became too stumbly), but once they get used to it there really are no problems. The two in conjunction usually do the trick. I forgot to add earlier that my newfie was on the two also, and once they added the KBr he never had another seizure his whole life. (He lived to be 13). I'd be more scared of the high dosages of the phenobarbitol--it's very hard on the liver.
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Thank you all so much! Now with talking to a new vet we both have decided that adding the potassium bromide is a smart direction!
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Keep us updated....I'm curious to see if it helps. Sending positive thoughts your way!
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