First few days on the new medication
Since we took Oscar home on Monday night he has been taking 6mls of Potassium Bromide liquid a night before bed. The first night he came home they warned us that he may be sleepy for a next 5 or so days. His dosage will drop down to 1.5 mls after 4 days. He was rather energetic on Monday night. He was very happy to be home; almost as happy as we were to have him. He has had two days so far on the heavy dose of the medication and it seems today that it is taking his tole on the little guy. He has spent most of the day very lethargic and almost difficult to wake. He is responsive and his eyes are bright when we do wake him but sometimes he is so sleepy it scares me. Of course after all of this I have become the overprotective mother, watching him while he sleeps to make sure that he is breathing well, checking his gums to make sure they are bright and pink. I have even taken some extra time off from work to be home with him. Tomorrow though it is back to work for me. My boyfriend will be at home with him all day tomorrow as it is his day off. Friday will be stressful as that is the day of the week he spends the most time alone. I'm so worried to leave him by himself :( He stays in an indoor kennel so he has room to walk around, play or sleep while we are away at work. This would also protect him if he were to have a seizure while we are not home as there is nothing for him to hurt himself on, no stairs to fall down. The longer he goes without a seizure the better I feel but it is always in the back of my mind that it could happen at any time. The vets have assured me that do to the medication they should be even shorter now maybe 30 seconds or so of twitching. Only time will tell how he will do with this condition but I am hopeful that we will have it under control and have him back to his puppy like self soon.
Comment
-
Comment by Melisse Fowler on June 12, 2009 at 4:16pm
-
My Springer sister Lucy was having siezures. Thankfully she had one in front of the vet and he said it was the wierdest one he'd ever seen. She would go splay legged and just shake and make trilling noises...it was horrible and gave mom a terrible upset. At the vets office we discovered that her hip was coming disjointed or something and she was getting a pinched nerve, but it only happens when her legs go out from under her a certain way (she's 16 years old). Now when it happens, mom or dad picks her up and get her legs back under her and she stops and walks away tail waggin like nothing happened. I wish for Oscar something else was at play, like it was for Lucy. Most of all, whatever the cause, I hope it can be relieved and controlled. My family sends their best!
-
Comment by John Wolff on June 11, 2009 at 8:21pm
-
Potassium Bromide? That's just a salt, a fairly simple thing (they use lithium salts for depression in humans, I think). No idea how it works. Hope the side effects aren't bad. And I hope Oscar is his old self again soon!
-
Comment by Melissa on June 10, 2009 at 7:47pm
-
It was the frequency that made the vet determine to place him on the medication. He had three seizures in less than 12 hours and they feared "cluster seizures" would cause them to become more frequent and more sever. The medication that he is on does not have to be processed through his liver so it has less long term side effects than some other medications he could take. Although the medicine is making him sleepy now I'm sure in a few weeks he will be back to normal.
-
-
I'm no vet, just speculating, but I'm wondering why this medication was deemed necessary? Was the option of doing nothing discussed? Were the seizures judged to be somehow damaging or dangerous? Wouldn't there be some value in observing the progress of this condition before intervening? Might it get worse, or disappear as suddenly as it appeared? How many seizures might Oscar have had without anybody even noticing?
As I mentioned re. your previous post, our epileptic cat lived a long life of regular and spectacular, albeit infrequent, grand mal seizures, the ones we witnessed mostly at night (wake with a start to a wildly shaking bed! oh... just another seizure, ho-hum, make sure he doesn't leap off the bed, then go back to sleep...). His seizures often ended with a wild leap, so we were afraid he'd fly off the bed into the wall, but other than that, the vet said the seizures were likely more stressful to us than to him.
I guess you have to trust the vet's judgement that the cure is not worse than the disease, but Oscar doesn't have to operate much heavy machinery, or drive often, so how much trouble can he get himself into by having a seizure? Fall off the bed maybe. Even if my dog went limp at the top of the stairs, I can't imagine him falling very far very fast. Drown in a pool? If he's out alone, unsupervised, perhaps he could seize in a vulnerable situation...
Anyway, I hope Oscar's OK. He looks so much like our Al. I can't imagine myself being rational if Al was showing such symptoms; I'd need somebody else to do that for me. Must be scary for you. Let us know how it goes. I hope to hear, after a while, that it hasn't turned out to be such a big deal after all.
-
Comment by Susan Stanton on June 10, 2009 at 7:23pm
-
I know it's so hard to see your baby not be his usual self -- but remember, you're taking the best possible care of him, and this transition period while he adjusts to his meds will pass, and your baby will be BACK! We send you many Corgi hugs and good wishes.
-
Comment by Bev Levy on June 10, 2009 at 2:33pm
-
Just remember, it is not nearly as tramatic for him as it is for you!
-
Comment by Joanna, Rainy and Calvin on June 10, 2009 at 2:28pm
-
Poor Oscar! Hopefully things will be all right. It's no fun having a sick kid who can't talk to you. Lots of hugs and corgi kisses to get better and back to his old self soon!!
-
Comment by DR, Nala & Simon on June 10, 2009 at 1:49pm
-
Lots of Well Wishes to Oscar and you. Hope everything works out.
Rescue Store
Stay Connected
FDA Recall
Canadian Food Inspection Agency Recall
Groups
We support...
Badge
© 2024 Created by Sam Tsang.
Powered by
You need to be a member of MyCorgi.com to add comments!
Join MyCorgi.com