I have a golden retriever that is on phenobarbital. Has done fairly well
but now seems to be having a seizure weekly now. Used to be maybe once
or twice a month.
Will call the vet Mon to see if he wants to increase pheno or add
potassium bromide or something.
Has anyone tried Melatonin? Heard that it calms the dog down and
possibly not even have a seizure or will lessen the seizure. They
always occur during the night.
It is so frightening watching her seize - she is 9 years old.

Nancy,

Has a vet determined what is causing the seizures? There is a lengthy list
that includes (forgive me if I spell these wrong) hypoglycemia, allergies,
toxins, head trauma, cancer, and more.

When a vet can¹t pinpoint a cause of seizures he diagnoses the condition as
epilepsy. He also might suspect auto-immune disease for which he¹ll put
your dog on a steroid to combat the inflammation in your dog¹s brain which
might be causing the seizures.

As far as I know, phenobarbital is used to suppress seizures * not cure
them. What is causing your dog¹s seizures is still there, and possibly
worsening. A good vet/neurologist can be of more help that your every day
vet.

I have also been reading a book by a very well known holistic vet: Martin
Goldstein ³The Nature of Animal Healing.² It¹s available at Amazon.com. He
makes a very compelling care for holistic healing. He mentions some
homeopathic remedies that you can try on your own.

One I¹ve tried * Bach¹s Rescue Remedy. It¹s supposed to relieve stress and
cut the severity of seizures. It also might shorten the ³post ictus² period
after your dog¹s seizures * that half hour or so while you dog is recovering
from his seizure. About four drops in his mouth after a seizure can shorten
that recovery time. I think it¹s helped Dixie. I haven¹t started using it
on an everyday basis until I¹ve talked to a holistic vet, but I think it has
helped.




On 5/20/06 12:50 PM, in article
, "
wrote:

I have a golden retriever that is on phenobarbital. Has done fairly well
but now seems to be having a seizure weekly now. Used to be maybe once
or twice a month.
Will call the vet Mon to see if he wants to increase pheno or add
potassium bromide or something.
Has anyone tried Melatonin? Heard that it calms the dog down and
possibly not even have a seizure or will lessen the seizure. They
always occur during the night.
It is so frightening watching her seize - she is 9 years old.


NANCY FROM FLORIDA

In article ,
David Sherman wrote:
I have also been reading a book by a very well known holistic vet: Martin
Goldstein ³The Nature of Animal Healing.²

You *really* don't want to screw around with seizures, and
you *do* want to suppress them. Regardless of the
underlying cause they can cause additional damage.

I had a dog who clustered (she had a pituitary mass that was
the likely source of the problem). Phenobarb reduced their
frequency but didn't get rid of them. We switched to
potassium bromide and she never had another seizure. Not
all dogs respond identically to the same medications, and
you need to work with your vet to figure out what your dog
responds best to.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

I lost my Cattle Dog a few months ago due to seizures. She was four
and and started having seizures last April. We tried all the meds you
mentioned except Melatonin.
I am a dog groomer at a pet hostpital , I will ask about thes meds .
I know how hard it is to watch your dog go thru seizures
rjgroomer @hotmail.com

Howedy Wiz,

http://www.irishdogs.ie/Information/...g_Training.pdf

What the hell. I'll read it and get back to you.

You are one crazy sumbitch, Wiz. But let's see what you've got here.

said in rec.pets.dogs.health:

Will call the vet Mon to see if he wants to increase pheno
or add potassium bromide or something.

Good. That combination works well with Rocky, as well as paying
strict attention to his diet.

Has anyone tried Melatonin? Heard that it calms the dog
down and possibly not even have a seizure or will lessen
the seizure.

I've heard of great successes with alternative medications. My
opinion is that you should first stop or reduce the seizures
with traditional meds and *then* investigate ways to reduce the
drugs. In Rocky's case, his dosages of PB and KBr have been
reduced by half since onset over six years ago and he hasn't had
a seizure for almost 4 years.

They always occur during the night.

Very common, which is why I wonder why melatonin would be
considered. Rocky's seizures always occur while he's in deep
sleep - twice in daytime when he was very tired.

It is so frightening watching her seize - she is 9 years
old.

It's frightening indeed. Nine years is a very late onset for
idiopathic epilepsy, so there may be some other underlying
medical cause. Read through the health links on my web page,
especially the first:
http://www.rocky-dog.com/Links/LinksMenu.html

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

"Rocky" wrote in message
...
said in rec.pets.dogs.health:

Very common, which is why I wonder why melatonin would be
considered. Rocky's seizures always occur while he's in deep
sleep - twice in daytime when he was very tired.

Interesting. I used to take melatonin about 10 years ago (or so). I was
having trouble *falling* asleep...and it really helped with that part. But I
did find that my sleep wasn't nearly as deep as it was without it. I wonder
if that's less common than I thought. I also found (as did a few friends who
also were taking it) that not only did it stop helping speed up the falling
asleep process, but it actually kept me awake after only a few months of
use.

If I'm not making enough sense I totally blame it on the fever and the flu
medicine.

TaraNYC

In article Eiucg.1352$GN4.376@trndny07, TaraG wrote:
Interesting. I used to take melatonin about 10 years ago (or so). I was
having trouble *falling* asleep...and it really helped with that part. But I
did find that my sleep wasn't nearly as deep as it was without it. I wonder
if that's less common than I thought.

There seems to be a lot of variability in the way people
respond to melatonin. I used to use it to help deal with
jet lag and I found it useful in getting onto a new sleep
schedule very quickly, but other colleagues who were
travelling a lot just felt trashed when they woke up after
taking it.

I've never heard of it being used to control seizures, but I
suppose anything's possible. I absolutely would not have
wanted to experiment on my own dog, though. Getting those
seizures under control is critical.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community