Seizures in Dogs

On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 07:48:54 -0800 (PST), Nessa
wrote:


She had been seizure free for over a year until last month.
how do you add potassium bromide? is it a powder?

It's a liquid. You can squirt it into the dog's mouth, but it's not
especially tasty so most people put it on their food.

If she seizes again this month or early next month I will take her in
for an evaluation.

Good idea.

I think she knew it was coming. she refused to sleep with girl child
last night. insisting on sleeping up against me all night long.

Very possible that she sensed it. If dogs can 'predict' seizures in
people, there's no reason to think that they can't in other dogs or
even themselves.

she's just been so ACTIVE with Harley lately, maybe she's overdoing it.

Just about anything's possible, and seizure triggers vary among
different dogs. Have you ever been able to identify her triggers?

"Melinda Shore" wrote
In article ,
caroline wrote:
You don't, the vet prescribes it if he feels its necessary.

I read her as asking what form it takes (how it's
administered).

Fair enough, I read it differently...

"Suja" said in rec.pets.dogs.health:

Matt'll correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Cal Nat change
their formula and add Rosemary (a known seizure trigger or
maybe it lowers seizure threshold, I'm not sure right now)
to it?

Triggers vary dog-to-dog, but a very large sample size from the
epilepsy lists indicate that rosemary is a fairly common seizure
trigger.

And yes, the newer formulation of CalNat has rosemary - which is
why I stocked up on the old stuff a while ago (down to 7 bags in
my deep freeze). While rosemary is the last ingredient listed
on the bag, it's identified as "rosemary extract", so who knows
how strong it is?

The president of Naturapet assured me that the food contained
only a minute amount, but seizure triggers often don't respect
arbitrary thresholds.

Nessa: Potassium Bromide is available in powder as well as
compounded in liquid. I once bought powder (in capsules which
could be opened) for convenience while travelling but found that
Rocky's ataxia increased dramatically.

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

"caroline" said in rec.pets.dogs.health:

Potassium
Bromide (KBr) is another variation on epilepsy meds...they
start on Phenobarb (PB) usually, and graduate to KBr if
necessary.

I don't agree with your choice of words: Dogs don't necessarily
*graduate* to KBr (to me this implies that KBr is a stronger
drug).

Some dogs have severe ataxia from PB so KBr is the better med
for them (an vice versa). Also, KBr has a much longer half-life
than PB (17 days vs. 36 hours) so is often the choice in cluster
seizures.

Different drug, different effects. My dog is on a cocktail of
both.

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

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

Potassium
Bromide (KBr) is another variation on epilepsy meds...they
start on Phenobarb (PB) usually, and graduate to KBr if
necessary.

I don't agree with your choice of words: Dogs don't necessarily
*graduate* to KBr (to me this implies that KBr is a stronger
drug).

Apologies....I was feeling lazy, and that was the easy way to describe it.
My bad ;o/

All the research I did at the time my dog was facing epilepsy meds for the
first time (having gone from annual, to 6-monthly, to monthly, to
fortnightly, to weekly seizures), both online, offline and through very good
online and offline support groups, was that usually PB was the first drug
tried. Some dogs do fine on just PB (mine does, for instance), some don't.
Some need to take both, some dogs do well on one *or* the other, but as I
understood it at the time (10 years ago) PB was usually what the vets tried
first, to try and gain some semblance of control.
I'll confess I'm not as up-to-date on current anti-epilepsy med protocols as
perhaps I should be (but I *was* up-to-date in the early days, or as well
read as I could be, but then mine is doing just grand on PB alone, so I
stopped the potentially endless research and comparisons into drugs I may
probably never use.

Some dogs have severe ataxia from PB so KBr is the better med
for them (an vice versa). Also, KBr has a much longer half-life
than PB (17 days vs. 36 hours) so is often the choice in cluster
seizures.

Different drug, different effects. My dog is on a cocktail of
both

On Jan 6, 12:21*pm, "caroline" wrote:
"Melinda Shore" *wrote

In article ,
caroline wrote:
You don't, the vet prescribes it if he feels its necessary.

I read her as asking what form it takes (how it's
administered).

Fair enough, I read it differently...

actually I did not know when i posted that the vet prescribed it.

I did before I read the follow ups.

On Jan 6, 12:06*pm, sighthounds & siberians wrote:
On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 07:48:54 -0800 (PST), Nessa

Just about anything's possible, and seizure triggers vary among
different dogs. *Have you ever been able to identify her triggers?

No clue what brings them on. I wish I had some idea.

"caroline" said in rec.pets.dogs.health:

Some dogs do fine on just PB (mine does, for instance),
some don't. Some need to take both, some dogs do well on
one *or* the other, but as I understood it at the time (10
years ago) PB was usually what the vets tried first, to try
and gain some semblance of control.

One of the reasons vets often don't prescribe KBr is because
they haven't heard of it. Rocky's vet, for example, knew of it,
but because it was such an old drug (discontinued for human use
many decades ago) he didn't seriously consider it. At least, he
didn't consider it until I insisted that he consider it. KBr
seems to be in much more common use now than when Rocky started
on it 8.5 years ago.

Even when KBr is indicated, PB is started at the same time.
Because of KBr's very long half-life, it takes a long time to
build to therapeutic levels.

As an aside, my agility group puts on a dog fundraiser trial
every January (usually for rescue). This year, I'm one of the
two judges and I'm designating that half the trial's proceeds go
to canine epilepsy research, via http://www.ashgi.org/

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

On Jan 6, 11:49*am, "Suja" wrote:
"Nessa" wrote in message:
her food was switched from various inexpensive *kibble back in
September to *finally California Natural Kibble now.

Matt'll correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Cal Nat change their formula and
add Rosemary (a known seizure trigger or maybe it lowers seizure threshold,
I'm not sure right now) to it? *Could this be part of the problem?

Suja

I had no idea. she's been on it for at least 6 weeks now.


also I have read these links.

It does not appear to me that hannah loses consciousness. she seems
aware of what's going on.
and when she's done and can walk again she may be a bit sleepy but
other than that she's fine.

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

Some dogs do fine on just PB (mine does, for instance),
some don't. Some need to take both, some dogs do well on
one *or* the other, but as I understood it at the time (10
years ago) PB was usually what the vets tried first, to try
and gain some semblance of control.

Rocky's vet, for example, knew of it,
but because it was such an old drug (discontinued for human use
many decades ago) he didn't seriously consider it. At least, he
didn't consider it until I insisted that he consider it.

Aye, a vet who won't accept that their clients sometimes can, and do, do
their own homework from the same (or similar, sometimes even better!)
resources available to the vet is of no use to me or my mutts. I'd wager
that you're cut from similar cloth?
I can recall several occasions where my vet and I have worked together in
silence, poring over big, fat text books in his consultation room, bashing
out theories together on what particular mystery ailment a foster dog has
come to me with, that has provided nothing concrete from various test
procedures. Pleased to say that I'm the one who has come up with the
correct diagnosis on more than one occasion, but proof that often two heads
are better than one with some of the more obscure symptoms and problems.
And at least twice in recent times *he's* phoned *me* to discuss something
in another clients' dog that he knows I've been through with one or more
rescue fosters that have passed through my place.
I'm no vet by any means, far from it....but anything that comes upon my
radar, with regard to my own dogs or fosters, gets throughly researched
until I feel I have a good understanding of what's going on and how *we* (me
and my vet) are going to deal with it.

As an aside, my agility group puts on a dog fundraiser trial
every January (usually for rescue). This year, I'm one of the
two judges and I'm designating that half the trial's proceeds go
to canine epilepsy research, via http://www.ashgi.org/

Nice one, best of luck for fat wallets, deep pockets and long arms ;o)