anyone have a dog being treated for epilepsy?

[clark5080]

Looking for anyone with a dog being treated for seizures and possible epilepsy?

Who is treating and how is the treatment going?

Jim

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[JoB]

Jim…

we don’t now… but we did have a rescue Akita with diagnosed espilepsy about 10 years ago. We successfully treated her with a dietary supplement.. which of course i can’t remember the name of..

she went from frequent seizures in the first 6 months we had her to one in the last 10 years.

i did a web search for canine epilepsy vitamin supplement and came up with a wealth of information.. but not the name of the supplement we used. There is some pretty interesting info out there.

For the last two years of her life.. she lived to be 14+.. she ate a diet of mainly hamburger and brown rice with sweet potato… and a good multi and this supplement… but that wasn’t for her epilepsy… I now consider it our canine geriatric and convalescence diet and have successfully used it in the final years for all my pets…

with salt.. it’s not bad for my lunch:)

i have asked hubby whose memory works better than mine to see if he can remember the name of the supplement we used…

the vet who first prescribed it was a holistic vet in Vancouver Washington just off Mill Plain Avenue a block or so east of I-405… i don’t even know if the vet is still there.. but i will ask a friend who still lives there…

when family members get ill… it’s not easy to figure out what the best course of treatment is .. even for our pets.

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[Kazoo]

Yes our dog a Siberian husky started have seizures when she was very young, we had lots of tests done and tried various stuff but her treatment came down to a mix of Potassium Bromide and Phenobarbital and once we got the right dosage down she never had another seizure and she is now a little over 14 years old. She has not had any kidney issues which we were warned to keep an eye on. Our vet is a Lien Animal Clinic.

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[clark5080]

We just switched to Lein and have Dr. Timothy R. Kraabel. Switched from Burien Vets

that is good info found lots on the web for sure

Thanks much

Jim

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[Lucy]

I had a dog with frequent seizures of no known cause (epilepsy). It is terrifying.

I would highly recommend Dr. Kraabel at Lien Animal Clinic. He is awesome.

Beyond the Phenobarbital medication, I found that acupuncture really helped alleviate my dog’s episodes (to my surprise). I was a complete non-believer in “alternative” treatments; but it did

help tremendously. Seizure frequency subsided markedly. I got an acupuncturist referral from Lien, but I don’t think the gentleman is still in practice.

Did you dog just start having seizures? If so, check for environmental hazards. Correlation isn’t causation, but I found when I moved to a home where the landlord wasn’t dousing the garden in pesticides the dog’s seizure frequency subsided.

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[Kazoo]

Dr. Kraabel is our vet for our dog also, he was a big help to us, we were terrified it was scary to see our dog having seizures. Dr. Kraabel is wonderful.

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[clark5080]

She had one I didn’t realize it was one two months ago, I just thought she got real scared and totally freaked out. She had two on Sunday 14 hours apart. After the first one Sunday i then realized they were seizures after the second one I took her to the emergency vet Sunday and then to Lein on Monday. Just got blood test results today.

thanks much for the info

Jim

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[flowerpetal]

Our Greyhound used to have seizures. My theory was that something must’ve triggered them after he was off the track, and particularly, when he was sedated for neutering. If he’d had seizures during his career he would have been destroyed and would never have sired other pups.

Anyway, our vet at Burien Vet (he’s no longer there) after some careful deliberation; decided along with us, that it was better to not medicate him because of the long term side effects with commmon seizure inhibitors. We were able to make this decision because the seizures were infrequent; (a few times a year) and had no lasting effect on our boy.

The seizures were more traumatizing to us than it seemed they were for Wizard.

Anyway, I tell you this, in case that is one of the options made to you.

BTW, we now go to Lien too. We are very happy with the care there.

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[mom2soren]

I apologize that this doesn’t address your question, but perhaps it can help:

The ketogenic diet is used to treat children with epilepsy (it reduces and sometimes eliminates seizures). Though some of this information found on the web disputes the validity of using ketogenic diets with dogs (ie. there are not a lot of studies done), I have found one site that lists a recent study, and discusses meds:

http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-practice-news-columns/abstract/ketogenic-diet-zonisamide-ease-seizures.aspx

So maybe it’s something you could discuss with a vet who has had experience treating seizure disorders.

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[Lena]

From the west seattle veterinary acupuncturist –

Acupuncture can work well for seizures but from my experience is quite variable. That being said I do treat quite a few dogs with seizures. Some dogs have no response and in others it really does help frequency and severity. However it is a large commitment, usually taking about six months to see if it will make a difference and if it does the treatments are usually on going. It is unusual for the seizures to completely go away.

Often times if the seizures are infrequent I advise people to hold off on meds because it may be better to have a few seizures a year then a lifetime of meds as flowerpetal mentioned. Even meds don’t guarantee a lack of seizures.

Sometimes there is a correlation with pesticides, liver issues, loud sound,other toxins, etc. Also seems to be a correlation with vaccination with many seizures starting within the three months following vaccination esp with rabies vaccine.

I even heard a case of one dog who had a seizures every week at the same time. Turns out he was afraid of the garbage truck which went by every week at that time. They taped the sound and played it back to him at a low volume continuously and he never seizured again.

There are many, many ways to approach seizures in dogs. Unfortunately from all I have read the ketogenic diets don’t work in dogs. Sometimes a whole or raw food grain free diet will work. There are many supplements and many reports of different things working but often it is hard to find the right one(s) for a particular dog.

Two amazing sites on canine epilepsy with great forums and information are

http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/

http://www.canine-epilepsy.net/

And Tim Kraabel is an amazing vet. I highly recommend him. We also have a great neurologist over in Kirkland Sean Sanders but I wouldn’t start with him.

Best of luck!

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