canine seizures

My daughter Amanda and her dog Roxy-Rue compete in the UAD events. Our other dog is a Siberian Husky and has had 3 seizures(since Fido's Festival) lasting about 4 min. each. My vet has put her on potassium bromide. (250mg/100ml.)
Is there anyone in this wonderful community that can give me advise about keeping my beautiful Ember-Lynne safe and happy? Does anyone know how to get anti-seizure medication at a cheaper price?

If I've written this in the wrong forum, I'm sorry. This is my first time writing to any of you.

Thanks to all!!! Katy McClellan

Hi Katy, There was a post about a seizuring pup a while ago so if you do a search you'd probably find the thread. We had a seizure pup and I do have some info for online information. Will you be at the jump in Shelby this weekend? I can talk to you about it this weekend if you'll be there. I'm Mary and my dog is Brewster. Let me know if you won't be at the jump and I can send you the info when I get a chance. Have a good day!

Hi Katy- I am sorry to hear about your furbaby. I would check petmeds.com or some other online pharmacy for your medications. That would be my suggestion. It was great to see you guys last weekend. You have a beautiful family and hope to see you at the Conn. Pet Show in October. Good luck with Ember-Lynne. We have some vets that frequent this site. Maybe Alysa would have any suggestions.

Hi Katy!
We were jumping last weekend with your daughter and Roxy-Rue, my dog is Cocoa.
Anyway, I am a veterinary technician, not a vet, but I have working in my position for 8 years. Our hospital usually starts seizuring dogs on Phenobarbital. It's a little cheaper for you, but the dogs need bloodwork every 6 months to monitor the level of the drug in their system. Our doctors move up to potassium bromide if the dog starts to have break through seizures on the Phenobarbital. Most dogs do very well on the Phenobarbital and never need potassium bromide. I'm not sure of your exact situation so I don't know the reason your vet started with the potassium bromide. Is there an underlying medical condition causing the seizures such as a brain tumor? If not, I would casually mention phenobarbital to him. I say casually because you do not want to insult him. Just discuss cost and that you know of other dogs that did well on phenobarbital. Good luck! And by the way, it was a full moon this week and we tend to see a huge increase in seizures the week of the full moon! Strange, isn't it?
Tara

Oh, and you will also need to do drug monitoring blood with the potassium bromide as well.

Katy,

Katie, our black lab started having seizures this year. She is 6 now and just had 4 seizures in one day last tuesday. Our vet put katie on phenobarbitol, she gets 2 doses of 60mg. per day. 1 1/4 tablets each time. The vet also gave her an injection of phenobarbitol while we were there. She has an episode about every month and usually she will have more then one seizure a day. Phenobarbitol is not expensive, we got 75 tablets for $7 and some change.

Everything that Tara said is what our vet said too, some good advice from her. They do need to check the levels by taking bloodwork.

It's very hard to watch your dog have a seizure, I feel bad for Katie when has one. Hers last at least 5 minutes and then cleaning everything up afterwards. Katie gets very aggressive and growls at us after her seizures and so we give her some time till she gets back to normal.

Keep us posted on Ember-lynne's progress and good luck!!

Roger

We have a 8 year old bulldog that has been taking seizure for over a year. Our vet had her taken it everyday then ween her back. We had he down to 2 days a week for 11 months. She is now having to take them everyday. Each dog is different and act and respond different. We were told to keep a journal as to how often and how long they last this helps the vet know where to keep the meds. Hope all goes well with you because it is scarey to see. I had a daughter that had them when she was little so when it happened to Sable I knew what was going on.

I'm sorry that your dog Roxy is having seizures. I had a personal dog that had them, and even when you are trained for such things, it is so extremely difficult to watch. I hope that the medication helps!

My concern with ordering medications on line, and many of my clients do, is that we have no idea of how they are stored, when they expire, etc. Essentially there is no guarantee to the quality, how they are shipped, the conditions in which they are housed, etc. Especially when you are looking into getting an anticonvulsant, I would want to make sure I had more knowledge about how it is dispensed, etc. For some things, it doesn't matter as much. For others, I feel the risk is too great.

I put most of my seizuring patients on phenobarbital initially, unless there are other underlying concerns, such as liver disease, renal (kidney disease), etc. Bottom line is that you want the veterinarian to use whichever medication they are most comfortable with, as they will be the ones making decisions about doseages, etc.

I really hope that things get better. I know how hard it can be to deal with all this. The positive side is that most of the animals do pretty well once they are regulated.

My 12 yr old Golden started having seizures last year and has about one a month, although this past month she's had three, so it's time we did a phenobarb level and see if we need to increase. Back in the spring, the vet added KBr, but Pepper is one of those dogs who didn't do well on it. She had severe ataxia (loss of coordination) in the rear and just appeared drunk all the time. It took a while for it to get out of her systems once we discontintued it. The vet replaced it with a drug used mostly for humans: Keppra ( Levetiracetam (500mg)). If you have any problems using the KBr, you might ask about this. We have to order it from one of the local hospital pharmacies. It's more expensive than the phenobarb, but less than the KBr. Also, it's safer and doesn't require a blood level check.

Beth

Thank you all for your responses and suggestions! It is such a comfort to know this community! I am only using the computer at the library for now so my personal responses will be a little delayed. Ember-Lynne is handling the potassium bromide quite well and has been seizure free since I wrote last .

My vet uses potassium bromide first as it is less invasive on the dog's liver. If need be, he will use phenobarb, but not as a first course of action. My dog has been on potassium bromide and has been seizure free for four years now (she was having seizures every couple of months, with the last bout being 11 seizures in a 24-hour period). But like I said, seizure free now for four years.

Our black lab (Katie), recently had 4 seizures in 8 hours, I can't imagine having 11 in 24 hours. Katie is on phenobarb but still has breakthrough seizures eventhough they increased the dosage. The vet started with the phenobarb and never did try potassium bromide