melatonin
hi,

i wanted to get melatonin for my dog but i don't know where to find it. he has idiopatheic epilepsy and has seizures in his sleep. i've read some info about melatonin for epileptic dogs, especially those having seizures around sleep time, so i'd definitely love to try it (esp. before upping his meds. hes on pheno and potassium bromide... it makes me sad!) amidst all that i've read about melatonin i've yet to find a viable source for the melatonin as well as the recommended dose for a 10lb. dog. i certainly don't want to put him in a seratonin coma or anything crazy, just help him sleep more soundly. any suggestions would be appreciated!!! thanks!

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pomeranian seizure questions
hi,

i have a 2-year-old male pomeranian named midi. he has been having seizures for almost a year and has been diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy. i am really concerned, not only because he is epileptic, but because he is so young and, despite being on medicine, he has still managed to have a few seizures. he is currently take 2ml phenobarbital twice a day, and 1.5ml potassium bromide twice a day, along with these chinese herbal drops my vet gave me called calm composure and vetri-science DMG. he was put on prescription medicine at the end of january, and did not have a seizure for 3 months. in the past two months he has had 4 seizures (his 4th being about an hour ago.) it has been 20 days since his last seizure. he has seizures when he is sleeping 99% of the time. he also eats a high protein diet- innova evo, and i give him these dehydrated chicken treats called mellow mut... though he's still a pretty high strung little guy!

i guess i am concerned about a few things.
1. do you think his seizures could be a result of discomfort i.e. allergies or being too hot? hes a pom and has a thick coat that i trim down really short in the summer i also have a fan for him and even ice packs when he acts really uncomfortable. i was considering getting him a cooling bed and getting rid of the fan since he may not like the noise.
2. is there anything you think has helped your dog that i could ask my vet. about?
3. any tips, advice, suggestions, or stories pertaining to canine epilepsy? i've never had or experienced this before, and any info would be great as a frame of reference.

thanks so much in advance!

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Weird seizure
Today Murph had a weird seizure. He usually will come near me and start leaning, but he stayed in his doghouse (soft-sided). It was a typical short seizure, but at the end, I sat on the floor with my legs around him as he stopped seizuring. Then his head and chest started, well, sort of wobbling back and forth. When I put my hand on his chest, it stopped, but when I took it away, he started again. This is the first time I've noticed this. It lasted a couple of minutes. Anyone else had this happen?

Thanks, K

Current Mood: curious

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newbie
Just a quick hello from a new-comer. We have a 7 year old Pekingese, Murphy, with epilepsy. He's had seizures since 2001, after a nasty fall/swandive from a porch, 20 feet onto concrete.

He's maxed on his pheno. 60mg x2, twice a day. The pheno keeps his seizures in check duration wise but doesn't seem to limit the quantity much. We've tried to find the triggers for the seizures. They seem to definately follow rigorous exercise, any jumping off of things, and going from a light room to a dark room. During a seizure we massage his ear tips and give him Rescue Remedy. With the meds, his seizures last 3-5 minutes, with him only being tired afterwards. Before going on the meds, he would seizure for about 10 minutes, vomit before and after the seizure, massive drooling and diarrhea afterwards.

We hope to exchange information and ideas and learn more about Murph's affliction.

Current Mood: contemplative

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Archie does it again
Folks,

Well, it's been a while since I started this group, and apparently we've gotten some attention, though few members, and few posters. But I hope to see that increase over time.

Our dog Archie has been having trouble when we reduce his phenobarb dose to 180mg. He's currently taking 1gm of Potassium Bromide (KBr), and 270mg of phenobarb daily. 90mg of the phenobarb 3x daily, and one KBr capsule with his supper. Our doc said that it would be okay to reduce his phenobarb dose to 180mg (60mg 3x daily) , however the last two times we've tried that, he's wound up having days with cluster siezures, as in several within a short period of time. Most of them are of increasing intensity, each one being more intense than the last, and lasting longer. The first is usually about 30 seconds, but the more they happen, the longer they go. Afterwards, Archie is groggy, and practically blind for a while. The first time it happened was right after my wife and I went on a trip for the weekend, and left Archie boarded. He has significant seperation anxiety, and actually injured his nose (rubbed it raw) trying to escape from his crate at the kennel. This past Saturday, however, he'd had no significant trauma in his life, but wound up having 3 siezures within 10-15 minutes. I took him to the vet hospital, and he had a 4th seizure in my truck on the way. They dosed him with Diazepam (valium-type sedative), but he had another siezure at 7pm, and yet another at 3:30am. After the last one, and the last dose of medication, he seemed alright. He's been somewhat lethargic since we returned him home on Sunday, but that might have something to do with us bumping him back up to 270mg of phenobarb, with our doctor's consent. He could take alot more of the phenobarb, if necessary, but he seems to do okay on the 270mg. We just haven't left him on that dose long enough to see for real how it affects him.

So now the plan is to keep him on 270mg of phenobarb, and change his KBr to NaBr (Sodium Bromide), which should hopefully prevent him from getting an upset stomach and puking up his supper and medication, although I don't know if that had anything to do with these seizures. It's hard to get a handle on what's wrong with him when he has these, but the vet bills are getting outrageous.

Here's hoping that we can get him under control soon, and prevent more days like Saturday.

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Welcome
Welcome to the Canine Epilepsy group. I realize that this might not be a high traffic group, but figured it was worth a shot. My wife and I adopted a beautiful yellow lab named Archie almost 2 years ago as a puppy. In July of 2003, about a week after returning from a week long vacation where we took the dog along, Archie started having seizures. We had previously been unaware that dogs could have epilepsy, and were stunned to find out that Labs were a prime breed for the disorder. Since then, we've medicated him with Phenobarbitol and more recently we've added Potassium Bromide to the mix. We've had to adjust his doses here and there, but nothing has completely stopped his seizures. Of course, we don't expect that, but neither have they lessened in frequency. He still gets clusters of them about once per month. Recently, he had 8 in one day: 7 grand mal, and one "focal" seizure.

His medications make him very unruly. He paces a great deal, has to go outside much more frequently and he ever did before, gets into things that he knows he's not supposed to get into (including garbage cans and kitchen countertops, right in front of us, even), and is constantly scrounging for food, even though he's most certainly getting enough to eat. Chew toys help, but he doesn't like the ones for strong chewers as much. Any other kind, though, and it's like feeding it into a wood chipper. Archie is a good dog, but it's difficult. We'd like to know if other folks have similar issues with their epileptic dogs and how they deal with them.

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