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.
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.
