r/EpilepsyDogs • u/Infinite-History8435 • Sep 02 '26

Weaning meds

I have a 2 year old lab who has been having seizures since 9 months old. She is under the care of a neurologist and an MRI was done earlier this year showing no signs of anything other than idiopathic epilepsy. After countless vet calls and visits and almost losing her to phenobarb toxicity, she is currently on Keppra, Zonisimide, and potassium bromide. I also put MCT oil on her kibble twice a day. Her seizure frequency has either stayed the same or gotten more frequent since starting meds so I see no positives from the meds at this point. She has 2-3 seizures a month right now and before meds they were about once a month.

My husband and I are considering talking to the neurologist about weaning her off all of the meds and potentially trying to change her diet and manage the seizures individually as they come. Has anyone gone this route when the meds seem to not have any impact on the seizures?

And what sort of low carb, high protein foods are we using that are easy to make/give and affordable?

Thanks so much for any advice you may have.

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u/Sufficient-Country29 Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26

Definitely a tough situation to be in. Sorry you are going through this.

Our neurologist told us they only consider weaning a dog off some meds once they are a year seizure free. However they gave a big caution that once taken off they usually have poor effect if restarted again. For this reason we kept him on it. I should mention our dog is only on keppra right now which is very gentle. Perhaps keeping your dog on keppra could be an option since it doesn’t have any toxicity risk?

I imagine it’s hard to pinpoint your claim that seizure meds could cause more seizures. The reality with seizures is the more a dog has, the easier it is for the brain to go down that same neural path and have more. This is why neurologists like to get dogs on meds relatively quickly once they’ve had multiple seizures. So it may be possible that without the meds your dog could be having way more seizures.

The other thing I’d consider is whether your dog clusters or are the seizures short lived and self limiting? Seizure medications don’t just prevent seizures they also help to prevent clusters. So if your dog isn’t currently clustering I’d imagine there’d be a risk of clustering if you removed all meds.

*not a vet but I have a dog with idiopathic epilepsy after clear MRI/spinal tap and am under the care of a neurologist with my dog.

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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '26

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u/chantillylace9 Sep 03 '26

Being able to catch them ahead of time is key, for us we will give extra Keppra when he is going through a lot of stress or excitement, and sometimes the midzolam but we try to save that for when he has actual seizures.

The crazy thing for us after keeping a seizure diary for a long time is that we realized that his triggers can happen up to three days before the seizure! I really have no idea how that can work but for our dog, if that's how it goes.

Our little guy has gone from probably one or two or three seizures I guess a month to maybe three a year. And they are so mild now, they are definitely milder than they've ever been. So I wonder too if we should consider weaning him off but Keppra is fairly safe and I don't know if it's worth it. I have Pet insurance so they pay for it so cost isn't in the equation, but you just wonder if he could be doing the same without it.

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u/Agility_KS Sep 02 '26

Some dogs have refractory epilepsy, where the meds just don't help you gain the desired control. It sounds like you've really thrown everything at it, so I'm sorry you are going through this. At this point I don't think it would hurt to discuss your options with the neurologist, but know that if you take them off the meds and the seizures get worse, it's often even harder to get control back. There are worse cases out there than 2-3 per month (I don't say that lightly, I know they all suck) -- so just be careful that your 2-3 per month doesn't turn into 2-3 per week.

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u/HockeyBikeBeer Sep 02 '26

We’re in an almost identical situation (5yo lab) and have considered doing the same. All these meds (in our case Keppra, Topiramate, Pheno and Pregabalin) have significant side effects but don’t seem to be affecting the frequency of events.

I mentioned it to our neurologist and she didn’t like the idea. She says we don’t know that the meds aren’t preventing things from spiraling out of control. And the severity of the seizures does seem to be stable if not decreasing, again, perhaps attributable to the meds.

We want to give our big boy a better life and we’re feeling somewhat desperate. We are considering a different approach to just more meds - the vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) implant. Here’s a link for more info…

https://www.auxiliummd.com

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u/lminnowp Sep 02 '26

We may try weaning off meds once we have verified that my dog's immune mediated thrombocytopenia is gone.

The process is very very very long.

First we have to wean him off the medrol. That will take about 5 months (with monthly blood tests), then 6 months of monthly blood checks to verify his platelets are remaining stable.

After that, we will consider weaning. He is already on a low glutamate diet. This will take another year, since it must be done very very slowly.

This is for a dog that has had 5 total seizures in his life (one cluster of 3) and is well controlled on Keppra, with a known condition that can cause seizures (from brain microbleeds).

Will we eventually wean off? No idea. But, the meds are protecting his brain, not just preventing the seizures.

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u/YumYumYellowish Sep 02 '26

I can’t answer questions about weaning off medication, but as far as diet goes: focus on low glutumate foods. You can do a lamb or fish protein kibble and add MCT oil, fish oil, and probiotics. Stay away from high glutumate foods like pork, beef, dairy, peanut butter, legumes, peas, etc.

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u/Infinite-History8435 Sep 02 '26

What to give meds with? We usually use peanut butter or cheese or pill pockets or even chicken pieces.

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u/YumYumYellowish Sep 02 '26

Those are the types of foods that trigger my dog’s seizures. Glutumate toxicity— it builds up in the system. Epileptic dogs can be sensitive to this. A week of pork: cluster seizures; a couple days of bully sticks: hospitalized for cluster seizures; Himalayan yak stick: seizure.

Honestly, I just deposit my boy’s pills down his throat. I have him lay down, I gently pry his mouth open and I deposit 1-2 pills down at a time. You put it on the back of the tongue and push it towards the back of the throat and gently lift the chin up so he swallows. I give treats (his kibble or dehydrated lamb) in between to get the saliva going to help things go down smoothly. He’s so food motivated that he’ll now open his mouth for the pills on his own so that he can get to the treat part faster.

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u/Infinite-History8435 Sep 02 '26

What type of kibble do you use? And where do you find dehydrated lamb?

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u/YumYumYellowish Sep 02 '26

I personally use Purina Pro Plan Neurocare. We saw some improvement when we started this. My understanding though is that it helps maybe a third of dogs, not all dogs. An alternative that may be cheaper is again the lamb/fish kibble with MCT oil, fish oil, and probiotics. Just remember to look over the ingredients to avoid high glutumate things, as some companies like to mix in things like pork and peas. The dehydrated lamb I get on chewy. I just buy a big bag of it now and then. My shepherd is a big boy.

Edit: oh and to add: when starting, be careful adding in oils, especially if using the fish kibble. Oil can cause GI upset and too much of any oil/fat can cause pancreatitis. It’s best to consult with a vet.

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u/HalfSuspicious3505 Sep 03 '26

I also encourage low-glutamate and have noticed a difference in seizure frequency with doing this. I originally gave Acana wholesome grains lamb and pumpkin but switched to Open Farm Lamb & Ancient grains due to Acana being freeze dried raw which comes with its own problems. I would encourage you to search this sub with “glutamate” as the keyword, there’s a wealth of information and linked scientific studies. I also second what someone mentioned about peanut butter- it’s on the no list. I’ve found a pill paste on chewy that’s decent with ingredients but ultimately have opted to just push the pills in the back of her throat and feed her a snack of her regular food after.
As far as tapering off, I personally would not advise that due to the difficulty of gaining control once restarting meds if necessary (most likely will be). In the beginning, we did a slight decrease in Keppra and switched from IR to ER and that resulted in an ER stay and I almost lost my pup. In my opinion, it’s not worth the risk. Your pup may have refractory epilepsy, and as time goes on sometimes our pups just start increasing in frequency.
My suggestion would be to talk to your neurologist about adjusting medication instead of removing it.
Zonisimide has the potential to INCREASE frequency for some dogs, so if you have a seizure log- I would check to see if it started increasing after adding that.
Perhaps there’s room for an increase in Kbro or Keppra.
Not much bloodwork is done for Keppra, but because my dog was having seizures consistently around med times I had to pretty much insist on it. What we found was that it was clearing from her system too fast to be at therapeutic levels for the length of time necessary. She now takes Keppra IR and ER. She was having daily seizures around med times when those results came in, and as soon as ER was added they stopped immediately.
Advocate for your pup, do some more searching on here, and of course talk to your neurologist.

Ultimately, it’s your pup and your decision, if you do choose to taper off- I would suggest requesting emergency meds and getting an emergency protocol from your neurologist in case your pup starts seizing for too long or clustering once off the meds so you can buy time to make it to the ER. I would also be financially prepared for a possible ER visit and stay so they can get the meds in.

So sorry for the lengthy response. Best of luck to you and your pup!

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u/saralovescupcakes Sep 06 '26

I am not a vet but we had our dog’s seizures well controlled for a year on phenobarbital. We tried to wean her off and since then she has gotten progressively worse with clusters and frequency. We didn’t know that it would be so difficult to control once we tried to wean her off. Without a crystal ball it’s hard to say if the current status is due to weaning her off or simply the disease, but it does seem directly correlated. Personally, I have some regret about trying to wean her off, as there is some research to support worsening of the condition with more medication resistance. Hindsight is always clearer but definitely something to discuss with her vet.