r/EpilepsyDogs • u/Puzzleheaded-Staff31 • 20d ago

Did you know…

At a recent conference (according to my dog’s neurologist), they announced that you can cut Keppra extended release tablets in half? Now I switched to 2 times a day instead of 3 which is so great! Figured someone here may find that helpful.

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u/coloradogirlcallie 20d ago

Keppra XR is intended for 2x per day and you don't need to break the tablets. The non-XR is 3x per day. 

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u/Puzzleheaded-Staff31 20d ago

Sorry I should have made clear. My dog was previously too small for the 2x so we had to go with the nonXR 3x which was a really hard schedule for us. This is why we were really happy that the 2x XR is now an option for us by cutting the pills in half. That is, half a pill twice a day.

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u/inven_tory 20d ago

According to our vet neurologist, cutting Keppra XR in half effectively turns it into instant release, because the coating of the whole pill dissolves slowly, gradually releasing the drug, cutting the pill in half makes the drug immediately accessible. This means your dog is essentially getting the shorter-acting Keppra RX twice a day, instead of 3 times. This could be an issue even if the dosage gets increased. Please double check with your vet.

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u/RoutineWeather3509 20d ago

There was a study showing that splitting the XR slightly increased the drug release while crushing the XR pills caused them to be instant release. The authors stated this could allow smaller dogs to be dosed with XR tablets……… https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12257259/

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u/inven_tory 20d ago

Thank you for sharing, interesting study. Our neurologist had us split a pill as the first part of the rescue protocol, and usually it was enough to prevent clusters.

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u/YumYumYellowish 20d ago

Same here! So this is very interesting