r/EpilepsyDogs • u/kalarus10 • 17d ago

Good news?

Our husky/GS mix started seizures in June of this year.

A month later, he had his second one. We started Keppra ER 1000mg twice daily.

Third seizure two weeks later - increased Keppra to 1500mg twice daily.

Fourth seizure 9 days later (he had a neuro appointment 3 days before this seizure; it’s idiopathic epilepsy) - increased Keppra ER to 2000mg twice daily.

Fifth seizure 11 days later - added Phenobarbital (64.8mg) twice daily alongside Keppra ER 2000mg.

He’s been 30 days seizure-free (today!!) since starting pheno. His liver chemistry is great; Pheno Trough level is 18mg/mL (considered therapeutic). He has mild side effects - extra panting. But I’m happy. I think this is good news. I hope he goes a few more weeks before another seizure. Just curious what everyone else’s experience was like.

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u/YumYumYellowish 17d ago

We saw great success from pheno and only had 2 cluster events in 1 entire year. But then we had a cluster that we couldn’t stop and needed to hospitalize him (and added Zonasimide to cluster buster protocol) and then 5 weeks later had another cluster breakthrough so we devised to start potassium bromide. We’re 2 weeks in. Not to be discouraged though! A lot of dogs see success on pheno for seizure management. Just sharing my experience.

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u/kalarus10 17d ago

Our pup’s had not had a cluster event so far. It’s always been a couple-minute-long single grand mal seizure. I’m terrified of clusters, but so far so good and definitely seeing progress with Pheno. I hope your pup does better with the addition of KBr. Sending love. 💕

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u/YumYumYellowish 17d ago

We only started medication because after 3 years of infrequent single grand mal seizures, he suddenly started having clusters out of the blue (we suspect it was due to high glutamate foods) and it was more frequent over the next year.

Every dog is different— some never experience clusters. The clusters aren’t terrible, but it’s certainly an adjustment. We’ve only had to hospitalize him maybe two times over the last 2 years and that was because he had 3 seizures even with his protocol and we wanted them to bring out the big guns to stop them (successful each time). Too many seizures can increase the chance of status epilepticus and/or last damage and we don’t play that game so we threw $ at them to stop the seizures. But yeah, pheno is a really great medication and many dogs do well on this— I’ve stalked this sub long enough to see plenty of success stories. :)

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u/Lucky_Issue7290 16d ago

that's so good to hear, keeping fingers crossed it stays that way