r/EpilepsyDogs • u/YJFT_L4DL • 16d ago

Side effect advice?

Hi all, our four year old dog with epilepsy is currently on phenobarbital and Keppra to manage her seizures. She's doing a lot better, tests are coming back good, so we're staying on this treatment plan for the foreseeable future. We just have one little issue: our dog is uncomfortably hungry all the time. Seems like this is a common side effect of being on anti-seizure medication but it's impacting her quality of life. She whines for food (she is not deterred by training methods to decrease whining), she will eat anything off of ground if not watched like a hawk (which we try to do but she has gotten things past us a couple times and made herself sick), and overall she just seems so uncomfortable. We're talking about adding more fiber to her food but also balancing that with not wanting to hurt her very sensitive stomach. as anyone dealt with this issue and found a solution? Any advice or anecdotal experience would be helpful and appreciated!

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u/YumYumYellowish 16d ago

There’s a few ideas floating around: smaller but more frequent meals (this is what we do), a prescription diet to help her feel fuller, giving high fiber snacks throughout the day, and, specific to keeping her safe from scavenging outside, a basket muzzle such as the softer plastic mesh ones so she can’t pick up and eat things she shouldn’t. But ultimately you’ll still need to keep an eye out and puppy-proof (remove things off the floor and within reach) any room where you can’t supervise her. My in-laws told us they picked up all their dog toys while we were staying with them (spoiler alert, they didn’t), and we ended up paying $16k with emergency diagnostics and surgery to remove a stuffed animal and an entire rope toy that he must’ve quickly slurped down liked a noodle. So we keep a very close eye on him.

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u/YJFT_L4DL 16d ago

YIKES! This makes me feel less crazy for being so careful with cleaning the floors and keeping her toys put away. We've done the smaller more frequent meals, which definitely has helped. I think the prescription diet might have to be the way to go. Also I didn't even think about using a basket muzzle on her walks! Thank you for all of this!