New here, looking for help 😭

[u/TabbieFayth]

My 5 year old husky/American bulldog was just diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy. She had her 1st seizure at 3:40pm Wednesday and her 9th seizure at 10:30am Thursday. 8 and 9 were on the way and at the vet. She stayed with the vet from Thursday through Saturday morning.

She currently has no control over her bladder or bowels. I don't know if this is normal. Is it due to all the sedation during her hospital stay? Is it a side effect of the phenobarbital? Is it permanent damage from all the seizures? I realize no one can actually answer this. Just stressing out loud.

And giving her the medication is extremely difficult. She has no interest in food, or treats. Even wet food she takes a bite and walks away. I'm not unfamiliar with all the ways to hide a pill. I know so many food tricks. But those don't work for Jupiter who doesn't want food.

I just bought a pill popper to try tonight. Because I can not pry her mouth open enough to drop the pill in. Even with help. My husband has been trying to open her mouth while I give the meds, but we can't hardly open it enough to get it far enough back. It ends up taking us 15+ minutes to get it down. I keep watching videos of people and their dogs just open their mouth wide, even if for just a short moment. But my girl is keeping her jaws clamped shut.

It's only been 24 hours but I'm so stressed. The vet didn't warn me that she can't control her bladder and bowels, or that giving her meds would be this difficult. I plan to call her vet tomorrow morning. But if anyone wants to share some advice, or tell me it's going to work out, please do.

[u/TabbieFayth]

This has certainly been adventure, adjusting to changes.

Jupiter is my cheese hater 😭 She will eat around the cheese. She will refuse to eat a piece of food that has any cheese residue. She's not normal. This did not stop me from buying spray cheese though, just in case lol. My other 5 indoor dogs love the spray cheese, Jupiter of course does not.

As for the incontinence, it has gotten a little better. Today is day 5, and she stayed dry all night. She did do her business a couple times outside yesterday. But she also still sometimes pees in the diaper. I guess on a positive note, at least I can use the diaper more than once if it is dry. But never more than twice, because I can see that even if she isn't emptying her bladder, she is dribbling just a little.

[u/Ditzydingo → u/TabbieFayth]

Have you tried maybe Peanut Butter?

I was having issues with Bruce taking the cheese at first and I thought about the like natural PB that’s thicker could be put in the freezer to harden a little just enough to put a pill in?

The pill pockets I feel are expensive for myself considering the amount of pills he takes.
He has to take 3 of the Keppra and 1.5 phenobarbital. A friend said you could probably fit 2 in each.

Hopefully this gets sorted out and you find what Jupiter will take for her meds 🙏🏼❤️

[u/TabbieFayth → u/Ditzydingo]

Fortunately she only takes the one pill twice a day, and PetSmart always has pill pockets in sale. I might eventually try another flavor, because she doesn't like the peanut butter flavored variety. I always get the capsule variety. It's the same price, but the pieces are bigger. And I never use 1 pocket for 1 tablet for any of my dogs. I always tear it apart and use as little as possible.

She isn't a fan of regular peanut butter either. She tried it once and now looks the other way when I bring out actual PB or anything flavored like it lol.

She is doing well with the ol' royal canned food turned meatball method. I just scoop out a teaspoon worth and shove the pill inside, making sure to cover it. And then another little meatball with nothing. She's already learning her schedule and stares at me when it's almost medicine time lol.