Canine Epilepsy, Epiphen and light at the end of the tunnel

[Deleted User]

We have a 3 year old dog, who had his first fit on 1st March in the wee small hours. Very scary at the time but we were advised to wait and see whether he had another one as occasionally they can have a cluster of fits and then they stop or decrease etc.

Anyway, within a short space of time he then had two in one day and we were advised to start medicating with 30mg of epiphen twice daily.

Since then he has had a further 3 fits (2 again on the same day) so it was then agreed to increase to 45mg twice daily.

FYI - he has had MRI and spinal tap also to eliminate anything else, so diagnosed with epilepsy following all the tests.

The side effects from the epiphen are frustrating but our vet says that they are nothing to worry about. That of course is easy for them to say when they are not living with it. He is obsessive about things, whines all the time, is clumsy, drinks SOOOO much water which means he is having accidents in his sleep and often needs to go out in the middle of the night.

Has anyone else been through this, have any advice, do the side effects get better? My OH and I have never snapped at each other as much as we do now, we are tired, not wanting to let our dog out of our sight, worried, anxious and frustrated with the changes in our dog. Don't get me wrong, we love him and will do all we can for him, I just wanted to see if someone could give us some comfort that things get easier.

I know that there are other drugs for epilepsy and often dogs need a mix of more than one but so far we are only using epiphen, nothing else has been suggested.

Thanks for listening to me.

RachRubyD

Though my dog seizures don't seem as bad as yours I can really understand how your feeling. Mine was on Phenobarbital but only 15mg twice day. She was only have a seizure once a month though. Really shouldn't been medicated. Anyway we decreased it to 15mg a day a year ago and she hasn't had a seizure since shes been on meds and its been 2 years now. She just been weaned off and fine.

I'd ask the vet why phenobarbital wasn't given it normally is first. Its good that you had MRI scans and so on. Could you not also test for blood sugar levels and also Hyperthyroidism I know this can be a cause of seizures and isn't always detected in normal tests.

I think this forum is great but for real in-depth help a proper animal forum is best. I am on http://www.petforums.co.uk and just post some thread on dog health part. There is tons of knowledgeable members with epileptic dogs and really helped me.

Side effects of meds can be excessive thirst and hunger. Just try to take your dog out for toilet every couple hours. I let mine out literally before I go to sleep.

Here is a great website that is written by Vets and loads of info.

Can I ask what diet you feed? Grain free is better such as potato not rice. Also stay away from food with rosemary which is really hard as it seems to be in every dry food and also sage can be a trigger.

I feed Fishmongers wet from pets at home and Eden dry or Taste of the Wild. Now the dry can be quite expensive at £50 for 15kg but I have a cav and she only needs 90g a day.



Some other options that I looked at and where cheaper are starting from best in my opinion first

ASHENBANK (lamb casserole)

Price (15kg): £38.99

Ingredients:Potato (min 41%), fresh lamb (min 24%), lamb meal (min 21%), potato protein, peas, sunflower oil, lamb fat, whole linseed, pea fibre, lamb digest, minerals, vitamins, L-carnitine, carrot flakes, DL-methionine, cranberry, manno-oligosaccharides, fructo-oligosaccharides, glucosamine, MSM, yucca schidigera extract, chondroitin, beta-carotene

LUPO SENSITIVE (24/10, grain free)

Price (15kg): £39.90

Ingredients: Dried ground chicken meat (33%), potato flour (32%), dried ground parsnips, beet pulp, milk thistle (5%), coldpressed blended vegetable oil (5% [linseed, rapeseed, borage oil]), seaweed meal, salmon oil (2%), dried moor extract (1.5%), dried chicory (1.5%), mineral clay (1%) , dried nettle leaves (1%), dried dandelion leaves (1%), yucca schidigera.

ARDEN GRANGE (sensitive, ocean white fish & potato)

Price (15kg): £39.99

Ingredients: Potato (min 42%), white fishmeal (haddock] min 26%), beet pulp, chicken oil, linseed, fish oil, dried brewers yeast, egg powder, minerals, vitamins, nucleotides, prebiotic FOS, prebiotic MOS, cranberry extract, chondroitin sulphate, glucosamine sulphate, MSM, yucca extract


Diet does play a huge part in helping with epilepsy and its best to keep food simple and often. Feed 2-4 times a day not once as helps stablise blood sugar levels.

I also give Skullcap and Valeria tablets which help Epilepsy and from Dorwest which sells pet supplements. This was suggested by vet as well plus Milk Thistle supplement is good whilst on meds as they can cause liver damage and Milk Thistle helps reduce and reverse this.

A good vet can make world of difference my old vet didn't know much about Epilepsy and just shoved my dog on meds not knowing that it can shorten life due to liver issues. I swapped vets as relocated home and my new vet has two Epileptic dogs so alot more knowledgeable. Ring up a few vets and ask if anyone specializes in Epilepsy or even ask your own practice.

I hope you get it sorted its such a worrying condition for animals and humans alike and doesn't seem much research or meds out there to help.

Waterfalls

we had a rep come round last week from boehringer-ingelheim ( the same people who make metacam) they have deleoped another drug for canine epilepsy that has much milder side effects, have a chat with you vet about it as it might suit him better????
http://www.pexion.co.uk/

[Deleted User]

Thanks Rach Ruby and Waterfalls, I will look into the info you have given me.

Our vets do seem very knowledgeable (and our dog was sent to the Royal Veterinary Colleage near Hatfield, for his MRI and spinal tap and they did a lot of extensive blood tests too, with a leading specialist in canine epilepsy), but we will keep questioning the decisions being made. They have even signed us up for a webinar with another leading expert, so that should be interesting too.

His personality just seems so different, whilst he was not always the most obedient hound, he did recognise his name and recall was good, but this all seems to have stopped since he started taking his meds. I hope they settle down (and the fits) and we can start trying to get back to normal (well, as normal as it will be) relatively soon.

I was worried about food side of things too, there are some vets who say it makes no difference and others who disagree, but I want to do everything I can to minimise his seizures. He was on CSJ working dog food, and if I had the room I would move him over to a raw or BARF diet, but for now, we have moved him over to Natures Menu cans (potato no grains etc) all natural produce. It is eye-wateringly expensive for a 26kg dog but if that helps, then it will be worth it.

As for the peeing - you wouldn't believe how much water our dog is drinking, we walk him at 11pm and quite often he doesn't make it through the night when he was always so good before. I am hoping that the change from dry to wet food will help too.

I appreciate your time to respond, I am told that this very common in dogs of this age, but I have never met anyone who has had this to deal with.

Thank you

albacookie

If you're near the RVC they are running a study on diet in epileptic dogs that you could enrol him in.

Foxxxey1980

We have a 3 year old dalmatian that was diagnosed with epilepsy 2 years ago. He is currently on epiphen and epilese. We have tried many things from change In diet (we started on chappie for greater absorption of medication and are now on arden grange). We haven't had him fit free for more than 3 weeks in the last 18 months.
The exception to this was when he was first diagnosed animal health put him on a course of Kepra which have us 4 months fit free. This did leave him really spaced out an feeling very sorry for himself


We even tried removing things light bright lights, cleaning products with chemicals and kept charts of moods, wee and poo patterns in order to try and establish a link between his fits. Sadly nothing. We did notice that he became very clingy prior to a fit and his eyes developed a bluey grey sheen.


Fin cluster fits so despite his fits lasting no more than around 2 minutes from start to end ( getting up and stumbling around) they really knock him about.


He also drinks copious amounts of water meaning he needs to wee every two hours. When he was on chappie he also developed quite a bit of wind which meant that when he slept he became a little incontinent. Arden grange sensitive seemed to eradicate this.. tensions run high mainly because we can't seem to do anything for him.


Last month after a cluster of 5 in one day our vet recommended pexion in conjunction with his current meds In the hope we can wean him off the other two. It doesn't I yet fear with the liver function like the other two and he is a different dog. He has had a fit since bit it was much milder and recovery was much much quicker. He has bags more energy and seems to be enjoying playing. Something which he hasn't really been too Intreated in.




Whilst he is more active we don't walk fin more than 5 mins a day and keep play times down to a maximum of 15 mins as if he is over stimulated of exercises this seems to bring on a fit.


Don't forget to worm him regularly. Like ours medication may bring in a fit but its worth keeping up with as parasites will cause tummy upsets and cause seizures.


Persevere and remember you are both going through it together. A lot of people will ask u why u bother and won't understand why but their condition only makes u love them more and fight a little harder.


Good luck

Kangakate

Pexion is quiet a new drug, we've just got in at our work and our Vets seem very impressed and will be putting all new cases onto it as the side effects are less, so it might be worth a try if your not having much luck with what your on at the mo.

On a side note Epiphen and phenobarbital are the same drug, the epiphen has just been through R&D and is a licensed pet product, so this should be used first according to the drug cascade, but the smallest dose is 30mg so if a dog needs less it is given phenobarbital (human drug)