My 14 year old dog just had his first seizures a few days ago and was given phenobarbital for it. In case you weren't aware, pheno causes loss of control in animals' rear legs (ataxia). My mom freaked and asked the vet to change it to keppra. So, while the pheno wears off, my dog still can't walk right and he's depressed and pitiful. How can I help him? Special grippy booties?
Car rides around town? My 16 Year old chow has trouble moving so she likes to chill in the back seat with the windows rolled down
>>2159451
Car rides make him stressed.
>>2159531
Opium should make him pretty happy
Holy fuck Tbh anon take those phenobarbital you won't regret it maybe
Get you really messed up
>>2159425
To be fair, given your dog is 14 and is having seizures, it's likely to be something intracranial disease rather than idiopathic epilepsy.... So you're already in a world of hurt.
However, you should also be aware ataxia tends to get better with time on the phenobarb. Keppra also has ataxia as a side effect. Has your vet had a look at imepitoin? That's the only anticonvulsant off the top of my head I can think of without ataxia problems.
Just make sure he's not on any really slippy surfaces and keep an eye on him- that's about all you can do. On a side note, are you looking into an MRI/further testing? As I said before- at 14- there's extremely likely to be an underlying physical cause and it might be worth finding that out now so you can monitor it for quality of life.
>>2159878
MRI costs a grand at Auburn University, so that's a no go. He had x-rays, bloodwork and ultrasound though. If he needed something like a spinal tap, I assume they would've asked.
>>2160092
They're betting on your dog kicking the bucket in the next few weeks.
>>2160092
A CSF (spinal fluid) tap would give the vet an indication of any neurological infection- and not really much else unless it's in conjunction with other diagnostics. The blood work would have pointed towards infection if there was any, although neurological infections aren't really common in dogs.
Basically, an x-ray + ultrasound can rule out anything peripheral causing the seizures- and the bloodwork can rule out anything metabolic. Your problem is that you have a fourteen year old dog suddenly having seizures: that is a massive indication of something physically wrong with the brain- anything from hydrocephalus to a meningioma.
Your dog at that age has a 0.001% chance of having epilepsy, and as the vet- I can assume- has ruled out anything peripheral that all leads to a brain problem. If the MRI is expensive and you don't want your dog to have it you have to understand that his seizures are likely to be progressive as the primary cause (which I'm going to bet is a tumour) will only get worse.
So be aware that the ataxia may well be the least of your problems, I assume he is showing other symptoms as well as the seizures?
Sorry you have to go through this anon.
>>2160271
No. Just seizures. And those haven't occurred but twice before the meds (the only two he's ever had) and none have happened since.We're hoping he just ate something in the back yard. We get a wide variety of mushrooms (green, red, brown, white) growing back there that we try to keep under control just in case one of the dogs thinks about nibbling on them.
