seizure management, Spring & Summer 2008

Murphy has now had 7 seizures since May 2008. They are occuring every 1-2 weeks, regardless of increasing amounts of medication. Murphy now takes phenobarbital twice a day and potassium bromide once a day. We have increased his medicine after each seizure, following the advice of his vet, Dr. E. His last seizure happened while we were on vacation. We believe that kenneling him may trigger seizures, so we took him with us. He had a seizure at midnight in our hotel room. Luckily, there was nothing to clean up this time. That was one week ago. We are seeing side effects of the phenobarbital. Murphy sleeps more and wants to eat all the time. We have to keep all food put away or he gets into it no matter who's watching. His movements are clumsy, and he seems to be losing strength in his back legs. He falls down a lot. Even so, he can still run down the hall after a tennis ball without wiping out. That's pretty amazing. Dr. E. recommended keeping a valium syringe on hand to give him following each seizure. This prevents him from having a cluster of seizures. Each time we use it, we have to get it refilled. It costs about $30. We have spent hundreds of dollars on his treatment this year. We have had family discussions now about Murphy's quality of life. We believe he is still very happy most of the time. Following each seizure, he becomes temporarily insane for about an hour: he must pace through the house, even if his legs are weak from the valium. He checks the shower and garage everytime. He will not settle down and knocks things over by mistake. When this happens in the middle of the night, it's frusterating. Tomorrow I need to look into supplements for liver support, because of the risks of liver damage from the medicine.