Friday, June 27, 2008

need some help/advice

As most of you know I've had my black lab Tank since he was a pup and he's now almost 5 1/2. When he was about 18 months he had his first seizure and had about 15 in the next 10 days. His are a little different in that the seizures only occur at night (typically between 11pm and 2am) when he is sound asleep (most dogs have them when they get too excited). The vet diagnosed him with epilepsy and put him on medication (phenobarbital and potassium bromide), and he didn't have another seizure. That was until we got down here. He had a seizure a few days after we got here and I chalked it up to all the change. But, he's had a seizure every 2.5-4 weeks since we've been here, and typically he has them two nights in a row (he had a pretty bad one last night which is what led me to this post today). The seizure itself lasts a few minutes, but the recovery time afterward is generally at least an hour (in the beginning he's completely disoriented and virtually blind and deaf-he runs into walls and stuff-his appetite is voracious afterward so he has to eat-he'll dig through the trash and everything which is totally unlike him-, he's incredibly thirsty, once his vision and hearing return and he's eaten he begins pacing...he won't lay down unless one or both of us are in the same room as him and even then he often paces for well over 30 minutes). Needless to say, it makes for some very long nights! And with a new baby on the way...Well, you can imagine how it makes me tired just thinking about it! We've done a few rounds of blood work, upped the levels of both medications, tried changing a few things in his diet and nothing seems to be working. He throws up a lot more down here and he hasn't seemed to be quite himself since we got down here, but for the most part he doesn't seem to be in any pain and seems pretty happy. Any ideas or advice on what we can/should do for him would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I finally got to looking at your blog and read the entry about Tank. Have you tried upping his protein? You know that works wonders for kids with seizures. You put them on a diet that is almost like Atkins, without the calorie restrictions. I don't know if it will work for dogs, but it is worth a look. Liz p.s. Love the photos of your BIG BELLY!