seizure direction and help

[Daniel Scioscia]

Hello everyone,

What a great forum I am just mad it took me 4 years to  find it !

Our guy Boomer is 4 yr old, and he has had a total of three  seizures. The time between seems to be getting shorter but hard to tell if that  is a trend. Sadly, the last two have occured 6 weeks apart, and the 1st was  about a year ago. Blood work and vets have found nothing on the first two, and  this last happened just yesterday.

We are seeking direction and advice.  He is otherwise a healty dog. My biggest concern is .. if and when to start him  on medications. The side effects have me concerned, but the seizures are  horrible ( each has only lasted 2.5 mins, and he comes around in about 1 hour,  but the next day he is drained )

So...

1) when do you start meds,  or don't you at this point?  ( side effects have me scared)

2) any suggestions on how to limit them ?

3) any  suggestion on what medical test should be performed ? general comments greatly  appreciated..

This dog means everything to me, just want to make sure I  am doing everything possible to help him in any way I can !

Kindly

Dan

[Kathy Sheehan]

My poor Cooper had another seizure 3 wks ago, even though he is on Zonisamide. The vet wanted to put him on phenobarbital, but I asked if we can wait to see how long it is in between seizures. I realize it is just a matter of time until Cooper has to be on the phenobarbital. I have read some positive stories on this site, but it still scares me. The most recent seizure lasted almost 2 minutes and it took Cooper longer to come out of it. The last 3 weeks have been good and Cooper has been healthy! Thanks for everyone's help!

[Kathy Sheehan]

Update: Cooper had yet another seizure on 9/2/14, and this one was the worst seizure he has had. He was awake and it lasted a little over 2 min. All of his other seizures have happened while he was sleeping. My son and I had him at the vets within 10 min after the seizure stopped. Now he is on Phenobarbital  along with his zonisamide. Cooper is doing ok, and his body is adjusting to the phenobarbital. It just breaks my heart to see him so out of it, so hopefully he will be back to normal in another week or so.