Seizure information needed

13 years ago

After posting last week about the OTC nausea thread I went ahead and took Sally(7 year old basset) to the vet that day.She has excessive drooling.She has had this a few years.Some days its extemely bad and other days while its still bad its not as bad as I know it can be.Originally it was thought to be because of gingivitis(she has it) and then we moved to stomach issues as she does have some issues with her stomach.We are now looking at neurological reasons for the excessive drooling.I was asked alot of questions about did I think she has seizures.I don't know alot about them but I have read about them here.I have never seen her have any of the symptoms described here or any noticeable ones that I read about after googling seizures.There were a few things that I did read under the symptoms that made me think of her,things such as clingy.A few of the symptoms that happen before a seizure.Also she does have this involuntary looking thing she does with her back end that is really weird but I never thought of it being related to seizures and it probably isn't.She twitches her back end around and rubs it against whatever she is by and goes under a chair and does it.It looks like she is trying to scratch something and never does it unless she is by something to rub against.We figure this is a itch.I have never seen her during all this time have any of the sympstoms that are common with seizures.I am with her all the time.I don't work out of the home.Our vet wanted to try phenobarbital for 7 days to see if it would work and by the third day I noticed a significant improvement.The fourth day she was totally dry that day.Today is the fifth day and she is still dry.I have wiped her after coming back inside but its was just your normal wetness from being outside.Is phenobarbital used for other reasons than seizures?If she has been having seizures are there any that you just would not really notice?TIA

Comments (2)

sylviatexas1
13 years ago
We think of grand mal seizures as "seizures", but Petit Mal seizures are just as real & often are so mild that we don't notice or we just think "that was a little odd".

Sometimes there's a kind of suspended animation effect, where the dog (or person) just goes blank & stands still;
in a few minutes, s/he takes a breath & goes on.

The drooling sounds like it might be this kind of seizure.

But treating the symptom (seizure) isn't solving the problem:

You might have her thyroid checked;
some vets are reluctant to do it & say hypothyroidism is "rare", but I think it's vastly underdiagnosed.

Like heart disease in women, it's thought to be rare because when the animal dies, the cause of death is put down as something else.

I don't know the uses for phenobarb;
didn't really realize it was still in use for seizure.

I do know that there have been many more drugs created that don't have the risk of "zombie" behavior that phenobarb has.
Nancy in Mich
13 years ago
Our Casey had two or more gran mal seizures last Christmas Eve, around dawn. After the second, we called to various emergency clinics and learned that there is an Animal Neurology clinic about a half-hour away. Casey was seen there that morning and the neurologist did a thorough exam and said it looks like he has a brain tumor in the right side of his brain. He put him on steriods to shrink the tumor and pheobarbitol to stop the seizures. Casey has been okay, not quite himself, but okay, since then. For the two week check up we went to out own vet and I asked her to do the thyroid test because of experiences Sylvia Texas shared with us all. Casey did have very low thyroid. Later, we were back at the neurologist and I asked if Casey could have JUST the thyroid problem, and the answer was no. He has too many other symptoms (including rage that is controlled with the proper doses of Prednisone.) So he takes the pred, phenobarb, thyroid hormone and a pain med twice a day.

In humans, we use anti-seizure meds as mood stabilizers. I think that sometimes it is still used for detox from alcohol, too.

From Wikipedia:
"Phenobarbital is one of the initial drugs of choice to treat epilepsy in dogs, and is the initial drug of choice to treat epilepsy in cats.[26]

It may also be used to treat seizures in horses when benzodiazepine treatment has failed or is contraindicated.[27]"
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