My black lab mix is Hercules. He is 1 1/2 years old about 82 pounds. He was a stray that found us when he was approxiamtely 6 months.
We witnessed Hercules' first seizure 3 weeks ago on 10/06. He was treated at the local animal 24 hour hospital. Last Wednesday night he suffered 4 cluster seizures back-to-back-to-back-back. (That looks so funny writing that out!) There was nothing we could do other than let him go through the seizures and then comfort him afterwards. Then he went through the seizures all over again. By the time hubby & I got Hercules a little bit more stable it was after 11:30 pm, so I got him back to the animal hospital where he had a 5th seizure shortly after midnight.
So my boy stayed in the 'hospital ward' until he was discharged on Friday morning. Hercules was found to have 'tick fever' from the blood work back on 10/06 and is on doxycycline. The vet believes it is something he picked up from the lake. He is on 97.2 mg of the phenobarbital and will go for follow up blood work on Nov. 9th. The diagnosis for now is idiopathic epilepsy. We are still planning on making an appointment for a neurological work up to see if there is something else going on in that doggy brain.
In my discharge consult, I was informed of the side effects which I am definately seeing. Hercules is not at all himself. He's doped up, crashing into things, and stumbling. He casually walks into the yard instead of racing all over the place. I think the meds are temporarily making his constipated. I was warned about the increased appetite too and to offer plenty of fresh water. It's so sad to see my boy in this state. The fire in his eye is still there but his body doesn't want to work. I know this will eventually level out and his body will get accustomed to the meds.
Well I do apologize for writing a long book here. I guess I just needed to write everything out. I have spent the past few days reading and learning everything I could about canine epilespy.