Taurine

MK's mom · Post by **MK's mom** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 8:22 am

The taurine has halped my boy, too! It hasn't cured his epilepsy, but the clusters have become much further apart.

Vivian

mgklly · Post by **mgklly** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 8:53 am

I am so happy to hear from someone else that this has helped!! We are leaning toward it being the Taurine that was helping. How long was it before you noticed a difference when you started giving Taurine?

MK's mom · Post by **MK's mom** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 9:46 am

MK had a cluster in Aug of '07. I started the Taurine a couple of weeks later and he didn't have another cluster until June of this year, so he went nearly 10 months. He used to have clusters every couple of months, so I could only assume the Taurine was helping and my neuro agreed. He had another cluster 4 weeks ago, but that one was caused from him being taken off of KBr abruptly, so the new countdown begins from then on.

Good luck with it! There are some other posters on this list who started using it and some of them thought it was helping. Nothing documented saying it does and nothing documented saying it doesn't!! I'va also been reading that another amino acid called GABA is also effective, but I haven't gone that route yet. If my boy continues to do well, I hate pumping yet another acid or chemical into his body.

Vivian

mgklly · Post by **mgklly** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:01 am

I agree with you about not putting another chemical into his body. We are in the wait and see stage with Buzz, waiting another couple of weeks to see if he will keep improving before increasing meds again, he is already on so much.
Here's hoping they both keep doing well.

MK's mom · Post by **MK's mom** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:59 am

Buzz is on a high dose of Taurine! How much does he weigh? My neurologist prescribed 500 mg BID of taurine for my 75 lb dog. I don't know if they can get too much of an amino acid or not and what the ramifications could be, but it seems to me he might get by with less. I'm not a vet, I'm just going by what my neurologist prescribed for my boy.

Vivian

mgklly · Post by **mgklly** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:28 am

The information we received was from 2 different neuros and they varied. One said for Buzz's weight (60lbs) it should be 1500mg per day and the other one said up to 2200mg per day. The capsules we buy only come in 500mg or 1000mg doses so we were having to give 1 1/2 capsule at a time so went up to 2 capsules (500mg each). Buzz has always been resistant to any meds he has been given so our vet and the neuro said that this dose would not hurt him. We have been giving it for awhile now and have seen nothing but positive effects so I am afraid to back off on anything at the moment. We are hoping to eventually back off on the pheno because as you see he is on a pretty high dose of that as well and is already causing problems with his liver. He has not been an easy case as meds do not seem to affect him as they would other dogs, even with the high doses of meds there are very little noticeable side effects such as ataxia. His blood levels are still in the lower theuraputic range as well so he has been somewhat of a mystery to all involved.

richmauer · Post by **richmauer** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 5:20 am

This is where I buy my Taurine Powder, which is easy to mix in dog food. Since it's a powder, no fuss with capsules and you can adjust the dose to the exact amount you need. I only give Peanut 1/8 teaspoon a day, so this bottle lasts over a year easily. Life Extension brand is pharmaceutical grade.

http://www.iherb.com/Life-Extension-L-T ... /4900?at=0