New study from Purina and dogs with epilepsy

[jenxhart]

I just got a call from my vet who read about a study of dogs with epilepsy and diet, sponsored by Purina. Purina will be making a food that will be available in March, I think, that may prove helpful to idiopathic epilepsy. A diet rich in medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) can help control seizures, the study says. Here's the link!

http://www.rvc.ac.uk/research/research- ... h-epilepsy

[flashmom]

I am interested in trying this with Flash. I called Purina. The rep wasn't able to be helpful due to FDA regulations he couldn't tell me the benefits of it or what made it good for the dogs with epilepsy. He said I had to contact my vet for more details and a recommendation. I did email to see about pricing, availability, or whether it would be good for Flash.

[jenxhart]

It's Purina Proplan Neurocare. The hope is that the ingredients in this formula helps support brain health in dogs with epilepsy and cognitive disfunction. The formula has medium-chain triglycerides which, through a 6 month double-blind study, found that it decreased the number of seizures in dogs with epilepsy. It's only available through your vet and it's expensive, I'm not gonna lie. $53 for an 11 pd. bag.

We just started to mix it in with our current food and will slowly introduce it over 2 weeks.

[jenxhart]

Just to follow up with those who might be interested in the results of using Purina Neurocare. Baxter started the food just over a month ago. It doesn't seem to be helping. Baxter's had a single seizure and a cluster since starting the food. Also, it appears that he doesn't like it at all. Maybe not tasty enough? Don't know if it's the food or that I give him too many tasty treats so he's not interested in his regular kibble when he knows there are much better options. lol. I'm going to give Purina one more try with a second bag. If I don't see great improvement in his seizures than I'll switch back to his regular diet.

[Loliz]

Does anyone else have any experience with this dog food? I am thinking about trying it with my 20 month old yorkie, Bailey.

[GentleJacob's Mom]

I thought I'd post this in case it helps. Our vet has a Standard Poodle with epilepsy and they found control with Pb but he had severe side effects that didn't really go away. Late last year she decided to start reducing his Pb very slowly and feeding Purina Neurocare. I spoke with her yesterday and he's doing very well (knock on wood) and has been able to reduce down to 30mgs of Pb per dose and is doing much better. For him it seems to be working.
It does sound like for some dogs this is going to a good thing, but it seems as with CBD oil and every seizure med, it's all going to depend on the dog.

Lynne

[dekeoboe]

Maggie could not tolerate the food. Our vet gave us a free sample to try. The first time she had it was for dinner and she had a seizure 4 hours later. The next morning she had it for breakfast and had a seizure 8 hours later. There were no other changes going on, and it could just be a coincidence, but we decided to throw out the food.

[thelifeofapanca]

I took my French Bulldog, Sam to the vets yesterday and we will try to help him with Purina. I asked him about Purina after reading this post and we decided to try. Just wanted to thank you and tell you that I will keep you informed how it goes.

[Degutis]

A randomised report of the trial of a medium-chain TAG diet to prove possible treatment for dogs having idiopathic epilepsy and buy case study copyright by British Journal of Nutrition > authors: Law T.H., Pan Y., Davies E.S., Want E., Zanghi B., Volk H.A.

Paws & Claws Animal Hospital has two recent case reports with the results revealed. Natalie Freedgood from the National Institute of Mental Health and Kim Bollinger-Schmitz from Iowa State University published their combined research proposal for the topic: Idiopathic epilepsy education for the small animal practitioners.