My dog's severe seizures are uncontrolled. What should I do?

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Labra. It is worrisome that she is still having such frequent seizures. You may want to consider a board certified neurologist. Imaging and testing of her brain will ensure there is not an underlying cause giving her seizures. Next, she will likely need additional seizure medications to help control her condition. There are many options that can be tried. It is important to decrease the seizure frequency. I hope this information helps!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding your dog. I recommend contacting his veterinarian. He will likely need to start another medication to control his seizures. Phenobarbital, potassium bromide and zonisamide are common choices. However, your veterinarian will know his medical history and which would be the best choice. Being able to have his seizures better controlled will improve his quality of life. I hope this information helps!

They have several different medications that are good to control seizures and most are very economical. He will need to be seen by your vet for blood work to make sure there is no metabolic or neurological problem causing the seizures that can be fixed. this will also check to make sure he can safely take the medicines. From there your vet can prescribe phenobarbital, zonisamide or potassium bromide for control.

In the vast majority of cases seizures are not curable. They can only be managed. Even with good management they will typically have a "breakthrough" seizure every once in a while. If the medication is not working well to control the seizures (ie: he is continueing to have too many) then speak to your vet. They may just need to adjust his dosage. We use that same medication to treat seizures all the time in the U.S. and it typically works very well but adjustment of the dosage is often needed especially right after you start the treatment.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I do not think that you are being selfish at all. You care about him which is good. It is common for dogs with epilepsy to eventually need more medications added to their anti-seizure medication protocols. There are several anti-seizure medications that can be considered including phenobarbital, potassium bromide, Keppra, zonisamide, among many others. I would encourage you to discuss with your veterinarian about other anti-seizure medications. Often times dogs with epilepsy respond favorably to other medications. Good luck and have a great day!

I'm so sorry about your dog. I know this is a very scary time. There are multiple causes of seizures. I'm not sure how old your dog is, but in dogs under 5 years old who are completely normal in between seizure episodes, epilepsy is the primary cause of seizures. In older dogs it could be inflammation, a brain tumor, and infection or problems with the organs (particularly the liver). I always recommend blood work first to look for any problems there. If the blood work is normal, the next step is to evaluate the brain by doing an MRI. If blood work has not been done, I would highly recommend it. If problems are found in the blood work, then you should treat that. If everything is normal in the blood work, I would recommend starting seizure medication. Some dogs will have seizures very infrequently like your dog started out. Those dogs don't usually need medication. But when they become more frequent and are clustering (multiple in a 24 hours period) then I would definitely recommend medication at this point. There are multiple different seizure medications to choose from, so talk to your veterinarian about that. Many times the seizures will be manageable with medications, but it takes consistent medication multiple times per day and blood rechecks for the drug levels. Honestly, some dogs will be very difficult or impossible to control and will continue to have seizures despite being on multiple medications. So to answer your question, yes, there is something you can do to help your pet and based on the number of seizures he is now having, he needs to be put on medication. I hope this helps!

It is unlikely that the seizures were caused by the Excedrin. We do not know why young dogs get seizures it is a so-called idiopathic disorder. It is likely that your dog will need to take phenobarbital for a long time. Your vet may decide after a while to try out whether a lower phenobarbital level is sufficient to control the seizures. A low SDMA is normal for puppies.