Another downward spiral in September

On September 18th, one month from the last two seizures in August, the seizures returned with a vengeance. For the first time ever, Brady had a seizure that I did not witness somewhere between 10am and 11am, but all of the evidence was there.
He did well throughout the day and then another seizure occurred that afternoon at 5pm. He recovered as normal and did well again throughout the night. At 4:55am on the morning of September 19th, Brady endured a full-blown grand mal seizure. Once again he recovered quickly and seemed fine. Later between 7:00 and 7:25pm there was all the evidence that he had another seizure. This time he had a small abrasion above his left eye.
After this seizure, Brady just didn't seem to be himself and we decided that he should go to the VRCC (Veterinary Referral Critical Care). After all, this had never happened before, 4 seizures in 36 hours. They kept him to monitor him for 24 hours.
He did well while in the hospital and didn't have anymore seizures. I picked him up the night of September 20th.

Blood work revealed that the phenobarbital was on the high end of the therapeutic range, even so, the seizures are still occurring more often and are by no means under control whatsoever.

September 23rd Dr. Slayman decides to bring Potassium Bromide, another anti-convulsant drug, on board with the phenobarbital. The Potassium Bromide dose would be 450mg once per day.

Dear God please let this be what Brady needs to get the seizures under control!

With August came 2 petite mal seizures

Things went well again for Brady up until 7:19am on August 18th when he had a petite mal seizure. This was the first time he endured a petite mal; all of his previous seizures have been grand mals. A petite mal is definitely the lesser of 2 evils.
It was much shorter and much less traumatic. He didn't fall over on his side with this one. He had this one standing with me holding onto him. He was stiff and convulsing, but no real thrashing or paddling and just a small amount of drool as opposed to a massive amount of drool with a grand mal. He didn't lose control of his bladder either. It was over rather quickly and when it was he wasn't panting excessively and he wasn't staggering or weak. This one was definitely different than the others.

On August 19 at 4:33am another petite mal seizure occurred. This one was as mild as the one the morning before. After a conversation with Dr. Slayman, I was instructed to increase the phenobarbital from 81 mg twice a day to 97.2 mg twice per day and to recheck blood levels in a month. I set the appointment for Sept.25th at 10am.

Even though these 2 seizures were milder petite mals, nonetheless, he was still having seizures.

What is happening?! It seems more and more apparent that these awful seizures are getting harder to manage.

2 more grand mal seizures in July

Things went well for a while longer, 36 days to be exact, until July 13th at 12:21am when our poor boy suffered another grand mal. We were told to leave his phenobarbital dose the same.

At 4:24am on July 30th, the monster reared its ugly head again and Brady had another grand mal. This time only 17 days passed since the last one. Per Dr. Slayman's recommendation his phenobarbital dose was increased from 64.8 mg twice per day to 81 mg twice per day.
Once again we crossed our fingers and sent up many prayers for this to be the answer to getting these horrible seizures under control.

Another grand mal seizure

Unfortunately, our hopes of the May seizure being a one time break-through seizures were quickly diminished 25 days later on June 6th at 2:40am when Brady had another grand mal seizure. He recovered fairly fast and seemed like himself soon after it was over, just as he had after his seizure in May. On Monday, June 8th, I took him to the vet to check the phenobarbital level in his bloodstream. The lab results came in on Wednesday, June 10th, revealing that the phenobarbital levels were just below the therapeutic range so Dr. Slayman increased his dosage from 48.6 mg twice per day to 64.8 mg twice per day. Fingers crossed and prayers raised to Heaven that this would be the end of the seizures.

The Roller Coaster Ride Begins

After a year and 5 months of Brady being seizure free, little did we know that the smooth sailing was about to end and the roller coaster ride would begin. On May 12, 2009 at 6:09 am he had a grand mal seizure. Since starting the phenobarbital up again after the unsuccessful attempt to wean him off of the drug a year and 5 months prior to this seizure his dose was 48.6 mg twice per day.
Our vet recommended leaving the dose at the same amount in hopes that this would just be a one time break-through seizure.

Brady's first seizure

Brady has his first grand mal seizure at 5 years old. Our vet put him on a low dose of phenobarbital at that time because his seizure was so violent and he was very aggressive. It was my understanding that dogs aren't usually started on meds after one seizure but since his was so violent her recommendation was to get him on medication. He started his medicine and thankfully tolerated it well with no side affects, except for a little uncoordination at first, which really wasn't too noticeable and didn't last long at all. Things went exceptionally well from that day forward. He didn't have any more seizures after that first one and remained seizure free for over 2 years. Thinking back, we had no idea how fortunate we were that he stayed seizure free for such a long time! At one of his routine vet appointments, after him being seizure free for such a long time, our vet then recommended that we start weaning him off of his phenobarbital because he had not had any seizures in over 2 years. I should also add that his yearly lab work revealed that his medicine was in therapeutic range and that his liver values were good, which is important as phenobarbital can cause liver damage. I will never forget how leary I felt about that decision but you're supposed to trust your vet, right? Reluctantly, I started the weaning down process very slowly. It took 8 months to do and when Brady was down to only a very tiny dose, he had another seizure. :( That would make 2 seizures so far in his lifetime.
At that point, it was evident that he needed to be on the phenobarbital so back on it he went. The question that resonates constantly in the back of my mind, is if we had left well enough alone, would the seizure activity ever have started up again? If I could make the decision over again, I would have chosen to leave him on the low dose of phenobarbital and not wean him off of it. I just recently learned from his neurologist that once a dog has had a seizure, it is highly unlikely that he will never have another one. So it is advisable to keep them on medication even if there are no seizures occurring. Why tempt fate? It is a mute point now, water under the bridge, but at least it is something for others to consider if they are thinking about weaning the meds or lowering them. As the saying goes, hind sight is always 20/20.
Back on the phenobarbital Brady had another awesome streak! This time he stayed seizure free for 1 year and 5 months! Believe me when I say, this is truly a remarkable statement to be able to make.
Morale of this story: be grateful and count your blessings every day, don't become complacent
and don't take the good things for granted, especially good health, whether it be our health or our pets health. When things are going well, it is so easy to think 'it's supposed this way'. Unfortunately, it may not always be smooth sailing.

New to blogging

This is my first post on my new blog :) My reason for creating a blog is to have a dairy on hand of Brady's seizure activity. I already have a hand written dairy but I thought that if I could share our info in the form of a blog then it might be helpful to others who may be dealing with canine epilepsy and for those of you who are, my heart goes out to you and your epi-dog. Brady is our 10 year old australian shepherd who was first diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy when he was 5 years old. In upcoming blogs, I will attempt to tell you his story and what has occurred with his epilepsy up until this point in time. I am extremely happy to report that he hasn't had a seizure in 26 days and we are praying that this good pattern will continue for as long as possible!