Update on Genevieve's seizures/treatment
I think I'd mentioned that I've been wanting to change vets for some time now, so I finally did it. The last straw was when I took her in for this blood work. I made an appt with a particular vet (the one who owns the practice), made it perfectly clear that I wanted to see him, and I still got a different vet.  I was skeptical when she told me that lots of their patients were on Phenobarbitol for seizures and NONE of them have any liver problems. That just seemed a bit far fetched to me.  Anyway, I'll leave my rant for another time  and update you on my girl. 
The new vet agrees with me that the Pheno is overkill considering she'd only had two seizures and no history with them. So, he drew a bunch of blood to run a new blood chem, CBC, thyroid panel (FINALLY!!) and did a urinalysis. He was a bit concerned with some of the results from the blood work the other vet did, but didn't want to draw any conclusions from it until he does his own work. He said sometimes the numbers get skewed depending on what they enter into their system as "norms". So, basically, we're starting from scratch. I won't have any results until tomorrow at the earliest for most of the tests and one of them won't be in until mid-week next week. I'll keep you posted. 
I'm weaning her off the Phenobarbitol for now. She's had awful side effects from it. Poor girl.  She has no appetite, is very thirsty, lethargic, and has loss of motor skills. She can barely get herself up. She acts like a very tired drunk. Breaks my heart to see her this way. 
But, to my knowledge, she's had no seizures since that last one on April 19th. 
So far, I'm pleased with the new vet.  He was happy to recommend a neurologist and send us to NCSU or VT if necessary. But, agreed with me that we should eliminate the obvious causes first.
For now, she's resting comfortably and did eat a little today. I hope she's feeling better in time for our trip next week. 
Keep your fingers crossed for us.  |
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| kisses to gen....and hope this new vet figures it out for you!! |
Here's sending genevieve lots of 
D and Abi |
Aww, poor Gen. And that's on only half the dosage 
Tammy--by VT do you mean Virginia Tech? My friend took her Vischlue(sp?) there for his seizures and were pleased with them. I hope this vet turns out to be awesome! Give poor Gen a hug from me and a lick from Barns. |
barney1 wrote: Aww, poor Gen. And that's on only half the dosage
Tammy--by VT do you mean Virginia Tech? My friend took her Vischlue(sp?) there for his seizures and were pleased with them. I hope this vet turns out to be awesome! Give poor Gen a hug from me and a lick from Barns. Yes, Virginia Tech was what he recommended. Either there or North Carolina State University Vet School. Thanks for the well wishes & kisses. I'll be sure to pass them along.  |
| Yay for a new vet!! |
| Aw, poor Gen!! So glad the new vet seems to be on your wavelength regarding the Pheno. Poor baby probably wonders why she feels like this.
Please give that sweet girl a big hug and kiss from me and a gentle nudge from Drez. |
| Hope you get good labs back on Sweet Gen. I hopr it doesn't come tohaving to go the NCSU, but they were wonderful the time I had to go there. We saw the cardiologist for Katie Mae.
Hugs to you and Gen. Hope she does great off of the Pheno. |
| Poor girl, glad you got a new vet, hopefully you will have some answers soon. |
| Sheepie Hugs for Gen, keeping fingers and all paws crossed for you both. New vet sounds GREAT. |
| Poor baby. It'll be good to get her off the "stuff." I hope the new vet gets to the bottom of this. It sounds like you're already happy with how thorough he's being. |
Beaureguard's Mom wrote: I'm weaning her off the Phenobarbitol for now. She's had awful side effects from it. Poor girl.
She has no appetite, is very thirsty, lethargic, and has loss of motor skills. She can barely get herself up. She acts like a very tired drunk. Breaks my heart to see her this way. I cannot imagine your darling Gen like that! She is such a sweet, sporting, genial girl. It is like pheno is making her old before her time. I am glad you found a new vet and really hope that she gets something that works better for her. |
| Thanks everyone. She was doing much better yesterday. She even chased the frisbee one time. But, I believe she must've had a seizure last night because when she got up this morning, she's walking like a drunken crab again. It's as if her back end isn't communicating with her front end.
However, she *acts* like she's okay. I mean, she acts like she wants to chase Einstein (cat) and pick on Beau, but her body just can't keep up. It's different from the side effects of the Phenobarbitol. This is how she was for about 15 minutes after she had the second seizure. The vet said in weaning her off she might be susceptible to having one. Anyway, we're back to the vet again in the morning. They called me Saturday morning with the results of the blood chem panel and everything looked good. However, there was a mixup and some of her blood samples didn't get sent to the lab. They apologized profusely, saying how bad they felt and embarassed they were, especially being that it was our first visit and they really wanted to make a good impression. I wasn't too upset. Mistakes happen. I'd much rather they were honest with me and we get more blood drawn than for them to send out an old sample and try to cover their butts. So, we're still on a wait & see. Thanks for the well wishes. I'll keep you posted. Still hoping she feels good enough for a long trip. I've decided NOT to send them to the groomer Tuesday. I don't think she needs to go through that right now. So, those of you attending Sheepiepalooza will see my dirty dogs. |
| Poor puppy, lots of (gentle) hugs. |
| I hope your new vet can get Gen's situation under control soon. Don't be too disappointed if the cause of her seizures cannot be found. Having had an OES with seizures as well as my own personal experiences, idiopathic seizures are not necessarily the worst case scenario. At least the vet can rule out things like brain tumors, etc.
Hang in there and don't worry about getting dogs bathed for Sheepiepalooza. They won't be the only ones there needing a bath, especially after the paddle boat venue! Hugs to you, Gen and Beau, xoxoxo Nita |
| I hope you get to the bottom of it
Hugs to you all |
| We got the blood drawn again, so hopefully, we'll have some results tomorrow.
However, when the vet saw her walking, he said he was concerned that the ataxia (I think that's right - the proper term for what I call the drunken crab walk) might be symptomatic of non-idiopathic seizures. But, he didn't want to jump to any conclusions. He also told me not to stop the meds until after Sheepiepalooza. So, she'll be on 1/2 tablet of Phenobarbitol per day until next week. She acts like she feels some better today and is not stumbling quite as much. However, she now has loose stool.  So, I'm doing a lot of butt wiping.
Oh yeah...he also said the one test they did get the results from showed no elevated white count, so there is no sign of infection. I guess that's a good thing. |
| I came across this while searchin for info for a friend whose 5 yr o mix breed started having seizures. what was the final outcome of gen's tests? |
| Thanks for asking, Kerry. I had forgotten that I didn't update this thread. I got the results of her tests while driving to Sheepiepalooza. Everything, including her thyroid test, was completely normal. So, there was no known cause for her seizures.
I weaned her off the Pheno completely over the course of about three weeks. She has not had any at all since about mid-June and to the best of my knowledge, she had no episodes since then. Behaviour wise, she is back to her old sassy self. The worst of her symptoms were the side effects of the drugs. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her, but so far, so good. |
| So strange! I'm so glad that she hasn't had any seizures recently. I wonder why she had them. |
| Glad to hear the seizures have stopped. Please give Gen a sheepie hug from us. |
| That is great news. Thanks for the update - and I hope she remains seizure free! |
| Great news Tammy, wonder what caused them in the first place, a strange one and a worrying time you did have with Gen. Just so glad she has been fine since. |
| Having a daughter who has ideopathic seizures I would guess something else was bothering her and she is over it now - with Jess it can be she is ivertired, dehydrated, sick etc. My daughter's seizures are often years apart.
Glad she is doing well. |
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