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Anyone using Keppra (levetiracetam) for epileptic dog?


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Last week, I was saddened to witness a seizure in my 2.5 year old female. She had 3 seizures in one day (cluster seizures). Her first seizure was while she was in her crate just before our usual wake-up time - so she should have been fairly calm. i.e. seizure not cause by stress.

Second seizure was 3 hours later just before I was ready to load her in the car for her vet appointment. Then third seizure was about 5 hours later while she was at the vet's.

 

The vet immediately started her on Keppra, and she has been seizure-free since that first day. I picked her up from the vet's last Friday after she had been at the vet's for 2 days for observation.

 

All blood tests, urinalysis, BP and X-rays were normal - suggesting epilepsy. And yes, she has some dogs in her lineage that have been known to produce epileptic pups.

 

My vet likes Keppra because she believes it is less toxic to the liver than phenobarbitol or potassium bromide. So far, so good - no detectable side effects (sleepiness, nausea, diarrhea) and no seizures. She is her normal playful, happy, cuddly self.

 

I have no doubt that she will probably have more seizures, but only time will tell when and how often.

 

Does anyone else have a dog on Keppra? What has been your experience?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

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I looked into Keppra when I found out about a year ago that Joey had epilepsy . He had just turned 3. Joey is on phenobarbital and has done really well. No seizures since he started. I just have to have blood work done every year to make sure the meds aren't causing problems. His yearly checkup was $294.

 

Phenobarbitol costs me about $35 a month.

 

Keppra even in the generic was $150 plus.

 

When I asked my vet about Keppra his comment was that the cost was so much higher than the other drugs. I heard the same thing about Keppra. That it doesn't have the potential negative side effects that the more commonly used drugs have.

 

I take care of an English setter that was just diagnosed about a year ago. She gets seizures if she gets too excited. She is on phenobarbital and has been seizure free since going on meds. Her blood work has all been good.

 

I also take care of a very old lab that has been on phenobarbital for years and has been seizure free all that time. And I have another lab that takes potassium bromide and she has live to be very old and has been seizure free all that time.

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Sue, thanks for your thoughts.

 

Tommy Coyote, thank you for sharing your experiences. I have talked to several other people with experience owning dogs with seizures, and almost all have a slightly different story. I appreciate hearing them as it helps me understand the variability in the condition and the different approaches possible.

 

Update: Natt continues seizure-free on a low dose of Levetiracetam - the generic of Keppra. Her dose is 250 mg, twice per day. The cost is about $28 per month. Tommy, I don't know why it is more expensive in your area.

 

Since the hormone swings of heat cycles have the potential to cause seizures, Natt was spayed last week to reduce that possibility.

 

Since I am in the throes of moving, I haven't had much time to research so am happy that the generic Keppra is working at this time. But future lines of research are:

 

researching a low glutamate diet -- I happened to see one of the chiro vets I have used at the Finals and was discussing the seizures with her. She told me of a client of hers who had a dog with pretty bad seizures. This client really wanted a more "natural" approach and discovered that glutamate was linked to epilepsy. Possibly anecdotal evidence? Regardless, she changed her dog's diet to great benefit and was able to get her dog off all drugs except a very low dose of Pb (which the vet felt was continued almost as a superstition.) Interesting idea that I want to follow up.

 

Cannabis product -- another person told me of her experience with consulting a neurology specialist (vet) who prescribed a hemp/cannabis product for seizure control in her dog. Now THAT is interesting. Definitely looking into that approach when I have time. :-D

 

I was planning on agility with Natt, in addition to herding. I think she will be able to trial a bit in herding, but I will probably just play agility at home. The agility environment is so very stressful, and I would hate to have that stress cause seizures.

 

So ---- so far, so good. Time will tell with regard to additional seizures, but am obviously hoping for a positive outcome.

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I've never had any personal experience with seizures so won't be a lot of help.

 

A neighbor's Shiba Inu was on gabapentin for seizures. I'm not sure what kind of seizures, why that particular med was chosen or how effective it was on a daily basis. He was PTS recently (~14 years old) in my care when he suffered a seizure he didn't come out of.

 

I know some people treat seizures homeopathically. The rescue I volunteer with recently had a dog who had grand mal seizures and there were lots of discussions about what treatments to go with. Several people, other volunteers and an adopter suggested homeopathy (one swore by it for her dog) but the foster home wasn't willing to consider it. He was eventually fairly well stabilized and then adopted to a homeopathic vet. I have no idea how she (the vet) treated him, but in a later update it was noted he'd been seizure free for over 2 months. That was a year ago and I haven't heard anything since.

 

I remember something having been said at that time about Vitamin E? Not as a stand alone treatment but as a useful adjunct.

 

If you'd like, I'll see if I can find anything specific from those conversations. I know the FH did a lot of research. LMK if you want me to look.

 

And my very best wishes for figuring this out.

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  • 1 month later...

If the Keppra is working, keep up with it. I think it is about the least toxic of the readily prescribed alternatives and has less side effects.

 

When my border collie started having seizures about a year and 2/3 ago, Keppra was our first line drug to try. Did not get any benefits, still seizes every 14-16 days. After upping the keppra dosage quite a bit the vet added Potassium Bromide (Phenobarbital used post seizure to prevent clusters). The Potassium bromide had MANY bad side effects, raving appitite, restlessness, sleeplessness, GI problems. We cut the dosage in half, and those effects have tempered back to manageable. Still, no change in the rate of seizures. Currently, we are slowing cycling off both Keppra and Potassium bromide, opting instead for homeopathic treatments such as cannibus oil and MCT oil (think raw, unprocessed coconut oil) in addition to a strict raw diet. Down to 250 mg Keppra every other day and 4ml Bromide per day. Again, still seizes every 14-16 days, but is much happier and calmer on the days between seizures. Able again, now, to compete in Flyball and Agility and generally be a happy dog.

 

If Keppra is working, thank your lucky stars and hope it stays effective for a long time.

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If the Keppra is working, keep up with it. I think it is about the least toxic of the readily prescribed alternatives and has less side effects.

 

When my border collie started having seizures about a year and 2/3 ago, Keppra was our first line drug to try. Did not get any benefits, still seizes every 14-16 days. After upping the keppra dosage quite a bit the vet added Potassium Bromide (Phenobarbital used post seizure to prevent clusters). The Potassium bromide had MANY bad side effects, raving appitite, restlessness, sleeplessness, GI problems. We cut the dosage in half, and those effects have tempered back to manageable. Still, no change in the rate of seizures. Currently, we are slowing cycling off both Keppra and Potassium bromide, opting instead for homeopathic treatments such as cannibus oil and MCT oil (think raw, unprocessed coconut oil) in addition to a strict raw diet. Down to 250 mg Keppra every other day and 4ml Bromide per day. Again, still seizes every 14-16 days, but is much happier and calmer on the days between seizures. Able again, now, to compete in Flyball and Agility and generally be a happy dog.

 

If Keppra is working, thank your lucky stars and hope it stays effective for a long time.

Thanks for your sharing your experience.

 

Yes, raw diet recommended for my dog too. Basically, foods with a low glycemic index are recommended. It is still too early to tell if the raw diet and the Chinese herbs (Subdue Internal Wind) will help. She has only had 3 episodes of cluster seizures with 20 days between the 1st and 2nd cluster, and 29 days between the 2nd and 3rd cluster. We are now at about 17 days after the 3rd cluster. If we can get out to more than a month between clusters, I will be cautiously optimistic.

 

She started on Keppra twice per day, but after the third cluster, we upped to 3X per day. Luckily, still no side effects.

 

I would like to hear more about your dog being able to compete. Has s/he ever had a seizure at an event? And how did you handle it? How did other people (handlers and/or onlookers) react?Have you been able to identify triggers? I have not.

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Yes thanks Gentle Lake, I am using the terms incorrectly. Simply trying alternative approachs since the conventional meds did not seem to help but were turning my Cowboy into a basket case.

Wish they could have worked. May feel the need to try other medicines down the road. But what we are doing seems to be working well enough for now.

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Thanks for your sharing your experience.

 

Yes, raw diet recommended for my dog too. Basically, foods with a low glycemic index are recommended. It is still too early to tell if the raw diet and the Chinese herbs (Subdue Internal Wind) will help. She has only had 3 episodes of cluster seizures with 20 days between the 1st and 2nd cluster, and 29 days between the 2nd and 3rd cluster. We are now at about 17 days after the 3rd cluster. If we can get out to more than a month between clusters, I will be cautiously optimistic.

 

She started on Keppra twice per day, but after the third cluster, we upped to 3X per day. Luckily, still no side effects.

 

I would like to hear more about your dog being able to compete. Has s/he ever had a seizure at an event? And how did you handle it? How did other people (handlers and/or onlookers) react?Have you been able to identify triggers? I have not.

Yes we were doing Keppra 3xper day 2 x 750mg and 1 x 500mg middays. Are you doing anything immediately following first seizure to break the cluster seizure effect? We were prescribed phenobarbital to avoid that.

 

Luckily Cowboy just has 1 grand mal, then that's it for about 2 weeks. Work on breaking the cluster effect first.

 

What I have learned over the past year is that the seizures likely won't kill Cowboy anytime soon. It's the behavior between the episodes and the side effects of the meds that are the most challenging, at least in our particular case. Being at a Flyball tournament or a agility trial situation tends to delay his scheduled seizure time until a couple days once we are back home. I have also found, once we get the immediate post seizure weirdness under control, Cowboy does better having an active, normal day. So he has had seizures on the morning of a practice day, or just before a trial weekend. We press on, do our best post seizure treatments, and he seems happy to have his jobs to do. This took awhile to calibrate, thus the med tweaks and the alternative approaches. People will freak out if they have not seen epilepsy dogs before. It's sadly quiet common in herding breeds and border collies are notoriously unresponsive to conventional treatments.

 

Have you done a food allergy test? A good idea if not. Also look at cleaners and other household products.

 

So keep fighting, work the clusters, be happy that Keppra agrees with your pup. And keep your

pup active and doing the things they love to do.

 

There were a few agility basics I had to re-teach once I got Cowboy stable and back in the game. Rear crosses and rear direction changes were oddly tough. The start line stay needs constant attention. Oddly enough however his weaves improved markedly for no apparent reason. He runs both sports better now then pre-epilepsy. It took awhile.

 

Never lose hope, your dog will surprise you. A seizure lasts a few moments, they don't know what happened. But they want to press on. God love these creatures!

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Sometimes melatonin helps, too.

 

Joey's siezures were sleep induced. I tried melatonin and it made no difference for him. Diet changes didn't help, either.

 

He is still doing great on pheno. it has been a year and a half. No side effects so far. Hasn't affected his behaviour at all. We do have to have blood work done once a year.

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Never lose hope, your dog will surprise you. A seizure lasts a few moments, they don't know what happened. But they want to press on. God love these creatures!

I am so blown away by my dog's 'acceptance' of a seizure. i.e she 'wants to press on' - I definitely agree with.

 

One time, she had a seizure while she was eating her dinner. (All of her seizures are grand mal.) It took her only a couple of minutes to recover, then she went back and finished her dinner. Just about brought tears to my eyes.

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Sometimes melatonin helps, too.

 

Joey's siezures were sleep induced. I tried melatonin and it made no difference for him. Diet changes didn't help, either.

 

He is still doing great on pheno. it has been a year and a half. No side effects so far. Hasn't affected his behaviour at all. We do have to have blood work done once a year.

Melatonin has been very helpful for settling my dog down at night. Which then helps me and my wife get our sleep. I read that a large percentage of seizures happen in the wee hours of the morning. We both have hair trigger sleep patterns now. If Cowboy scratches himself in his crate in the wee hours, I awaken until I know its not a seizure. A lot of people have had good luck with Pheno. We have not yet tried that as our front line med. Only post seizure. Still lots of medicine options and combos we have yet to try.

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I am so blown away by my dog's 'acceptance' of a seizure. i.e she 'wants to press on' - I definitely agree with.

 

One time, she had a seizure while she was eating her dinner. (All of her seizures are grand mal.) It took her only a couple of minutes to recover, then she went back and finished her dinner. Just about brought tears to my eyes.

 

Yes, my dog too is totally hungry and thirsty after a seizure. It must be quite a workout to seize up like that for 90 seconds.

You mentioned if I noticed any triggers. I don't think so, seems more like clockwork. I used to think perhaps that abrupt changes in barometric pressure may have been a trigger. Can't seem to corral the data to really see a link. Medical literature does not a correlation between barometric pressure and the onset of migraine headaches in humans.

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I know what you mean. Any rattling of the wire crate at night, and I wake instantly. So relieved when it stops a second or two later because she had adjusted her position or scratched - not a seizure.

We both have hair trigger sleep patterns now. If Cowboy scratches himself in his crate in the wee hours, I awaken until I know its not a seizure.

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I had a cat with epilepsy. I have epilepsy.


I can say beyond all doubt that while having a seizure isn't exactly fun, it is much, much harder (and more painful) to witness them.

 

And I say that mostly so you know that this is harder on you than your dog.

Well, that and you're a great owner.

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Sorry you have to deal with this, CptJack.

 

But I'm glad you posted this and it's comforting to know. I'm lucky to have very little experience with epilepsy or seizures (am I correct in thinking not all seizure disorders are epilepsy?), but I did recently have a friends' dog I was taking care of seize and not come out of it and I had to take him to the vet to be euthanized. I hope this means he didn't suffer as much as it looked like to me.

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Sorry you have to deal with this, CptJack.

 

But I'm glad you posted this and it's comforting to know. I'm lucky to have very little experience with epilepsy or seizures (am I correct in thinking not all seizure disorders are epilepsy?), but I did recently have a friends' dog I was taking care of seize and not come out of it and I had to take him to the vet to be euthanized. I hope this means he didn't suffer as much as it looked like to me.

 

I always make a point of sharing when I run across pet owners who are dealing with epileptic pets. They look absolutely horrifying - and terrifying. At least the grand-mal type seizures that are most commonly discussed (and I have).

 

From my perspective though, I might as well have passed out or gone to sleep. I wake up disoriented, exhausted, and sore - and with a headache - but I'm completely unaware of the actual seizure activity. So, long way around: I have nothing but sympathy for you having to witness it, and am as sure as it's possible to be that the dog didn't suffer at all.

 

There ARE types of seizures that people regain conscious during and no doubt happen in dogs, but that's a whole different thing. (And yes, you can have seizures caused by things that aren't epilepsy.)

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Joey just had another seizure but it was completely different. I noticed he was drooling a little. Then his head started to shake just a little. Lasted just a few seconds. Snapped right out of it. We had lowered his meds just a little. We may just need to go back to the original dose. Calling his vet tomorrow.

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CptJack,

Thank you so much for your words of experience, and for your honesty. It does help to assuage my feelings of guilt? sadness? anger? frustration? that my dog has to go through this.

 

Two days after Natt had her first cluster of seizures, I took a private lesson with an agility instructor who had travelled down from MD for a couple of workshops and some privates. We talked seizure dogs because she had an agility dog with seizures about 12-15 years ago. She was an ER nurse then, and was able to be very involved in medicating her dog (trying different dosages and combinations). Apparently her dog had major disabling side effects with many of the meds used, and it took tremendous effort and almost a year to find the right combination. The dog was seizure free for 4 years IIRC, but then started to have seizures again.She said that if she ever had another dog with seizures, that she would put it down because it (the seizures) was unfair to the dog.

 

My thinking about seizures has been colored by that conversation, and it is good to hear another perspective.

 

I also have a cat with seizures. [heck, I don't know what is going on in this household ;-) ]. She is very well controlled on Phenobarbital. In fact, I have been able to reduce her meds to almost nil, and she will remain seizure-free for a very long time (years maybe) - except when I have to bring her to the vet. The last time I brought her in, she seized in the crate in the waiting room. Stress probably.

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If the Keppra is working, keep up with it. I think it is about the least toxic of the readily prescribed alternatives and has less side effects.

 

.

 

If Keppra is working, thank your lucky stars and hope it stays effective for a long time.

I have been thinking about this, and to tell the truth, I have no idea if Keppra is working or not. At the very least, there are no side effects (that I can detect), but since it is too early to really know if there is a pattern to her seizures, and if the Keppra is reducing incidence, I just have to go on faith that it is 'working'. Time will tell, I guess.

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... So, long way around: I have nothing but sympathy for you having to witness it, and am as sure as it's possible to be that the dog didn't suffer at all.

 

Thanks for that. It does make me feel better about the experience. And I think I'll share this info with the owners.

 

Of course a big part of the trauma for me was having to decide what they would have wanted for their dog. Fortunately, I was able to get in touch with them pretty quickly and let them talk to the vet and ultimately make the decision about what to do for him. It would have been worse if I'd had to make the decision on my own for someone else's dog.

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