The Waiting Game

MagnumLife with a seizure dog is a struggle. Between episodes, life is normal, but in the back of your mind is the knowledge that a seizure is coming.

Tate is a joy, exuberant, friendly, social, playful. The perfect greyhound (except for his poop eating fetish), except that he has epileptic seizures.

The first three years we were constantly tweaking medications, trying new regimens, and having mixed, but mostly positive results. One drug we started in 2012 was Keppra, a medication that is commonly used in people, and the early results were encouraging. However, it was one of those medications where the tolerance quickly built up, so we were constantly increasing the dosage.

By the end of 2014, we were giving him 2.5 tablets, 3 times a day, yet the time between seizures continued to shrink. Clearly the Keppra wasn’t the miracle drug. (n.b.: Apparently from the dog seizure community on the web, Keppra isn’t highly regarded in the canine treatment of seizures)

So, about 6 months ago we started weaning Tate off the Keppra. The problem was that there is a certain dependency, and reducing dosage comes with some distinct behavioral issues, almost canine depression. And, we have been dealing with seizures spaced pretty regularly about 2-3 weeks apart.

Looking back in the log file, the last 6 months has been pretty consistent with the timing fluctuating between 16 and 26 days. In conjunction with the draw down of the Keppra, we started on a regimen of Potassium Bromide (KBr) knowing that the Keppra interferes with the absorption and efficacy of the KBr.

We started at 2.5 tablets of Keppra administered 3 times per day (8 hour intervals) and are currently at .5 tablet administered two times a day, so we are close to finished with the ramping down.

Now, about the waiting. Last seizure was 10/8, and we are currently at 25 days, so we are due any day now. He had one strong aura on the 25th of October, but no seizure. Fingers are crossed that we set a new cadence, but we do know that a seizure is coming.

The waiting is hell.