After watching the video of Teddy's latest seizure my vet has
been advised by neuro specilaist to start him on phenobarbitol. I am a
bit worried about the possible side effects, especially possible liver
damage, I did raise these concerns with vet but he just said it's a low
dose, and they will check his blood in 4 wks. The plan is to have him
on Pb for 6 mnths and monitor any seizures during this time. They think
it is likely he has epilepsy but the other possibility is the fluid in
his middle ear causing the seizures, presumably if seizures continue
whilst medicated then they will presume that's the cause, and he will
have to have it drained. His dose is 15mg phenobarbitone twice a day, he is a 5 yr old chihuahua and weighs 4.8kg
Teddy has had 3 seizures so far, the first 2 were only days apart at the end of April this year, the last was a couple of weeks ago, and was worse than the others. It lasted for about 10 minutes, starting with panting and drooling, then he collapsed and was shaking and weaving his head from side to side. After the first 2 seizures he had blood tests whch showed an elevated bile acid level, he then had a bile acid test which confirmed this but showed no liver enzymes or anything to indicate major liver problems. He was put on antibiotics at that point in case an infection was causing this. He also had an ultrasound on his liver and pancreas and these showed everything to be normal. A couple of weeks later he had an MRI and spinal tap which revealed a lot of fluid in his left middle ear, so he was given another 2 wks of antibiotics, but a culture of this fluid showed no bacteria so probably not an infection.
I am worried about giving him this seizure medication in case it causes more liver problems, do you think my vet should be prescribing this bearing in mind the bile acid levels?
Teddy has had 3 seizures so far, the first 2 were only days apart at the end of April this year, the last was a couple of weeks ago, and was worse than the others. It lasted for about 10 minutes, starting with panting and drooling, then he collapsed and was shaking and weaving his head from side to side. After the first 2 seizures he had blood tests whch showed an elevated bile acid level, he then had a bile acid test which confirmed this but showed no liver enzymes or anything to indicate major liver problems. He was put on antibiotics at that point in case an infection was causing this. He also had an ultrasound on his liver and pancreas and these showed everything to be normal. A couple of weeks later he had an MRI and spinal tap which revealed a lot of fluid in his left middle ear, so he was given another 2 wks of antibiotics, but a culture of this fluid showed no bacteria so probably not an infection.
I am worried about giving him this seizure medication in case it causes more liver problems, do you think my vet should be prescribing this bearing in mind the bile acid levels?
