[Dailydrool] Morse's Fits

[Brenda Waldrop]

Rebecca,

We had a basset, Aeryn, that had seizures on a regular basis.  She was 9
years old when we adopted her from her old family who "just didn't have
time for her anymore".  She was our first basset, and she was purebred with
papers and all.  She weighted about 79 lbs when we first got her.  We knew
nothing about bassets at the time, and her old family warned us that she
was allergic to flea and tick medicine  and that she had seizures if you
put it on her.

She had her first seizure after we'd had her about 9 months, actually she
had three in one day, several hours apart, which seemed to be the way hers
came.  We took her straight to the vet and they gave her IV Phenobarbital
to stop the seizure, as well as diazepam.  We were panicked that she had
somehow come into contact with flea medicine, but the vet told us that it
was very unlikely that the medicine had anything to do with her seizures,
more likely she just happened to have a seizure around the time her old
owners used it on her, and they just assumed the medicine was the cause,

Anyway, the vet told us that Epilepsy was a fairly common basset hound
ailment.  Who knew.  He said that she might just have the disease, or she
might have a brain tumor that brought on Epilepsy.  He offered us the
option of a CAT scan, ($10k!), but cautioned us about getting it.  He said
that the chances of it being an operable brain tumor were extremely slim,
and that the treatment for the seizures was the same regardless, so we
opted not to do the scan.

Aeryn went on daily Phenobarbital pills for the next two years.  We also
had the rectal suppositories for emergencies.  The only time she had
seizures at all durring those two years was two times that we ran out
of Phenobarbital!   She eventually died at age 12 because of an incompetent
emergency vet, but that's neither here nor there.

Daily Phenobarbital tablets worked wonders for her.  They did make her
slightly more hungry and thirsty when she was taking them, but as she was a
basset hound and convinced she was constantly starving anyway, it was hard
to tell the difference.  She put on about 20 lbs while taking them, a
combination of her age and the medication, but there were no other side
effects.  She had to have regular blood tests to make sure her kidneys
weren't being affected, but she never had any reduced kidney function while
she was on it.

Diazepam is, according to my vet, secondary in effectiveness to
Phenobarbital in treating seizures in bassets.  It works to stop the
seizure, but not as effectively as Phenobarbital.  It really sounds like
Morse is having seizures on a regular basis now, which sounds to me like it
may be time to consider a daily preventative medication as opposed to just
treating the seizures when they come.  Also, if you can't be with him 24
hours a day, it gives you the piece of mind of knowing he's less likely to
go into a seizure when you're not there.

If you have any other questions, let me know!  Give Morse a big snooter
kiss from us!

Brenda- Momslave to Baxter and Elphaba and Copper (ATB) & Aeryn (ATB)
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