Dog with Seizures starting on Phenobarb What to Expect?

[Bopper]

Our 5 year old dachshund mix started having seizures in Feb. We tried everything short of phenobarbital because they were only every few weeks. This week they started happening every night and our vet put her on pheobarb (had already done blood work and examined her previously).

I have read up on the drug but I want more personal comments on what to expect. So far she is less edgy but has been ‘investigating’ the house all day. As if things suddenly smell or look different to her. She is not as affectionate as if being touched for more than a few seconds makes her uncomfortable.

We are starting to limit her water intake at night or if we are going to be gone for more than a couple of hours. Any other suggestions?

[Marshfield]

Don’t be too alarmed if you have “zombie” dog. The weirdness of the medication typically goes away after a couple of weeks. I try to warn clients about this

[Falconfree]

I ended up opting to try CBD first (my boy’s seizures are cancer related), and it has worked well, but my vet said phenobarbital is one of those that is really rough the first couple weeks. Dogs can get very confused, have accidents indoors, and be generally restless. It is supposed to be very helpful once you get through that adjustment period though, good luck! I’m sorry you are having to deal with this- seizures suck.

[Bopper]

She is very restless. We are expecting zombie dog but instead have hypersensitive dog. CBD help with anxiety but not seizures as far as we know. It may have just delayed the inevitable.

Any more comments are welcome.

[seeuatx]

My JRT is almost 14 and has been on phenobarbitals since he was 4. Just recently (this last year) we started to have some bad side effects (aggression, incontinence, almost dementia like moments) and started first by adding CBD oil and then weaning off the phenobarb successfully. The 9 years of success with phenobarb were worth it to me as that was what we had available at the time. Big side effects originally were loopy drugged up dog for the first few days, then he adjusted well and was his normal plucky self. Bad side effect was a very sensitive digestive tract and frequent bouts of not eating or diarrhea. Switched to a sensitive tummy food formula and that helped. Now, the later side effects may very well be age related and not to the phenobarb, but the CBD has helped and only 1 break through seizure in the 6mos since weaning off phenobarb (huge for him… that was as good as we ever got on it, and without phenobarb and/or CBD he was at 2+ episodes a month and multiple clusters). The aggression and dementia symptoms have lessened since off of phenobarb but that’s just correlation.

Good luck getting your pup under control. Hopefully he is back to being himself soon. The good news is it is totally possible to have a happy, healthy and well controlled seizure dog and give them a great quality and long life.

[crosscreeksh]

Phenobarb zonked out our GSD. The “right” dosage of CBD oil has almost completely (down to one “mild” seizure every 2 months or more) stopped seizures in our Boerboel/Ridgeback dog who WAS having clusters of 8-10 over three days every 4-5 weeks. I would explore higher dosage amounts of CBD oil.

[WBmare]

One of my dogs has been on Phenobarb for several years now. I don’t remember him having any negative side effects. Maybe a touch more water intake but no attitude changes when we started him on it. About a year ago we did have to adjust his dose because the seizures started back up again, but so far knock on wood this seems to be working and it’s stopped his seizures.