Hi All,
Further to my thread about my daughter's GR Gerrard and his seizure investigations. He was very, very unsteady and disorientated on Tuesday when we took him to see the Neurologist in Surrey. He had to stay 2 days and had MRI, spinal tap,liver ultrasound, faecal test (for parasites), full blood screening etc. All these tests were normal, apart from the fact that he was very anaemic- which is thought to be due to his gastroenteritis the week before, when he had a lot of bloody diarrhoea. At the moment it is thought that the gastroenteritis upset the way he was metabolising the phenobarbitone and that this is why he was so poorly and wobbly after the pheno was started. However the specialist has ordered another haemoglobin test next week, to check that he is now increasing his levels. If he goes downhill, we have to take him back for a further liver test, although the test he has already had indicates that the liver is not a problem. So, an eventful week and a very stressful one. He is looking quite a lot better and is brighter and even looking for a walk. Big relief that no brain abnormality was found! Apparently some dogs just do not cope well with the phenobarbitone, so it has been halved, although he is still on the same dose of Potassium Bromide. Therefore the specialist has diagnosed idiopathic epilepsy, which is what we were hoping for. Hopefully over the next few days he will continue to improve. One very strange side effect of the drugs is that he is chewing anything he can get his teeth into, including daughter's Dior sunglasses! Specialist says probably due to the fact that the drugs make them very hungry. Anyway, I will keep you posted. Here he is below right with my own dogs, Paddy left (4) and Amber centre (2) - his half siblings. Have a good weekend!:wave:
Further to my thread about my daughter's GR Gerrard and his seizure investigations. He was very, very unsteady and disorientated on Tuesday when we took him to see the Neurologist in Surrey. He had to stay 2 days and had MRI, spinal tap,liver ultrasound, faecal test (for parasites), full blood screening etc. All these tests were normal, apart from the fact that he was very anaemic- which is thought to be due to his gastroenteritis the week before, when he had a lot of bloody diarrhoea. At the moment it is thought that the gastroenteritis upset the way he was metabolising the phenobarbitone and that this is why he was so poorly and wobbly after the pheno was started. However the specialist has ordered another haemoglobin test next week, to check that he is now increasing his levels. If he goes downhill, we have to take him back for a further liver test, although the test he has already had indicates that the liver is not a problem. So, an eventful week and a very stressful one. He is looking quite a lot better and is brighter and even looking for a walk. Big relief that no brain abnormality was found! Apparently some dogs just do not cope well with the phenobarbitone, so it has been halved, although he is still on the same dose of Potassium Bromide. Therefore the specialist has diagnosed idiopathic epilepsy, which is what we were hoping for. Hopefully over the next few days he will continue to improve. One very strange side effect of the drugs is that he is chewing anything he can get his teeth into, including daughter's Dior sunglasses! Specialist says probably due to the fact that the drugs make them very hungry. Anyway, I will keep you posted. Here he is below right with my own dogs, Paddy left (4) and Amber centre (2) - his half siblings. Have a good weekend!:wave: