Oh, dear. My Lady is a rescue also. She had her first seizure three days after I adopted her.
Has Elvis had a bile acids test? Since liver shunts are so common in Yorkies and seizures are a classic symptom, he needs to have one to rule it out.
On the link I posted earlier, there is a whole list of things that can trigger seizures. Many are very common household items.
Just to reassure you, Lady has been on Phenobarbital for 10 years and her last ALT was 79 - perfectly normal! I have had her on milk thistle practically from the day she started pheno. (There is information about milk thistle on that website, too). Her liver values started to elevate a few years ago (300) and I started home cooking for her. Thankfully, her liver regenerated.
Lady's seizures were too frequent to not go on pheno. My vet told me that if she was only having a couple of seizures a year, we wouldn't medicate. She was having a couple seizures a week when I adopted her so we had no choice. As I am sure your vet told you, there is a risk of brain damage from too many seizures.
Have you heard of kindling? It's a phenomenon where the brain actually learns to have seizures by having seizures. Every time they have a seizure, the brain rewires itself to make a path so the next seizure is easier. That's why it's important to get seizures under control, especially cluster seizures.
Lady started having cluster seizures a couple years after she was diagnosed with epilepsy. I'm sure your vet told you how dangerous they can be. I'm glad you have Valium on hand.
I lost a rescue English Setter to epilepsy years ago. She started having cluster seizures one night and we couldn't stop them. She went into status epilepticus.
Hopefully the neurologist can find an underlying reason for his seizures. If he truly has idiopathic epilepsy, please try to be open minded about medication. |