[AllDogBoots]

Tomorrow is the first day I am cutting down Max's phenobarbital intake in an attempt to ween him off the drug completely. For those of you who don't know his story, I brought Max home from the breeder when he was 10 weeks old. 3 days later he started having seizures. The vets at LSU were surprised as it's very rare for such a young puppy to have epilepsy. But after exhausting all possible medical testing he was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy / idiopathic head bobbing. This was 22 months ago. It took him a few months to regulate the drugs in his system as he was growing very rapidly! We kept increasing his dosage until finally found a level that worked.

Max has been on phenobarbital for 22 months and he will be 2 years old next week. He has not had a seizure since he has been on a therapeutic dosage. With that being said, we tested his pheno levels 2 weeks ago. A therapeutic dosage is between 15-45 ug/mL. Max's level was at 15.9 which means the drug is barely in his system.

LSU said it's possible for Max to grow out of his seizures. I'm hopeful that is the case. I am cutting down his dosage so that he should be completely off the meds in about 8 weeks.

Please wish us luck and good thoughts.