I Am Weaning Max Off Phenobarbital
 

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.

Karen,
We've spoken in the past about our pups' seizures. My Max has been seizure free for 1 year with the phenobarb as well. I'm glad to hear that Max is doing so well and he is able to get off the meds. I wish you the best of luck!!!

Good luck.

Sending positive thoughts your way for you and Max. Praying hard that Max has grown out of his seizures.

I hope everything goes well Karen . . .it would be awesome for Max to be seizure free with no meds . . .

Best of luck Karen!

Thanks everyone!:) He's been on a really low therapeutic dosage with much success so I'm thinking he will be ok.

Sending prayers your way! Good luck. :)

And I cannot believe Max will be 2!

Thank you. I know!! Time goes so quickly with them, doesn't it? He was 15.9 pounds last month! Cooper can walk under him.

Hoping this works for Max.

Will keep Max in my prayers for a successful transition.:)

Oh my goodness! You're kidding! Lol!

Well, definitely praying that he does well going off the Phenobarbital! Keep us updated!

I hope it goes well for Max.

Thank you. We are prepared for this.

Oh, you have meds on hand if there is a problem with seizures? I would be a bit worried. Seizures do frighten me...I never got used to seeing them in people..cannot imagine in a dog.

Good luck with Max and his weaning :hands:

I'm a little nervous but not exactly worried. The phenobarb is barely in his system. It's almost below a therapeutic range which makes me feel very good about doing this. Max never had grand mal seizures. He only had focal, head bobbing seizures but his legs would slip out from underneath him. His seizures were minimal, but they were about every 15 minutes, all day long. Now that I type about it, it reminds me how awful it really was :(

Therapeutic range is just that...therapeutic and in between those numbers is where it should be. Because he is on the lower side of therapeutic does not mean he does not have any in his system. I hope you have spoken with your vet about that.

Of course he has phenobarbital in his system. He's been on it for almost 2 years. I am surprised you would even question whether or not I have spoken with a vet about this. I thought you knew me a little better than that.

I was not questioning you at all. I was only commenting because you said he hardly had any phenobarb in his system and I wondered if the vet had said that because I don't think that is the right interpretation. Maybe I am wrong. I don't know..... Sorry I asked. Hope all goes well for Max. :)

Sorry, Karen, but that sentence was the reason I asked. I meant no harm at all.

No worries. I think so much gets lost in translation when communicating online or solely via words. I'm a much better talker than I am a typer:rolleyes:

I've been thinking about taking him off his meds for about 9 months. It's a tough situation. I don't want to take an epileptic dog off his seizure medication. However, I don't want to medicate a dog who doesn't need it.

I do appreciate your concern:)

Sending prayers for Max that all will go well and that he won't need to take pheno anymore.

Max and Cooper will still want "medicine" time though for the treat that goes with it, won't they? You are going to have to fake it. That may not be a bad idea anyway. Sometimes the strangest things can have a positive effect on health in humans, so I imagine dogs would be the same.

Cooper already gets a fake pill. I have an alarm that goes off at 9am and 9pm and they both line up in the kitchen to wait for meds. Lately I've just been putting a dab of fat free cream cheese on my index and pushing the tiny pill into it. I'll continue that, without the pill.

I think it would be a good idea to continue.

I meant my index finger. I have to continue. The boys would be carrying on crying all day if I didn't!

I'll be keeping Max in my prayers. I hope all goes well with weaning him off the Pheno. Give those two boys a hug from Betty Boop and me. :)

Been AWOL from YT for quite some time, but I think of you and your boys often. (((((Hugs))))))) Hope all goes well with the meds reduction. :)

That would be wonderful if Max no longer has to take the Pheno. I'll be thinking of him and hoping it goes well. Big hugs for the boys. :)

I hope Max has grown out of his seizures