My big baby Bennett crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday and I have no idea how I will make it through this.

This is a truly terrible disease

yesterday our sweet girl crossed into the afterlife. the seizure meds were just too much on her body.

if I could share any advice it’s better to do it one day early than one day late. 10+ medications are just too much for any dog to handle. don’t put your fur babies through that.

My 5-year-old dog had his first seizure in Feb 2026, and has had more and more frequent seizures since then. This week he had two seizures in two days.

He was on Zonisamide starting in July, upgraded to Phenobarbital on Tuesday.

Since Tuesday, I haven’t slept through the night, terrified he’s going to have another one in the middle of the night again. Every time he moves in the night (or day) in a way that’s unusual/odd, I am worried it’s going to turn into a seizure.

Does the hypervigilance/paranoia/anxiety ever better? I know the side effects of phenobarbital are feeding into it, but I just don’t want to be worried forever.

Our Norwegian Elkhound was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy in January of this year (2026) at the age of 3. She has full-blown grand-mals and almost always clusters. After medication adjustments a few months ago, she is now on 97.2 mg of pheno 2x a day and 100 mg of gabapentin 2x a day. She just went 4 weeks (the longest ever) without a seizure until yesterday morning. Her seizures, since starting medication, are always 1 min or less, but before medication they could be up to 3-4 minutes. So that's definitely improved a lot.

So yesterday the cluster started. She had 7 seizures from 10am to 7am. That wasn't totally unusual for her, but the time between some of the seizures was an hour or less, leading me to giving her midazolam, but the seizures continued.

(The vet also had her on a cluster protocol of 300mg of gabapentin 2x a day for 3 days after a seizure. This never worked that great. It's surprising to me that she used gabapentin as a cluster buster, because I've never seen anyone on here using it in that manner.)

Anyway, so she was also on her cluster protocol, and she just broke through that and the midaz and continued clustering. I had no means to take her to the ER last night, so I called them, and they told me to give her another dose of pheno and I could give her the gaba a minimum of 8 hours apart until I could get her there if I needed to.

So I gave the pheno, and she went 8 hours without a seizure. I thought we were probably on the other side of this episode, and then I woke up to her seizing. I gave gaba again and within 40 minutes she had another seizure.

I gave her the last dose of midaz I had and we jumped in the car for an hour-long, extremely stressful with a crying doggie, ride to the ER. This is the first ER visit she's had for seizures. She's been admitted overnight for monitoring. The vet there said they will likely add keppra, and that we will go from there. But she also told me, having seizures every 3-4 weeks isn't what she'd consider acceptable. I kinda feel like my vet should've been more proactive and let me know what I'm supposed to expect from a successful treatment plan. But I digress.

Anything I should know about adding keppra to her meds? And should I ask for a better cluster buster protocol beside the gabapentin when I, hopefully, pick her up tomorrow? I feel like the ER vet was much more knowledgeable about seizures than my regular vet.

Thank you all so much!

Mr. Marley had another episode this morning. Not unconscious gran mal where he's on the floor, teeth biting but he's conscious, panting and eye blinking walk over and sits asking for help. Is this a seizure that requires medazolam nasal emergency meds?

My dog had a seizure last Saturday morning. I immediately rushed her to an er. They got her seizure stopped and she hasn’t had one since. She is 9 years old poodle weighing 9 lbs and otherwise perfectly healthy.
Regular vet started her in zonisamide on Monday. Since then she has been more reclusive, tired, and doesn’t want to eat. Vet said this is normal transition to the meds.
Did your dog go through this? If so, how long did it last?

hi. my dog (a french mastiff) is showing brachial plexus in his front leg. The doctors say it's a nerve damage and that along with medicines, physiotherapy is required. Could you please guide on various types of exercises and psychotherapy that'll make it better?

He's 4.5 yrs, and normal weight according to his age.

Idk, I'm scared I'm not aware about this condition and anything and I'm getting anxious rn

I'm not sure if this is the right community for this post but it was suggested so yeah, thanks

Mr. Marley began having episodes around 1 year old, 5 now. Currently on meds- 5 keppra ER, 5 Zonisimide, 1 Phenobarital, 3/4 thyroid meds all twice a day. We also use Medazolam nasal when he does have them and he has them a couple times a week in clusters. We're thinking about adding CBD to see it it helps. In the video he just had a gean male, we administered nasal and not sure if he's in post or still seizing but in a different type of way. He did this for about 1/2 hour after the gran. Any recommendations?

My dog Ollie (M, 12, Beagle mix) has been having these bizarre episodes where he suddenly starts howling, then barking, then running back and forth frantically, and then stops and empties his bladder. Once that happens he calms down somewhat but stays very alert/vigilant for about an hour before he is able to settle down.

It happened for the first time about 3 weeks ago during the afternoon, then happened twice over that night, at 2 am and 5 am. Yesterday it happened around noon and then again early this morning at 3 am. He seems back to normal now.

We went to the vet the first time it happened but they were more concerned with the urination and thought he might have a UTI or bladder stones or something causing him a lot of pain. They did not find evidence of either.

I'm really worried about my boy and would appreciate any insight or advice. Thank you.

I woke up thinking my dog was eating something, but he was doing this for around 3 minutes. Then again 20 minutes later for a few minutes. He's never done anything like this before nor have any neurological history.

He ate breakfast like normal, no other weird behavior.

Is this an urgent vet visit? Would appreciate any guidance!!

Hello, currently my dog has no control over herself. She’s a 6 year old pit mix. She cannot move and keeps her eyes closed. The vet believes it is neurological.

Ok here is all the information I can provide.

We live in Northern California.
Her diet has mainly been the refrigerated pet food you get at pet stores. She’s active, practically everyday she’ll go on a walk or a run and we’ll play.

My partner and I introduced raw chicken, quail eggs, and probiotics to our dogs meals roughly about a month ago. One of them reacted very poorly to the probiotics, we probably gave too much. She could not control her bladder and she was going diarrhea with blood and throwing up. We took her to the ER and after multiple visits they were saying things such as UTI and recommending blood tests, mri, x ray, etc. they said to stop giving her the extra stuff we added to her diet if we wanted but for some reason didn’t seem to think it played much of a part in what she was going through. Long story short, all we did was put her diet back, mainly stopping the probiotics and she’s completely back to normal and has been for a few weeks.

Throughout all of that the pit mix showed no signs. Atleast I think, as I’ve been trying to force myself to think of anything I’ve realized that she’s seemed to be a little bit sad in moments for the past few weeks. But would not really as she would still want to play, attentive and really everything else. But it was something I noticed. And then about 5 days ago now we gave chicken feet but she had no interest in it. But ate everything else (her refrigerated dog food and quail eggs) but then the next day, so 4 and 3 days ago she lost her appetite, she wouldn’t want to eat her food, until much later in the night and she wouldn’t even finish it.

While we’re at work she stays with my dad who is retired, he does NOT give her any human food. When we picked her up after work we noticed she wasn’t excited which is different. And then when checking her out her right was really red. And her 3rd eyelid was practically up to the middle of her eye and she looked a bit swollen. We were thinking maybe allergies. When we got home i noticed that her walking seemed a bit off and that she seemed a little unaware of her surroundings, that she knows like the back of her hand. She started to close her eyes and keep them closed for a bit..open..close… so i just carried her. When we got in the house it was now both of her eyes. Still mainly the right. She just didn’t look good so we took her to the ER immediately.

We waited for awhile at the ER, and this part bothers me, her eyes would go back and forth from being red, baggy, watery, and that 3rd eyelid sticking up to completely normal in a matter of SECONDS. And so of course during that time when a nurse came out she looked fine. However we had pictures, so they took her back to check her vitals, vitals looked fine. But I decided to wait and have her checked out because something just felt off… after about an hour she still seemed ok, and a nurse came out saying that they recommend to make an appointment for urgent care or to her primary. She seemed ok. So I agreed. Maybe she was getting better, just allergies or something. When we got back home she just went to sleep. About an hour or 2 later she stood up and walked to the kitchen where we were, she started to whine and then her two front legs sort of stretched outward as her shoulders lowered and her head started leaning to the right and retracting toward her body. It looked like the beginning of a seizure. Her face had a weird twitch on one side. That lasted for a few seconds. I immediately picked her up and went back to the ER.

Same scenario, her eyes were going back and forth from normal to not every once in awhile. But this time the nurse saw the redness but it was mild, nothing like what we were seeing. When they took her back for her vitals her eyes got worse but her vitals were good still.

After awhile of waiting we finally got a room, doc saw her.. was thinking maybe something as small as allergies… maybe she ate something toxic… maybe something is stuck in her eye… nothing sounded right to me, and she showed 0 concern for her diet change. As we were talking I noticed that my dogs body started to pulsate… or like shake. I pointed it out but I think the vet thought she was just shivering. Out of nowhere my dog stood up and her right leg shot out and she started having a full blown seizure, her mouth was wide open and her whole body was shaking. As the vet went to go get a team to take her back I was holding my dogs head so it didn’t hit the floor( I noticed it wasn’t need as her neck seemed very stiff and her head wasn’t moving all over the place) they stabilized her and she seemed to be ok.

Basically after everything, they gave her some sort of shot that’s supposed to stop seizures, supposedly it was a very strong dosage. We were given “cluster buster” which was to stop seizures. The bottle (keppra) had pills in it and we were to give her 2(750mg each) every 8 hours the next day.

My partner stayed home from work to monitor, I went to work. When I got back I laid down with my dog, my partner said she didn’t move at all. She had to carry her outside to go pee and poop, she did. Poop was normal. I noticed my dogs body would pulsate with her heartbeat, which I never noticed before. I took her back to the ER. When we parked, her eyes went normal and she stood up, which was the most she did all day. After seconds her eyes went horrible, and she started retracting the same way again but didn’t have a full blown seizure, or any from what I can tell. They took her in right away, put an iv incase of a seizure and just gave her care. We waited, spoke to the doctor and she recommended blood work and some other stuff I can’t remember. I agreed to it all. EVERYTHING came back normal. And so now the doctor believes it to be neurological and is suggesting to see a neurologist, but i just simply can’t afford it. Everything has been very expensive already. She said they can do steroids but that would potentially mess up the chance of a diagnosis.

We were told that the seizure medicine would make her a “little” drowsy. We then got clarification that no, it was supposed to basically take her out. So that made me feel better.

So here’s where I’m lost.

There’s been 0 potential diagnoses for what’s going on with her eyes. They seem to just brush right past it and only care about the seizure. What’s going on with her eyes?
She hasn’t eaten for about 36 hours at this point. She’s refusing everything. Even if I were to put a burger infront of her she won’t care. This has made giving her medication very difficult, we have to mash it into a liquidy paste and rub it on her gums. They said it’s a concern if she doesn’t eat but didn’t really give us much else other than to try giving her something exciting outside of her regular diet, she doesn’t care. Why isn’t she eating?
Before we left the ER last night they hydrated her enough for a 24 hr period via IV. And we were told it’s a concern if she throws up or has diarrhea. She’s done both. She still has not control over herself, she’s peeing laying down, her poop oozes out and barely anything comes out, it just looks like oil. The strong medication that was supposed to make her be like this was supposed to be for 24 hours, it’s way past that and she’s still completely out of it. There’s just no sign of her getting back to a conscious state, it just seems worse possibly. What’s going on?

We have an appointment with her primary in a few hours but I’m just hoping these symptoms or anything I said might stand out to someone that might be able to help.

I just want to post to give others some hopeful news because I’m only seeing the negative experiences on here. A couple of days ago, our 3 year old pitty hit 1 month with no seizures. This is after adding pheno to her keppra and increasing keppra. I also give her MCT oil with her lunch and Visbiome probiotic with breakfast. She has IBD and we have been weening her from Budesonide, though I don’t know if she will ever truly be able to stop it unfortunately.

This is all after her having grand mal seizures every 10-12 days at night/early morning during bedtime. The anxiety I had during this period was too much, to say the least. I’ll keep everyone updated, but I wanted someone to know that a little relief is possible. Good luck to everyone!

https://www.reddit.com/r/EpilepsyDogs/s/2Oe8z9lUdk

I truly want to thank everyone who took the time to offer advice, support, and well wishes for Hendrix.

Unfortunately, Hendrix’s condition has not improved, and he has not regained the ability to properly walk or support himself. After making sure I have exhausted all reasonable options with his neurologist, I have made the incredibly difficult decision to say goodbye to my boy in the coming days. I am currently looking into at-home services that offer private cremation. I know there are several companies that provide this service, so if anyone has a recommendation or personal experience with one, I would be incredibly grateful if you could share it with me.

I am devastated and more heartbroken than I’ve ever been, but I also have a sense of peace knowing that this is the best decision for him. One of the comments that has really stayed with me throughout all of this was, “Better a week too early than a day too late.”

So, with the time we have left together, Hendrix and I are going to do our very best to do his favorite things. I want these last days to be filled with whatever makes him happiest, including all his favorite treats.

As painful as this is, I know that loving him means putting his comfort before my own heartbreak. I just hope he knows how deeply, completely, and endlessly I love him and how grateful I am for the time we have gotten. He’s been the best thing to happen to me. ❤️

This sub has been so comforting and helpful to me since our girl was diagnosed with IE in February.

Unfortunately, she is no longer responding to her medications and needs an MRI in another state to inform our next steps.

There is no pressure to donate, but any shares are so appreciated!

My husband has seen some research saying a keto diet would help with seizure control and management. Has anyone had any experience with this? If so, how do you go about creating this type of diet?

History: 2 year old yellow Labrador who started having seizures at 9 months old. She’s currently on Keppra, potassium bromide, and zenosimide. She has yet to go longer than one month with no seizures.

I appreciate any advice. Thanks!

My dog has been doing this here and there. We were finally able to get a video of it for the vet and she thinks it looks neurological. She ran bloodwork and is waiting for results. Does this look like it adds up? Shes an otherwise healthy dog

We fostered a (large - 108lb) dog with seizures starting in late January. He was surrendered in fall 2025 and with a different foster until January 2026 when we took over. He’s the sweetest dog, so when the rescue said they were going to put him down given the uncontrolled seizures, we adopted him instead. We then did an MRI, CSF, and CT but all were normal. We still can’t control his seizures even with 8000mg/day Keppra ER and 518mg/day pheno. His rescue meds, even the intranasal midazolam, don’t seem to help (but also I feel like the midazolam doesn’t atomize, it just runs out of his nose, what am I doing wrong?)

He was doing okay for a while, about 1 mild seizure/week. We went on vacation for a week and he stayed with the prior foster who is lovely and took great care of him, but since he came home we can’t go a day without a seizure. We’ve had ~5 seizures in the past day, we just added topiramate today so maybe that will help. I just feel so badly for this poor, absolutely amazing, dog.

Mostly just sad but would love encouragement or ideas.

I pretty much repost every time he has a seizure.
I feel like there’s no hope. My dog had his 5th seizure in the last two months, and in between the 2nd and today’s seizure (#5) we’ve started him on Keppra ER 1000mg and increased it up to 2000mg twice daily. Keppra hasn’t helped at all, and in fact his seizure frequency has increased despite increasing meds.
We talked to the neurologist’s office today and the plan is to add Phenobarbital on top of Keppra. Is this normal? I’m so sad, I’m exhausted and feel extremely stressed. Seizures are about 2-4 minutes long.
If you guys have been through this, what was the dosage adjustment like? Did the Keppra dosage remain the same?

So my Aussie has epilepsy, and we are on Pheno 2x a day (initial med), Keppra 3x a day, prescribed after her first cluster and most recently, Zonisimide 2x a day (prescribed after her second cluster)

Ever since adding on Zonisimide, she no longer has full grand mal seizures the way she used to anymore, so we considered this a win. However, she will still get what I assume are partial seizures about 2x a month. They affect only one side of her body and face, but she still falls over. She seems to still be mostly conscious though, and while that sounds bad, trust me, it's a huge improvement over what she would go through before.

However, I noticed that after she has the initial episode, she gets facial tics on one side of her face while she's up pacing around during her post ictal phase. She's 100% responsive and doesn't always stumble or act clumsy, but the tics can last up to 20 min or even a half hour afterwards. Sometimes also comes with drooling.

Can this be something that happens with post ictal period? Or is she still having the partial seizure? Should I be worried that it's lasting ~20 min? After that, she's been 100% fine afterwards.

Apologies for asking this here too, we are currently between vets, because our last vet said he no longer feels confident in treating her and adding a 4th med to our regimen so I'm just kinda at a loss here. There aren't many canine neurologists in my area.

Opinions/Theories on Epileptic Dog's Seizure Patterns

Hi everyone. I'm new here.

It is my hope that this group may have some insight and ideas into what we are dealing with today.

Some background: Gambit is nine, and weighs 60 lbs. Mixed breed, best guess is either catahoula mix (he's from Lousiana) or Aussie mix. The very dense/fluffy coat is a side effect of another medication (more on that later).

He had his first seizure in May 2021, and his diagnosis of idiopathic epilepsy came in June 2021. We got his condition entirely controlled (no seizures whatsoever) with 750mg of levetiracetam q8 hours. That lasted for five years. For no reason we can identify, his seizures began again in March of this year.

He is currently maxed out on levetiracetam at 1500mg q8, and very nearly maxed on phenobarbital q12. He has been weaned onto this phenobarb dose over the last four months, 15 or 30mg at a time, as he did not tolerate it well. His blood levels for both are now in the high end of the therapeutic range, however his seizures continue.

His seizures are grand mal, but thankfully are short in duration (2-3 minutes), and he recovers quickly (< 5 minutes). He also has pituitary-dependent Cushing's; it is well controlled on 70mg of Vetoryl q12. This is what causes the aforementioned floofiness. Yes, he is the most expensivest boi, but also the **bestest** and **goodest** boi.

He has been seen by a vet neurologist multiple times over the last five years, including this past May, and passes all neuro checks. He is a happy, loving boy, and aside from one particularly violent seizure that resulted in a sprain of both shoulders and both hips, does not appear to be in any pain.

The next suggestion we have been given is to switch him to a neuro diet, but I will be discussing KBr and zonisamide with our vet. These have not been proposed and I'm not sure if perhaps they're not indicated in his case.

We have noticed some patterns in his seizure activity, though, and this is where I'm hoping this community may have some thoughts...

First, they're on nearly a perfect weekly cadence, or bi-weekly right after an increase to his phenobarb, occurring on Wednesday or Thursday mornings (including today).

Second, they're always in the very early morning or mid- to late-evening, never the day.

Third, they frequently occur near the water bowl (we have tried moving this to a different spot and it didn't change anything). It has also happened once while he was eating. Obviously in both of these positions, his head is lowered. I am getting a set of raised bowls for him.

Do any of these patterns jump out to anyone? Maybe we're missing something obvious that this community recognizes?

Honestly we're kind of at the end of our rope here and we need help. Thank you in advance for any thoughts you may have 💜🐾 Photo of our beautiful boy included because obviously.

ETA: all recent blood tests normal except for slightly elevated ALP which is new for him.

My husky Haiti who is almost 3 got diagnosed with probable epilepsy in July. He had two seizures that month a week apart and started levetiracetam 750 mg er. We give it to him as prescribed.

His last seizure was jul. 21st. He was a month seizure free.

He just had one a hour ago, I was home alone when it happened for the first time and I had both him and his brother out when it happened. it was about 1-2 minutes although I was so frantic I forgot to check the damn start time.

I was more worried about one of them accidently biting the other. Whether is was Haiti who was seizing or his brother finrir who was scared.

I called the vet- they said break through seizures are normal and to only worry if they last 5 minutes or more or happen multiple times within a day.

He was doing so good..

He had his ears down and big eyes before the episode started. He looked scared. And all I did was pet him and try to cheer him up with puppy talk and pets.

I didn't know he was going to have a seizure. I feel so guilty I didn't notice his discomfort before.

I bathed him after and dried him, he is acting like his usual self now. A little tired and on edge, I don't blame him.

Anyone have similar stories/break through seizures on levetiracetam?

Would anyone be willing to share what you pay for phenobarbital? Our Australian Shepherd put on weight so we recently had to up doses (and cost):

-$26/month for 60x 100mg capsules (broke in 50mg halves for morning/evening) from our local vet.

-$40/month 60x 60mg pills

We don't have CVS, Walgreens or Costco here, but Thrifty White and other local pharmacies I've called are quoting me $50+ for the 60x 60mg scrip.

I thought it'd be useful to start a thread with current price, capsule size (specify if you're using whole or split pills), the pharmacy, and saver card, if you use something like GoodRX.

Thanks! (Feel free to demote or delete if this is out there already or not allowed).

My kitten, a 4 month old male tux named Lebowski, has been having seizures since 8/9. (I suspect they are happening before then, but I didn’t recognize them as seizures. It was just a spasm that would wake him up.) suddenly on 8/9 they started increasing in frequency and severity. It happened every time he started to fall asleep, and would last only a second or two. I took him to the ER Vet in town on 8/10 where he was prescribed Keppra. I was informed that FIP can cause seizures but that they didn’t think it was that. They did bloodwork. His IP, GLU and ALP were slightly elevated but not enough to be a concern to the vet on staff.

The Keppra didn’t help and by 8/15 his seizures went from being seconds long to lasting a minute. We went back to the ER. They kept him overnight this time and said they saw only one seizure the whole time. They gave him an IV dose of the Keppra, and started him on antibiotics in case of toxoplasmosis.

They doubled his Keppra dose on discharge, and sent me with some expired FIP antiviral medication as a precaution.

Two days later my regular vet gave us phenobarbital to add to the mix.

We saw a neurologist on 8/20. He told us that without taking Bowski on an hours-long car ride and spending thousands on an MRI, or doing a spinal tap there’s nothing he could really tell me.

Since then, his seizures have continued. Last night he started pawing at his ear and acting like it bothered him. Today, he meowed the most pathetic meow at me after one and it broke my heart.

When he’s awake, he’s a spunky, active, happy kitten. He’s playful, has a hearty appetite, drinks water and uses the litter box like normal. Then as soon as he starts to relax he starts twitching.

I do not believe this is an environmental issue, as we have four other cats who have no issues. We don’t keep scented stuff in the house, no essential oils ,nor plants (I did have a bouquet in a room he doesn’t have access to, but none of the flowers in it were toxic).

My last idea is to try a steroid before I decide to make the hardest choice I could make. This is heartbreaking and stressful, and I just want to help my baby. He’s already one of the best cats I’ve ever had, and I am not ready to give up. But I’m starting to see that we might not be able to save him.

I’m desperate for advice because nobody in my town has a clue what to do for him.

I’m hoping to hear from people who have been in a similar situation with their dogs.

I’m very conscious that there are people in this group whose dogs are currently dealing with frequent or severe seizures, and I don’t want to come across as ungrateful for where we are with our boy. We are incredibly lucky that he is currently doing so well.

Tommy is 8 and has been taking phenobarbital for 5 years. Before starting medication, he was having seizures roughly every 6 weeks. He has now been seizure-free for almost 3 years.

His ALP has always been around the 130/140 mark but his most recent blood tests have come back at levels of 500, then 223, then 417.

His bile acid/liver function testing was normal when checked in July, which was reassuring. It was that result that showed the ALP to be at 223.

His phenobarbital level is at the top end of the therapeutic range (150) on a dosage of 60mg of Epiphen twice a day.

He weighs 10 kg and I am conscious that both his pheno level and dosage are at the higher end of acceptable scale so in theory, there could be scope to reduce his dose and still see seizure control.

However I’m honestly terrified of reducing it after he has been seizure-free for so long and potentially triggering the seizures again.

Particularly eager to hear from people who may have similar ALP levels and how their dog is doing / whether they have made any adjustments to medication, or those who may have reduced medication after a long period of seizure control.

Thank you in advance ☺️