Beagle with epilepsy (Pexion warning!)

[luigi1506]

Luigi
Thorough bred tricoloured Beagle, neutered
Born 15/06/2010 - had him from 8 weeks

Very ill as a puppy with upset stomach (giardia and compylabactor) and personally believe he was over medicated in his first 2 years.

Seizures starting around 2.5 years old. 2-3 months apart sometimes 1 month, not consistent, but never closer than 1 month apart a couple times. When the seizures last 3-4min, we use 10mg Diazepam rectal tubes. Seizures were mix of 1min - 4min. Seizures always used to be between 3am and 5am in the morning whilst sleeping.

There used to be routine / warning signs where he would wake up, run to the balcony, throw up and then have a glazed / glassy look in his eyes before falling over and going stiff and paddling, losing control of bowels, foaming at the mouth etc.
But lately he just fits straight from sleeping so no warning signs for the last 6 months of seizures. He’s never fitted whilst awake.

Had MRI and spinal fluid tests - nothing to report. All blood work, urine samples and thyroid have been fine.

At 2 moved to raw diet but changed back to James Wellbeloved dry food at roughly 4 years old in case that was the issue with seizures but made no difference.
Also started giving him natural supplements from Purely Pets
EpiPlus - 2 tablets daily,
Digest Zymez - 1 tablet daily
Giardia & Parasitic d'tox - 15 drops twice a day for a week every month.
At one point I even tried giving him taurine tablets.

He definitely has reactions to medicines. Within 5 days of rabies vaccines or annual boosters he will have a seizure as well as after spot on treatment which we have now stopped and he has a flea collar instead.
Once at the vet whilst in Greece he had to be put under to have blade of grass removed from his ear and as soon as he got injected he had a seizure. Even after a deworming tablet in Dec he vomitted and show all the signs that he was going to have a seizure but fortunately didn’t.

In October 2016, he started on Orijen dry food.
Stopped the natural supplements end of December after his seizure mid December at 8pm (whilst sleeping) which was definitely more intense and had a longer recovery after the Diazepam. Supplements were stopped knowing he was going to be ‘properly’ medicated after his future appointment with RVC.

3 January had a seizure at 2pm (whilst sleeping). And on Tuesday 17 Dec started on Pexion 400mg tablets (300mg dosage twice a day) and on Friday 20th had a seizure at 7am and then another at 6pm which has never happened before. Have now stopped Pexion.

He is fed and watered from two stainless steel bowls and water is from the built in filtered fridge water.
He goes to the parlour / groomer every two weeks as he is quite a bad shedder yet has a great healthy coat.

He is a scavenger and quite often will eat faeces and anything else that he can find and he does pull on the lead due to his food obsession. There is definitely an increase in his desire to eat faeces the day of/after a seizure.

Not sure if relevant but when sleeping he does twitch quite a bit and kick his legs as well as lots of eyelid twitching.

Before we start him on another medicine (as I’m concerned any other anti-convulsant medicine might trigger a seizure itself) I would like to try CBD (cannabis) oil and the natural supplements as well as make changes to his food and environment as much as possible (as well as anything else that you feel could make a difference).

Maybe speak to your vet?

Yes obviously @Hairymary90

We spoken multiple times to different vets and specialists. And if you read the post, the latest development and recommendation from them actually triggered 2 seizures on the same day.
Now 2 different vets want to just use a different medicine but as mentioned, he tends to have a reaction to medicine and since we've already tried once, I don't want to try and put him through that again hence trying to find alternatives.

If people can't post helpful responses or bother fully reading the post - don't post then.

Epilepsy drugs take time to control the seizures and 25% epileptic dogs require more than one medication to control their seizures.

I think you need to talk in detail to your neurologist and be certain of what effect they are expecting.
It is not uncommon for seizures to cycle up and start to come in clusters.

Vet here.
Highly unlikely seizures caused by Pexion. Much more likely were going to happen anyway. Pexion will not have had enough time to get into a steady state in the blood to prevent the seizures yet. You will need to give the drugs time and remember that the aim of therapy is to reduce seizures, not necessarily prevent all of them.

Why would you give cannabis,which is toxic to dogs,to a dog you suspect is highly sensitive to drugs??
Not everything natural is good for you.

Please go back to your vets and give your epileptic dog a chance of seizure management(not fix, seizures are managed and hopefully reduced on medication but breakthrough seizures are not uncommon) with suitable prescribed medication.
If hes starting to cluster seizure he will likely need more then one medication to manage his condition.

It is unlikely that idiopathic epilepsy can be managed by diet and supplements.

It is common for epileptics to have seizures after periods of stress-vet visits etc especially when unmedicated for their disease.

You need to give the drugs a chance.

Most epileptic dogs still siezure on occasion, even on medication.

I honestly don't think supplements or diet are going to make much of a difference in the vast majority of cases. By all means try but be prepared to be throwing money at a placebo when what you really need to do is accept medication.

I know that he will still have seizures on the medicine. My issue is the medicine actually triggered the seizures closer than ever before (2 weeks apart) and then 2 on the same day. This was on day 4 of taking the medicine.
He has a history of having seizures within 5 days of taking any medicine, vaccine or spot-on treatment.

So giving the medicine a chance is just going to keep triggering more seizures due to his inability to deal with medicine.

The seizures are likely to be cycling up because they are uncontrolled. Unmedicated seziures typically move in to a pattern of having clusters like you have now seen. Any seizure medication really needs to be given 2 weeks to reach a stable state.

CBD oil without THC is not dangerous for dogs. My dog had a tumour on her side (vet kept saying just a fatty lump) removed and i was told that it had spread into her muscle and would continue to spread. Vet advised not to take muscle away as this would leave her with disabilities so i started to give her daily doses of CBD oil. Four years later there are no signs of cancer and she is a happy and healthy eleven year old lurcher and still having her daily doses of CBD oil. The vet at the time said CBD would not help. Glad i didn’t listen.

@77Andrew a single animal = anecdote.

Until we have good quality multi animal, multi Centre double blinded trials we have no idea of the benefits and disadvantages of CBD oil.

The BEAGs group on facebook - for the owners of beagles with epilepsy - is meant to be very good.

I have an Epileptic dog. Personally in my opinion its the brain overworking eg perhaps too excited. My dog is on meds twice a day plus a blood test every six months to check meds are in his system. Apparently its genetic so there's a good chance your dog inherited it. The meds will control the seizures but not stop them. The medication has not stopped my dogs fits but if he was unmedicated he may have a lot more. I would not give my dog CBD the majority of CBD is not cannabis but hemp and its a placebo. I personally would not waste your time on supplements. Your probably better talking to your vet about it he may increase meds. My dog has had two fits this month they are awful to watch. He's the same goes to be sick then looks like he's choking then is on his side paddling and foaming at the mouth. I doubt diet will help just don't feed him rubbish eg crisps , sweets etc. To me I think my dog has a fit when he's got too over excited. Has your dog had a fit while out walking ? Or just at home.

100% agree with you. Pharmaceutical companies always have the patient’s best interests at heart and the system for approving new drugs is not compromised at all.

Buy CBD from a supplier with a UK accredited certification.

@77Andrew

Buy CBD from a supplier with a UK accredited certification.

I would not give my epileptic dog CBD oil. If it did any good it would be advised by vets.

DHs old dog had seizures, he was medicated but tbh, they didn’t really seem that effective to me and he was PTS in the end as the seizures continued to worsen and get more frequent.

@77Andrew

Buy CBD from a supplier with a UK accredited certification.

Might be tricky considering CBD oil for animals is legally regulated by the VMD in the UK as it's unproven and so unlicensed animal preparations are illegal.

@77Andrew

CBD oil without THC is not dangerous for dogs. My dog had a tumour on her side (vet kept saying just a fatty lump) removed and i was told that it had spread into her muscle and would continue to spread. Vet advised not to take muscle away as this would leave her with disabilities so i started to give her daily doses of CBD oil. Four years later there are no signs of cancer and she is a happy and healthy eleven year old lurcher and still having her daily doses of CBD oil. The vet at the time said CBD would not help. Glad i didn’t listen.

Or it was a lipoma - a common benign lump and not cancer.