Epilepsy

Question
I have a wonderful Mixed breed (mostly Black Lab) male 5 1/2 years old.  Starting at 4 years old, he has been having seizures.  They are cluster grand mal type.  He will generally have 4 to six.  Also each seizure lasts 4 to 10 minutes.  As it progresses the time between each seizure gets shorter.  He is on 2 1/2 tablets of phenobarbitol (sp?) twice a day.  I also have valium tablets and suppositories to use to try to "break up the clusters".  To date, I have not been able to break up a cluster.  Always involves our vet or the ER vet.  Is there something else I could be doing?  On present dosage of pheno he goes nearly six months between now.  I feel so terrible when this happens to him and it is hard sometimes for me to get him to vet/ER as I am 61 with lots of arthritis.  However, I would not part with this dog for anything!  Please give me your insight.  Thanks

Answer
Get him on an all-natural diet...avoid artifical dyes, preservatives and by-products in his food as well as treats.  Also, only give filtered or bottled water.

Also, give as many organic raw veggies (no onions) as possible and supplement his diet with B Complex vitamins to support the nervous system (50 mg twice a day) as well as Vitamin E (200 units twice a day), Ester C (500 mg twice a day) and Gelatin (1 tsp a day).  You can give a small amount of raw organic liver twice a week as well.  He should also be placed on Milk Thistle to help detox his liver due to the phenobarb....you can give a human adult dose of that.

When in the middle of seizure, try dropping RESCUE REMEDY into his mouth.

Consider POTASSIUM BROMIDE as an anti-seizure medication instead of the phenobarb.