feline siezures

Question
we have two cats that are out of a litter of three.  the mother and father were brother and sister.  when the cats were about 2 months old they started frothing at the mouth...not moving. then would come right out of it.  all three kittens were sneezing and were not exposed to any wild animals.  they were kept isolated with the mother.  we took them to our vet in Florida who would not handle them because he thought they had rabies.  I knew this was not possible.  We took them to an emergency vet who treated them for toxoplasmosis.  the antibiotics did not seem to help.  at about 3 months old out vet finally agreed to see them.  he diagnosed both brothers with epilepsy and started them on phenobarbital 1/2 of a 1/4 grain tab twice a day.  they were increased to 3/4 of a 1/4 grain tab twice a day.  this seemed to control kio (the one brother) but not sneezy.  we increased his dosage to 1 full 1/4 grain tab twice per day.  pheno. levels have been checked and they are within range.  Sneezy's seizures were still not controlled.  we moved to Alabama, and our vet up here started sneezy on potassium bromide 1/4 tab twice per day.  This seemed to have helped.  The seizures are different now.  he no longer runs around banging into things.  now he stiffens his head, strong jaw movements and head shaking followed by urination.  these last for anywhere from 5 minutes to two hours and seem to happen regularly every 7 to 10 days.  i have read that hypoparathyrodism could be a cause.  what i find odd is the regularity of the seizures now; once every 7 to 10 days and always at night (as far as we know).  is there any other treatment you can recommend?  i have read the Valium or one of the other diazapam type drugs can be helpful.

Answer
Hi Thomas,

I am not a vet. However I can direct you to a pretty good site that will be able to help with your questions. I will say that epilepsy is pretty rare in young cats.
Here's the link with the info about the different seizure medicine.

http://www.vetinfo.com/cat-seizure-medicine.html/

Here's another very good site that also has a lot of good info.

http://www.2ndchance.info/epilepsy.htm

I would also ask the vet there about your cats. How did your other vet diagnose the epilepsy in the cats? Did he say if it was primary epilepsy or secondary epilepsy? If it was secondary what caused it? For one cat to have epilepsy is uncommon, for two, I would say very rare. I wonder if there isn't something else going on. Has your regular vet seen these epileptic seizures? If he hasn't then I would suggest you video tape your cat having one. Having your vet see one will help him. I hope this helped. I wish I could do more for you. Good luck and take care.

Ciao, Karen