Wheaten terrier

Question
Hi, I have a female soft coated wheaten terrier that is roughly 10 or 11. She was dumped out by my grandparents house and after a few weeks of trying to find her home I took her in. She had severe ear infections and was very malnutritioned. She started having seizures about two weeks after I found her so I took her to the vet. They gave me cephlexan 500 mg for her ear infections and she was put on phenobarbital 32.4 mg for her seizures. Recently she had three severe seizures out of the blue that were the worst she has ever had. Se is now having problems standing due to weakness on her hips and back legs. She can't stand for more then a minute without having to lie down or she falls. She also seems very dazed and not quite there. Do you think this could be damage done by the seizures? Also do you think it could be serious? I want to take her to the vet but I'm just not sure how serious it could be. Thank you very much.

Answer

Hi there,

It's not at all uncommon that a dog would become woozy, groggy and dizzy when first starting phenobarbital for a seizure disorder. This would explain your dog being being dazed, and unstable on her feet. As your dog adjusts to the medication, she'll be more like her old self. In the meantime, keep your dog away from stairs, and other situations that could be unsafe given her condition. If your dog has been on phenobarbital for more than two weeks, and is not yet adjusted, talk to your vet. I should mention that an ear infection could also cause the symptoms of being unsteady on her feet, falling, lurching or unable to regain her equilibrium.

It concerns me that your dog had three severe seizures after starting the phenobarbital therapy. If you didn't report this to your vet, you should. Tell your vet how long each seizure lasted. Your dog might benefit from an adjusted dose of phenobarbital, or even require a combination of medications to control the seizures. You should also report back to the vet if your dog is still VERY groggy and dazed after more than two weeks. Again, an adjustment in the medication should help this. In time, it may be possible to slowly wean your dog down off of the amount of seizure medication needed. Only do this with your vet's approval and guidance.

Should your dog have a seizure that lasts longer than 5 minutes, or has 3 or more seizures in a day, it's an emergency situation. You should seek veterinary care immediately.

It could be helpful to have your vet check your dog's thyroid levels. If the levels are outside the normal range, there could be problems which could cause epilepsy. Thyroid function tests are affected by many things, including stress and medications. Several recent studies have demonstrated that phenobarbital therapy causes falsely low values on some thyroid tests. Recent seizures will also cause false lowering of the values, presumably due to the stress they cause. So test results need to be interpreted with these factors in mind. If a dog's test results are truly low on thyroid function, then a trial of thyroid supplementation would be indicated.

I hope I've been a help.
Best of luck,

Patti