Hello everyone! Apologies that we've been away for so long but we've had a lot going on!
To start, we moved! That's right, we left the bright lights of Hollywood for a more relaxed and stress free life in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona! Yeah yeah, we know it gets REALLY hot in the summer but we're used to spending time in Palm Springs and really, once it reaches 100 degrees, it's just hot! We are still settling in but just take a look at how pretty it is here, the clouds look like cotton candy!!
Now onto the not so pleasant news. The night before Thanksgiving, Connor suffered another episode of cluster seizures. Even though it wasn't nearly as bad as what happened in June, we had to make a trip to the ER and while they stopped for awhile they started up again about four hours after we got back from the ER, although they were very short and small. They continued through Thanksgiving morning and finally came to a stop after another dose of Valium and adding a double dose of phenobarbital. Whew.
Connor has a very long postictal (post seizure) phase - he's blind, disoriented, will pace incessantly, it's so hard to watch. The ER vet suggested when we follow up with our regular vet to start an additional medication and suggested potassium bromide, so when we saw our vet that Sunday we asked about it and he thought it would be a good idea to stop the breakthrough seizures.
As with many meds, he started a loading dose for 5 days which would be to get him to a therapeutic level quickly, then he would start his maintenance dose. Well it was far too much for him and ended up with bromide toxicity, which was, as aside from the status seizures was the worst thing I've ever seen. He was pretty much in a vegetative state - he couldn't stand, much less walk, could barely lift his head to eat or drink, basically non functional, it was awful. I called the vet and he suggested to stop the meds for 3 days and then restart at a lower dose, so we did and he began to improve, which was wonderful, but it's been a very slow process.
The half life of KBr (potassium bromide) is 25-45 days, which is great in case you miss a dose or something similar. However if a dog is suffering from toxicity, it means it's going to take that long for it to full leave their body. So while he's GREATLY improved, he's not nearly back to being his normal self yet. My vet is on board with me waiting it out and then restarting the maintenance dose very low every other day, maybe even every third day, to acclimate him very slowly. It's been so difficult to watch him struggle, I want what is best for him and each day he shows a little bit more of himself, so I have some hope now, hope I didn't have a few weeks ago.
So that's where we are at now. I promise to be better about updating in the new year, 2020 is all about fresh starts and new endeavors! Thank you for sticking with us and loving my boys so much, it warms my heart that they make so many people happy!
Wishing you all the happiest of holidays and a wonderful New Year!
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