Another Note On Adding Kbr

[GreyWrangler]

another note on adding KBr

 

I am seriously wondering if this is worth it... He is so loopy it is not even funny, falling down, falling over, just so out of it. I want my boy back.

 

He is stable on the Pb, no sz in a year. It will take him a long time on KBr before we can even think about reducing the Pb.

 

He is ten, to be 11 the end of May.

[Ullaluv]

How long has he been on the KBr? If he's been on it long enough to reach a steady state, therapeutic level, you might try cutting back a little bit. We went from 3 capsules every day to 3, 4 days a week and 2, 3 days a week. It took awhile, but made a huge difference.

[GreyWrangler]

I just finished the loading phase, the huge doses, today was the first day of 4.5 mls(200mg)of the liquid.

[Trudy]

Why add the KBr if the Pb was working fine?

 

Ryan wasn't getting the control on Pb alone after a couple of years and we had to increase the dose so much he was having side effects from that, so we added KBr to help control his seizures instead of continuing to increase his Pb. He was drunk for a month.

We've since been able to reduce him on everything, but will up him again for our trip out of here.

[Ullaluv]

We didn't do a loading dose, so it took a lot longer. You're probably not at a steady blood level yet after a loading dose. Try giving it a little time, and then backing off just a little if the ataxia doesn't improve. It's made a big difference in control for my seizure boy without getting into the much more iffy and very much more expensive other meds out there.

[GreyWrangler]

Why add the KBr if the Pb was working fine?

 

Ryan wasn't getting the control on Pb alone after a couple of years and we had to increase the dose so much he was having side effects from that, so we added KBr to help control his seizures instead of continuing to increase his Pb. He was drunk for a month.

We've since been able to reduce him on everything, but will up him again for our trip out of here.

On his last bloodwork some of his values were off.

So I am adding the KBr in the hopes of getting him to a level to drop the high dose Pb down a bit

[Guest LindsaySF]

If you are worried about liver values, then KBr is worth it because it doesn't affect the liver.

 

The ataxia will get better. It is probably so bad now because you did a loading dose, but that's what you need to get their blood levels up fast. If his ataxia isn't better in a few weeks you will probably have to decrease the dose. He should respond to the KBr faster though because you did a loading dose. When does he get his KBr levels checked? If the levels look good pretty quickly and he has been seizure-free this long it probably won't be too long before they will decrease the Pb.

 

Some dogs can't tolerate KBr, but you won't know until he has a chance to adjust and get over the ataxia. If he is still severely ataxic in a few weeks, and decreasing the KBr doesn't help, you might need to look into a different med like Keppra, zonasimide, etc.

 

Are you on the EPIL-K9 email list? Some helpful info on there.

 

Good luck.

 

 

 

~Lindsay~

 

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2010 by LindsaySF