Today Max had an acupuncture appointment. We've had him on 10mg of prednisone 3x / week - essentially every other day, as well as his normal dose of Keppra (125mg 2x day). It's been a few weeks but Max is still seeming foggy when he's on those doses. The plan is to keep him on the prednisone at the 3x / week for the next week (2 additional weeks total) to see how he does and then reduce him back down to a low dose..
On his prednisone days he gets his prednisone between 8-9am at breakfast... around 2pm he starts drinking water and then the water works start and we have a good solid 4 hours of peeing every 1/2 hour or so... sometimes in the house, sometimes out... the door is open... Not so pleased with the indoor peeing. His regular vet has suggested dropping him down to 5mg of prednisone every other day - we don't know if that will work - but since he was on such a low dose before it may keep him from having the issues with additional thirst and peeing... worth a try - we'll know what to look for if it's too low a dose.
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| Kids... this is what happens when you pass out on drugs |
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| And when you wake up you have a funny face! |
We're going to start giving Keppra with meals to see if that slows down the absorption as well. He's been getting it with snacks but maybe not enough food in his belly.
He's still active and walking - pacing when he's on the meds.. walking when he's not. He can hear, comes when he's called, he's started to chase #2 when he runs by, he'll also follow him. Today he jumped up with the other dogs and got into the morning scrum and thought about wrestling with them.. Then thought twice about it.. (smart boy - he's still a little weak and sensitive. He fell in a ditch and off his ramp when he was loopy on the meds and his shoulders are stuff and his back legs... )
He has not had any medication yet today - he'll have Keppra in a little bit, but at his vet appt this morning he chased a tennis ball and tried to catch it in the air and then walked around with it for a while.. which was a great sign! He also jumped up when the rest of the dogs started barking at the FedEx truck and ran with them to see what was going on. I am now realizing that his foggyness is most likely more drug related than anything else.. It's amazing to me that the same dose isn't working the same way it was before and he's more sensitive to it... but maybe you just have to monitor and adjust to the patient. Body chemistry changes over time... I suppose another argument as to why all patients should be dealt with as individuals vs. all treated the same..
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| Max NOT on drugs at vet getting acupuncture and playing ball |
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| Max and his ball |
Hi there, so glad to read Max is doing well. Just wanted to let you know when Desi (Desi from Desi and the Cyber Knife)was on Kepra he was very agitated and unhappy - more so than what you describe with Max but similar. We tried Zonisamide for his seizures and it's really helped. We've been able to reduce the phenobarbital quite a bit. So it's a tiny dose of Prednisone just 1mg 1x daily and a small amount of phenobarbital and a small amount of Zonisamide. Desi is under ten pounds so obviously Max's doses would be different but just wanted to let you know in case you haven't tried Zonisamide yet - I've not looked through all the meds in your posts. You're doing a great job keeping everyone updated. All the best to you & Max.
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