Just spoke to the neurologist...
Boris has had no episodes since the medication was started on Tuesday evening, so at least the condition appears to
be "somewhat" under control now. She made it clear that he will most likely
have more episodes in the future - its more about "when" than "if". The
medication only helps to manage the condition, it does not cure it. It could be
days, weeks, months, or years. No telling.
The events of the past days have been extremely hard on him, he is
suffering from some degree of blindness (difficult to determine the extent)
which is most likely due to the last seizure he had on Tues afternoon (it was a
bad one). The Dr thinks he should eventually recover from that. He is also
very groggy from the drugs so he is looking kind of drunk when he walks
around.
Over the past evening, they had to sedate him a twice because he was crying
and agitated in the crate. The Dr thinks its partially because he is responding
to other dogs who were making noise, but he has never liked being in a crate.
Again, its hard to tell.
Since the episodes appear under control, she has cleared him to come home
this afternoon if I am ready to take him. I need to make sure that he is
confined to areas that will be not present potential harm should he experience
another episode. It could be just a crate, or a cleared room with no sharp
edges or hard objects to run into. Still need to figure this out since all my
floors are hard tile. If at all possibly, I do not want to confine him to a
crate, but that will be inevitable at times.
As far as medication goes, he is now on a schedule of regular phenobarb
tablets, to be administered 2 or 3 times a day. The Dr warns that it could take
approx 10 - 14 days for him to adjust to this level of medication, so it could
be some time before he gets beyond the grogginess and disorientation. I am
still a bit fearful that this horrible experience may have permanently altered
his personality, but only time will tell. I am trying to stay positive, but its
been difficult.
On the positive side, the Dr says that dogs suffering from this
affliction can resume and live a normal life while on these drugs. So,
hopefully, once Boris adapts to the drugs, he will be back to running, fetching,
chasing frisbees, playing with his canine and human friends, and even joining me
on climbing trips. Keeping my fingers crossed!
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