September 22, 2008
Diesel's Health Update
I hate to write anything about Diesel's seizures due to I don't want to jinx anything; however, this past weekend, I had to take him to the vet to get bloodwork done. They had to test his potassium levels and also his liver to see if the phenobarbital that he takes is damaging it. I got the call today with the results.
The vet said that his potassium levels are "almost" where they are supposed to be to start wheening him off the phenobarbital. BUT, his liver level is slightly elevated and the pheno. may have damaged his liver. I have 2 options:
1. have a liver fasting test to see exactly what is going on with his liver. if it ends up being damaged, they have to immediately take him off pheno. and that can lead him to have seizures because they have to take him off too fast.
or
2. go ahead and start slowly taking him off pheno. and then in a couple of months, test his liver again.
I chose option 2, which is going to be a tetious process. He takes 4 pills a day, 2 every 12 hours. Well, in order to take him off slowly, we have to lower it by 10% each month. That means, 2 pills at 6:30 am and then 1 3/4 pill at 6:30 pm. Do you know how hard it is to cut this pill in fourths?
Anyway, I had to go buy a pill cutter in order to do this; however, he is well worth it. Hopefully, we will get him off this pheno and he won't have any seizures and will just have to take the potassium pill to control his seizures. It's only given once a day!!
Posted by tennbrat at September 22, 2008 8:04 PM | TrackBack