Well, we’ve gone about 51 hours now without a seizure.  I’m testing the hypothesis that these are triggered by activity, and the past two days seem to confirm this.  I have not allowed Ghost and Shadow in the back yard together since Tuesday evening, because that seems to be the trigger.  They’ve all pretty much happened outside or immediately after coming in after playing hard.  She seems to be fine just wrestling in the house and running around inside, but zoomies outside seem to trigger another seizure.  I am going to run a test tomorrow and allow the two of them to run around outside and see what happens.  If we have a seizure, I’m going to back off and rest her again for a couple days, and then give her a squirt of Rescue Remedy before allowing her to run around outside again.  I really want to find a way to let her be active outside while minimizing the seizure risk.  Hell, I’d love to be able to take her on a walk with Ghost right now.

I also want to share her current treatment protocol, so that other people can see what I’m doing and so that I have a record of what variables I change when I decide to tweak something.  I’m taking a very scientific approach to this, and my aim is to only change one thing at a time (though I changed a few at once this week).

Medication Routine:

0700 – 500 mg Keppra (regular release), 10 mg Prilosec, 4 Di Tan Tang tea pills (adding 0.5 g Peanut Hydrocephalus powder next Tuesday)

1500 – 500 mg Keppra

1900 – 10 mg Prilosec, 4 Di Tan Tang tea pills, 600 mg Fish Oil, 0.5 g Peanut Hydrocephalus Powder

2300 – 500 mg Keppra

We are also doing some diet modification.  She eats Nutrisca Salmon and Chickpea formula, and I have checked the ingredients to make sure none of the foods we are supposed to avoid are in there.  The ones for her to avoid are pork, dairy, eggs, bananas, and sugar.  Foods that will help flush fluid and strengthen her kidney and spleen function include blueberries, celery, beef, chicken, fish, quinoa, strawberries, raspberries, almonds, and several others.  I’ve essentially limited all of the “bad” foods from her diet, and added in a rotation of the good stuff.  Mostly right now I’m taking a handful of blueberries, raspberries, and/or strawberries and adding them to her kibble, and I give her the meds stuffed into all natural beef hotdogs.

Finally, we have now done two acupuncture sessions and will be going in fairly regularly for the time being.  After my little activity experiment is concluded, I will discuss the results with both the neurologist and the holistic vet, and see what they suggest to help her be a little more active.  I’m really hoping the Rescue Remedy works, but I may explore the addition of Valerian as well.  Keep stopping by for updates as we figure out what works best for her.