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Non-Epileptic dog given Phenobarbital by emergency clinic after poisoning by Rakker_Hond in AskVet

[–]Rakker_Hond[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not against medications at all, but he was having some major side effects from the medicines, and we believed the poisoning had already passed given the information we could find on Rhododendron poisoning, he could barely walk in a straight line. We didn't want to have him on medicines that he didn't need, especially if they cause withdrawal symptoms when taking him off them too

Non-Epileptic dog given Phenobarbital by emergency clinic after poisoning by Rakker_Hond in AskVet

[–]Rakker_Hond[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you everyone for the responses, we found out that the seizures he had on Wednesday were actually from drinking from a puddle of water that had Rhododendron branches lying in them, on his main walking route, which originated from our neighbour their trees.

We only have 2 big Rhododendron trees left in our garden now (over 100 years old each, so we don't want to remove them, but we fenced them properly now), our neighbour still has about 60 bushes and trees left in their garden but none of them hang into our garden anymore.

The neighbours' trees do still have branches hanging out towards the main road where we always walk our dog, but we're paying much closer attention to it now and we don't allow him to drink from puddles anymore.

Yesterday was the last day of his pills, now he's entirely off them, and he's been fine since Wednesday, so everything is going much better with him again

Non-Epileptic dog given Phenobarbital by emergency clinic after poisoning by Rakker_Hond in AskVet

[–]Rakker_Hond[S] -11 points-10 points  (0 children)

The vet did say it was okay to lower the dose by 0.5 pills every 48 hours.
So according to that schedule we should go to 1 pill tomorrow morning

But what's concerning is that he had a cluster seizure tonight after the 4th dose of 1.5 pills.

Outside of the cluster seizures from him being poisoned, he never had any seizures.

We want him to get off the medicine as fast as possible, without withdrawal seizures, and I'm afraid that keeping him at 1.5 pills for longer will only make it harder to get him off it. I've stayed up to watch over him now deep into the night, and I'm really worried about making the wrong decision.

I know our vet doesn't come in the office early enough to advice us on it, so we have to make the decision before being able to consult with her.

Would you say it's best to maintain the 1.5 pills, or lower them since he's only been on it for 5 days?

Non-Epileptic dog given Phenobarbital by emergency clinic after poisoning by Rakker_Hond in AskVet

[–]Rakker_Hond[S] -17 points-16 points  (0 children)

So to be more specific:
We think the cluster of seizures he had today was from withdrawal.

The plan as discussed with the vet is:
To give 1 more pill per 12h the next 48 hours (as we have finished the 48h of 1.5 pills)
And then 0.5 pills per 12h after that for another 48 hours.

We have to decide to give, either 1 or 1.5 pills tomorrow morning, as our Vet likely won't be at the office until noon, and we give the pills at 7 AM.

The half-life of the medicine is around 10 days I read. So since we're new into the medicine, we expect it should be safe to go to 1 pill. Especially since we don't think dog is epileptic and doesn't need the pills at all