Since we started Katie on Zonisimide she has gone much longer periods without a seizure and very little, if any, personality distortion.
The recommended dosage is 2 pills/day but we have found that most of the time, just one per day is managing to keep her seizure free for 30 days or more.
Her longest stretch so far was 100 days but she has made 60 days+ a few times, too.
I think we have gotten better at spotting her preseizure behaviors and tics and when we suspect that she is warming up to a seizure, we go to the recommended dose for a few days. There is really no way short of a long history of extended periods seizure free but so far, this seems to be working for her.
Another thing that we have done is in her diet. She has always been on Canidae brand but for variety, we were switching between them. Before her surgery to correct her hepatic shunt, we were just using the Senior and Overweight formula food because it has less protein in it. The other lines have more and may have been contributing to her seizure kindling factor.
One thing that has seemed to present just prior to seizures has been treatment with heartworm preventative. Some other meds, including the original meds for the seizures, have also seem to increase the frequency and severity of the seizures. Even the flea/tick prevention meds have seemed to correlate to some degree so we watch how things are going and try to keep these to a minimum during higher risk periods of infection.
All in all, she seems to be happy and most of her separation anxiety seems to have dissipated, too, although, she may be just substituting one behavior for another by now tipping over all the trash cans when we are gone.
She is still a real love and wonderful companion for us both and certainly fills a place in our lives that we were not aware was so big and so in need of fulfillment.
Thanks Little Girl.
Budd
