I pay $17.52 for 200 x 150mg Milk Thistle capsules [Standardized Silymarin Extract 30:1] and Pereg has one capsule a day. She also has 1 x 400mg SAMe tablet and 1 x 100mg Taurine capsule to help support her liver and central nervous system.

[Edited to add that I replied to your first post querying your dog's facial twitches.]

My daughter's chihuahua was recently diagnosed with fly snapping epilepsy. It usually occurs when he gets over excited about something, like riding in the car. Sometimes it occurs for no apparant reason. He is not on any meds for it.

Thanks malka. What I don't get is that her facial twitches def seem to be when we have food out and is it usual that they realise they're doing it? What's fly snapping? X

The facial twitches could just be a sign that she wants food - but I do not think they have anything to do with her medication as they sound fairly typical to me as being some form of partial/focal/minor seizures.

"Fly snapping" is when an epi dog "snaps" at a fly that they might, or might not see. It is another symptom of a partial or focal minor seizure.

As you do not know Pereg, last week [2am Thursday night/Friday morning] she had a Grand Mal seizure, breaking her streak of one year and 177 days seizure-free. And it was heart-breaking that maybe we have gone back to the beginning again, as her previous streak had only been 7 weeks and 2 days.

Maybe it was a one-off. I hope and pray that it was, because I do not know if I would be able to cope if she goes back to the first six months of hell.

She was 4 years old at the end of December/beginning January [a rescue pup at ~6-7 weeks old] and had her first GM on 1 April 2011. Her seizures have been full-blown Grand Mal tonic-clonic seizures, although she does occasionally have absence [Petit Mal] seizures which neither I nor my wonderful Vet really count as a proper seizure. She also once had a four hour psychomotor seizure before the last major series of clusters. And that was terrifying.

She weighed 17kg before starting medication, going up to 20.8kg within 5 months. After being on a strict diet [by then I had changed her fully onto raw and started weighing everything] she was down to 17.2kg last October, a year later. Her next full check-up, blood tests, weigh-in etc are due next week.

She has 50mg Pb TID - having it every eight hours suits her better than the usual every twelve hours.

Because of the Pb she has Milk Thistle, SAMe, and Taurine to support her liver and central nervous system, and so far all her liver function levels have been fine, and she is still within the low therapeutic range of Pb so as long as it does not affect her liver, we have scope to increase it if necessary. She also has various vitamins and supplements to make sure that her raw diet has every thing she needs.

Your dog has Epiphen, which is Phenobarbitone, and Libromide [Kbr] which is Potassium Bromide. Pereg just has Pb - Phenobarbitone - because we do not have Epiphen here.

She will not be given any other AEDs.

I pay £17 for a large bottle of the capsules from Holland & Barratt - I also pay £65 per month for her Pheno and Potassium Bromide as Pet Plan refused to pay out when Loki first took her fits, then the following year a reminder came in from them and I rejoined asking them would they pay out this time round, and assured they would. However, they still refused and I went to the CAB and got all my subscriptions back for 2 years! They (Pet Plan) had the damned cheek to offer me £50 as a one off payment! I was not polite when I told them what to do with it. No other insurance company would cover her and I had to pay the hospital bills myself! Still she is worth every penny of it and I don't mind!!

You can get the Milk Thistle online cheaper as well. I just can't be bothered, too much hasstle for me!!

My 12 years old terrier cross started fitting last September.
He had blood tests and ultrasound and was diagnosed as having liver disease and possible brain tumour.
Since then he has had clusters of 14/15 fits over 48 hours every 3/4 weeks.
He's into the third fit of a cluster at this moment.

It's heartbreaking to watch but between the clusters and when he's back to normal....usually takes around 7 days he has a couple of good weeks.
My vet won't give him epilepsy drugs but treats the liver problem with antibiotics, lactulose, milk thistle and prednisalone.
I have changed his food to the best I can afford....no grains.

However, I would appreciate other people's experiencess, especially if your dog isn't being given epilepsy medication.

I buy the milk thistle from Amazon and the other drugs from on-line vets.

I forgot that I also use Diazepan rectubes when he's fitting

Seizures starting in a 12 year old dog are not normally treated with anti-epileptic medication as they are usually caused by liver or kidney disease, or head trauma and/or brain lesions.

They are the dog equivalent of an elderly person suffering a stroke, and in older dogs is a vascular disease not a neurological one.

Epilepsy and old age brain leisons are two very different things even though they share several of the same symptoms, which is probably why your vet has not prescribed any anti-epileptic medication but is just treating the symptoms.

Good luck.

Hello I've just joined because my french bulldog has epilepsy he is 20 months old and started them when one..he is on epiphen 75mg twice a day and 1 lipromide a day. He still has fits and had 5 on Sunday within 1/2 hour. He always has them when he is resting, he was in the vets for 2 days not so long ago.

There is another question I liked to ask, how do you give the medication Jackson has his meds at 8.25 am and then 8.25 pm he has dry food so I usually wrap them in a slice if chicken but didn't know if there was anything else either one of you suggest