9/4/07 - reduced phenobarb dosage to 8mg BID. I'm a wreck about it. While the Keppra certainly appears to be working so far, because it's liquid, I never have any idea how much he's actually gotten in his body. Sometimes it appears there's quite a significant quantity on ME. I'm working on a less complicated (subtracting the towel from the equation) way of administering the stuff. It's worked the last couple of doses to get him when he's asleep, pry open his mouth, and squirt it in. I wish it was pills. I wish it didn't have that grape taste. I wish I didn't have this enormous bottle that cost $125 to get into him, and I wish he would hurry up and gain enough weight to be able to order pills from Canada. It would be so much less of an ordeal to have to pill him five times a day than it is with this smelly liquid.
That whining over with, there has been a very noticeable difference with the reduction from 36mg to 24 mg per day. He's much more alert and coordinated. And jumping around like he never had back legs that were useless. I've taken a ton of pictures in the past week or so of him snuggled up to the other guys just like in the good old days. (He told the animal communicator how much he loves Scruffy and Burble and Busy, and you can see that so clearly in the pictures.) He's still not eating voluntarily anywhere near an adequate amount, but two mornings in a row, he has spent a couple minutes grazing in his bowl. This morning, he didn't even try to bury it first. I switched from AD to Wellness for his bottle, and while he doesn't seem to be gaining any weight, at least he's staying about the same. (Let's have a cheer here: Chunk it up, Chunk it up, Waaaaaaaay Up! Eat, Milkshake!) I couldn't get Dr. L to commit to a weight that would mean that he can take pills instead of liquid. I'm hoping that it's ten pounds, which would be a not-too-huge gain.
Best of all, now when I look in his eyes, he's IN there again.
