I had such high hopes.

Milk hasn't had a seizure since February 6, 2008. That's, let's see, almost three months. Two months and three weeks. Oh, how I was hoping... I was able to think that the two seizures in January and the one in February were just medication/dosing failures, and I do think they were. But this one - he's had all of his pills, at the regular times. I just gave him his second Keppras for the day at 6:30.

Can't really describe this one, because he was in his cave when it started. He growled really loudly, and then the cave started to rock, and by then I was over there, but didn't want to move him or anything. He didn't growl the whole time, and it seemed like a fairly short seizure. His head and neck were wet, as was the bottom of the cave, but I'm pretty sure it was just drool/foam, because there was no smell, and it was a very small amount of wetness. (I was worried, though, because Burble and Busy were definitely sniffing around suspiciously at the cave.) When it was over, he jerked just once that I saw, and then laid still for maybe forty seconds. When he came out, he was very wobbly. I called him to come and get something to eat, and he had already been nibbling on one of the food bowls from breakfast. He ate about 1/2 a can of Fancy Feast. He meowed very plaintively and loudly twice before he ate. I gave him a few pieces of dry EVO and Wellness - hate to pass up any opportunity for him to voluntarily eat. He ate them eagerly, too, and then went back to the FF bowl.

I was just thinking yesterday that it's such a wonderful thing not to keep waking up for every sound during the night. So much for that.... I hope - pray - beg - that this was just a breakthrough and not the beginning of another round of seizures that get worse and worse and closer and closer. There was discussion on the epikitty board about how much Keppra can be used, and I said - and I am pretty sure I still feel this way, although I certainly wasn't expecting it to be tested so soon - that I would not expect to hesitate to increase his Keppra if this dosage (about 187mg TID) didn't work any more. I am not interested in starting anything new, and I certainly don't want to increase the phenobarb if it's at all possible to avoid.

Crap. Crap, Crap, Crap.

Well, that's something!

Yesterday, I was poking around in the cabinet under the kitchen sink, and I came across a foil bag of Freeze Dried Nature's Variety Chicken and Turkey Formula. (I remember being a little suspicious about why it was suddenly a "formula" when I bought it.) It's been there for weeks, I guess. Anyway, I opened the bag and found these dried-up, not-unpleasant-smelling "medallions" of yellowish stuff. So, I crumpled one of them over all the food dishes. (One medallion for all, not one for each, because it wasn't marked on the package, but I have a vague memory of being horrified by the cost of this freeze-dried stuff - more than $20, I think, so I'm not about to waste it.) When I set Milk's bowl in front of him, he started to bury it, and then he paused, and THEN, right before my very eyes, he actually ATE the freeze-dried stuff. Not all of it, but at least some. That's one of the few things he's eaten voluntarily in a year. He's had three meals since then, all with the Freeze-Dried stuff on them, and he ate it once more. I even gave him a little bit of the crumpled medallion and added a few drops of water, and he ate a little bit of it. (Busy came by and polished it off.) So that feels like a major step forward. It would be so nice if he'd just start eating again.

The "Eyes" have it.

Conjunctivitis, that is. Poor Milk. Yesterday, I noticed that he had a big blop of clear water on the left side of his nose. I wiped it off. And a little while later, there was another one. Last night, there was a drop on the right side. Okay, I'm a little slow on the uptake, but it was clear that there was something going on. To say nothing of the sad look on his tiny little face....

Tonight, we went to the vet. Herpes-caused conjunctivitis. The rims of his eyes are a little pinker than usual, but nothing like they were when I first brought him home and black gunk was pouring out of both eyes. So now he's got eye drops added to the routine of stuff he really doesn't want me to do to him.

While we were there, I had them take blood for another phenobarb level test, too. I am hoping that it says that the levels are SO minimal that there's really no reason to even give him the stuff any more. (And then I want the report to include a guarantee that there will be NO seizures if I stop giving it to him. NONE.)

The last two days, he has actually eaten a bite or two when I put his bowl down. He does seem to like the Nature's Variety Frozen Raw. I was thinking that I should order some Feline Pride for him - it was so yummy looking; I bet he'd like it. If only it wasn't so incredibly expensive.... Anyway, the really bad news of the vet trip was that he's lost - according to the vet's scale, which I noticed still said "35" on it even when there was no cat sitting there - a half pound since the last time he was there - maybe a month or so ago. Down to 9 pounds, 2 ounces. I was feeling pretty good about his weight until tonight. He's certainly not anywhere near the sleek, wholesome cat he was before phenobarbital, but he seemed to have lost some of the "pile of bones in a fur bag" aspect. Maybe not. When I give him his last pills tonight, I'm gonna weigh him here. He's been pretty consistently 9 pounds, 13 ounces on my nice scale.

The other accomplishment, which seems to be working out VERY well - is that I did some fiddling around with his medication times, and now, suddenly, I feel like I'm starting to have a life again. He was getting Keppra at 10AM, 6 PM, and 2AM, and phenobarbital at 12PM and 12 AM. Five ordeals, plus two or three bottlefeedings every single day. I was trying to cram everything I needed/wanted to do into the hours between noon and 6:00. I was afraid about making the change, but so far, so good. And just not having to chase him around that extra two times a day has done wonders for my psyche, and hopefully for his, too. So now, we do Keppra and phenobarb at 10AM, Keppra at 6PM, and Keppra/phenobarb as close to 1AM as possible. (That's the time that he's still most likely to be uncooperative, for some reason.)

Now, if only the Spring Crazies would stop, we'd be doing pretty well. Damned Busy has taken to gnawing on Milk's neck the minute I head for the bathroom, and now Milk's doing - or trying to do the same thing to Burble. Only Burb's got a good four pounds on Milkshake - if he chooses not to be chewed on, Milk gets the worst of it. Males. Geez.

** 4/9/08 Phenobarb level - 27.2 Which is an improvement. Unfortunately, because I never manage to change only one thing at a time, I don't know if it's due to the reduction of the total amount of phenobarb daily, the addition of the Marin (which he hasn't had for about a week), or a combination of the two. I was really hoping that it'd be way way down and I could maybe cut the dosage in half again. It would be so nice if he'd eat on his own, and gain back some of the weight he's lost. And his right eye is still a sore-looking, squinty mess.