Oh, this is depressing. Really upsetting.
A very strange little seizure, this one was. It started very abruptly, with virtually no build-up salivation. (There was a spot of wet fur on his neck that was only the size of a nickel.) The growling was back, with a little less volume than before. The flopping - oh, the flopping. At one point, he flopped so high that he was almost perpendicular to the footrest. It was all I could do to contain him with the "wall of afghan" so he didn't end up on the floor.
Very short actual seizure - probably 15 seconds or so. The after-period (post-ictal?) - not so short. Slightly over 2 minutes before he moved again once the seizure stopped. One large jerk right after the seizure ended, that I think I caused - I was just going to pet him to comfort him, but never got close enough to touch him. He laid totally still, with his eyes wide open most of the time. (I have noticed - since I've been watching everyone's eyes because of Scruffy's problem - that recently there are occasions when his right eye is more closed than the left. This was one of them. I hope it's not more indication of neurological stuff. Dr. G. thought that the recent dark trail down both sides of his nose lately is herpes-related. It doesn't appear to be conjunctivitis; his eyes aren't red-rimmed.) When he got down, he appeared more coordinated than usual. Raced into the kitchen and started eating last night's leftovers. I started to fix him a fresh can of Fancy Feast, and he meowed plaintively the whole time I was getting it out and putting it in a bowl. He ate about half a can, then headed to the pantry for more/something else.
I thought that he seemed less uncoordinated this time, but he jumped up onto the bench and then came over to my keyboard, and he definitely was having problems navigating the trip. (Scruffy's logbook was there, and yesterday's mail. ) Twice he got as far as the end of the desk and then seemed to be hesitant to move onto either the steps or the window ledge - which usually is just a single step for him. He's just been sitting behind my chair for about 15 minutes now.
Although I couldn't find him Tuesday to take him for bloodwork, I did get him there yesterday. I HOPE they get the results back today - if the phenobarb level is low/low 20's, maybe it's (sadly) time to put back that 1/4 pill I took away in June. I would be sorry to see him lose his minimal interest in food again and to be staggering around, but he can't be having seizures every two days, no matter the ferociousness or the brevity of the event. I was very careful about the size of the Keppra pills all day yesterday, and of getting the pills at exactly the right time again, which didn't seem to make any difference. I am worried, because once the seizures start getting closer and closer, it's so much harder to get any sort of control again, and I'm terrified about having clusters. Back when all this stuff first started, he had two seizures on the same day on two occasions; one of them - he had two seizures in a row, about 10 minutes apart. Frightening.
Dr. G. just called with the phenobarb level - 26.4. Essentially the same range as the last test, and it does fit in with my theory about voluntary eating/seizures occurring/lower phenobarb level. We agreed that there was presumably plenty of room to increase the phenobarb by 1/4 pill - to 3/4 tablet (about 10mg) in both the morning and evening. He had been getting 1/2 in the am and 3/4 in the PM since 7/18. I had just given him his pills this morning, so I tucked another 1/4 tablet into him a few minutes ago.
It just occurred to me that about four or five days ago, I finished up the bottle of Marin ( milk thistle) that I've been giving Milk a half tablet of daily for the last couple of months. I wonder if that could possibly have something to do with the sudden recurrence of these stupid seizures.... Given his previous liver function difficulties because of the phenobarbital, (and my own experience with milk thistle that was extraordinarily successful), maybe ....
Or not, I suppose.
