# potassium bromide side effects



## dachrist28 (Dec 27, 2008)

Hi my husband has posted a few times here about Jasper our 11 1/2 year old girl. Since December she has been on phenobarbital to control seizures. 2 1/2 weeks ago her vet added potassium bromide to the mix as she was still having seizures. We noticed after a few weeks on the phenobarb she got used to the meds and was less wobbly. Now we are wondering if she will get used to the potassium bromide as well and the side effects of this one will diminish as well. Right now she can barely walk she is so woobly. As well she gets up throughout the night and paces, and lastly she is having accidents in the house when we are out. Any hope she will get back to normal?


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

here is a great website that will show about potassium bromide side effects and also phenobarbital.
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/phenobarbital.htm
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/potassium_bromide.htm

That site has a great wealth of information on everything about treating seizures, food, meds. I use it all the time for my Beau that has seizures. Beau is only on the pheno and drinks alot. So I have to have more trips outside and I take him out late at night around 1am and hubby takes him out when he gets up in the morning around 6 am. It has helped to not have any accidents. 
When going on the meds, it should be closely monitered to get the right dose. When Beau was first started on pheno his was too low and we had to increase them because the seizures didnt slow down. So maybe she is on to high of dose. Might be worth another trip to the vet.


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## Jemima (Apr 4, 2009)

Hi 
Heidi has been on Phenobarb for 2 years and about this time last year the vet introduced Pot Bromide but she had some really bad side effects from that, one of them being weakness in hind legs (which in some way may have caused her to rupture both cruciate ligaments, as well as genetics) she was also very lethargic etc.. so she is off that now and only has the phenobarb. Seizures have evened out again, but she does seem to have one roughly 3 weekly. She was having two or three at a time which was not nice at all. So I have mixed feelings about Potassium Bromide, although it won't affect the liver the way phenobarb can.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

My Beau is on pheno and takes 3 60mg pills twice a day. I give him milk thistle and the vet is amazed at how well his liver levels are. No damage and he has been on pheno for 2 years. You can get it at Walmart in the vitamin aisle. It helps to flush the liver.


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## NuttinButGoldens (Jan 10, 2009)

Wow, I could never get Dakota up to that amount. The Vet moved him up to 120 (two 60's per day) but he just could not tolerate it. He was falling over, running into things, and all sorts of terrible to see problems.

In the end, he was taking 90mg a day total, as well as 1500mg Potassium Bromide.

I never really saw the Potassium Bromide affect him that much. 



BeauShel said:


> My Beau is on pheno and takes 3 60mg pills twice a day. I give him milk thistle and the vet is amazed at how well his liver levels are. No damage and he has been on pheno for 2 years. You can get it at Walmart in the vitamin aisle. It helps to flush the liver.


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## moxie (May 12, 2009)

Hi,
I have a seven month old golden puppy that came back to me with seizures.
I have been treating him since March now with Phenbarb and now we have added Pot Bromide.
I am beside myself because my vet hits me with a three to four hundred vet bill each time we have to go have blood tests done and a prescription fee of 20.00 to write out the prescription. Moxie will go seven to eight days with no seizures then bang he gets hit with the grand mals. Yesterday morning he woke me up at 4.30am having a seizure right in his sleep he had five seizures before it finally subsided. Now he can hardly walk or he staggers he has all of the symptoms you all have described above. I really do not know whether to have him put to sleep or keep trying other things any experiences yu can share with me will be appreciated I really do not want to have to put him to sleep, but I do not know how much longer I can keep going with no sleep or interupted sleep he is wearing me out.
I am completely at a loss my vet is useless.
Thanks


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## dachrist28 (Dec 27, 2008)

Sorry about your pup. Sadly shortly after my last post Jasper went downhill and her vet felt that the phenobarbital was not responsible the changes. We felt that whatever was causing the seizures had started affecting more brain functions and decided it was not fair to let her suffer so she was put down on April 30th. She is missed.

I can't speak for your pup as our girl was old and had some sort of brain tumor or lesion. Sorry I can't offer anymore help



moxie said:


> Hi,
> I have a seven month old golden puppy that came back to me with seizures.
> I have been treating him since March now with Phenbarb and now we have added Pot Bromide.
> I am beside myself because my vet hits me with a three to four hundred vet bill each time we have to go have blood tests done and a prescription fee of 20.00 to write out the prescription. Moxie will go seven to eight days with no seizures then bang he gets hit with the grand mals. Yesterday morning he woke me up at 4.30am having a seizure right in his sleep he had five seizures before it finally subsided. Now he can hardly walk or he staggers he has all of the symptoms you all have described above. I really do not know whether to have him put to sleep or keep trying other things any experiences yu can share with me will be appreciated I really do not want to have to put him to sleep, but I do not know how much longer I can keep going with no sleep or interupted sleep he is wearing me out.
> ...


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

I am so sorryyou lost your grand old lady. That is such a hard decision to make, but I certainly think you made the right one and she is no longer surffering.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

moxie,
Find another vet. The bloodwork for my Beau for everything including his urine is $265. It is a complete with pheno,thyroid and everything they can test. Your vet should be able to work with you on what is best and give you an honest opinion. I recommend to everyone to check with this website it has so much helpful information on everything from causes, meds, side effects of meds. 
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/CanineEpil.htm


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## moxie (May 12, 2009)

Thank You everyone for your replies, I have changed vets and I have gone on the sites you recommended they have been very informative and have helped me more than the vet did basically he said here is your bill Good Luck.
I have reduced the phenbarb to 3 pills a day now so some of the side affects are starting to go away. We havent had any seizure since the 25th of May so lets all keep our fingers crossed and keep praying to God for his help and guidance.
Moxie is actually up and running and playing more every day he is feeling better that is for sure.
I have an appointment for the 10th of June to check his levels and have added Milk Thistle to his daily intake of meds. He still has some muscle spasms and biting at air but nothing like before and he has regained use of his hind legs etc etc. I am going to give him a little more time to see what the meds do for him since they all say that it takes up to three to four months of being on the pot bromide for it to work. I think I owe this little guy that much...
I will keep you posted on his well being. 
Thank You again.
Wanda


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

moxie said:


> Hi,
> I have a seven month old golden puppy that came back to me with seizures.
> I have been treating him since March now with Phenbarb and now we have added Pot Bromide.
> I am beside myself because my vet hits me with a three to four hundred vet bill each time we have to go have blood tests done and a prescription fee of 20.00 to write out the prescription. Moxie will go seven to eight days with no seizures then bang he gets hit with the grand mals. Yesterday morning he woke me up at 4.30am having a seizure right in his sleep he had five seizures before it finally subsided. Now he can hardly walk or he staggers he has all of the symptoms you all have described above. I really do not know whether to have him put to sleep or keep trying other things any experiences yu can share with me will be appreciated I really do not want to have to put him to sleep, but I do not know how much longer I can keep going with no sleep or interupted sleep he is wearing me out.
> ...


Hi Wanda,

I'm so sorry your youngster has seizures, especially several in a row. My dog Finn has them, and it really comforted me the vet gave us rectal diazempam(valium) as a safety measure in case things ever got out of control.It is called Diastat, and it is packaged for human epileptics, but works beautifully for dogs too.


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