It’s certainly okay, CovenBuster. I completely understand your frustration with your vet (boy, do I! Not because of seizures, though)
One of our guys has seizures. Or did (knocking on wood). Yes, they’ll always funnel you for tests- blood panel, liver shunt, & the biggie, MRI at a specialty clinic. ***I don’t know where you are, but specialty clinic’s MRI machines aren’t what they’re touted as. Texas A&M has THE most sensitive MRI in existence. And it costs the same (actually a couple of hundred less) than the state of the art specialist hospital here. (this wasn’t for our seizure boy, but my little Eskie girl that we are losing. It turned out that she has brain bleeds. They don’t know why. Or ostensibly don’t. The local MRI just showed atrophy in a part of her brain- totally different than A&M’s.)
Anyway. Our boy has been on the regular dose of phenobarbital for years now & his seizures are very well controlled. It’s been at least 5 years.
Another thought. That you’ve nailed it in one regard. Flea meds, especially- but also heartworm preventative, all target the central nervous system of fleas. Having lost 2 dogs to degenerative *neurological* disease, almost lost our youngest Eskie to Ivermectin sensitivity, & Murphy having seizures, we have them on Dimmitrol- which you can mail order from Australia (it’s a daily, but dirt cheap) or Interceptor (which was recently brought back into production).
We’re using Advantage & insect growth regulator for the yard. Dimmitrol used to be called Filarbits. When Heartgard came out, it virtually disappeared from the US market. The monthly HW preventatives are WAY overdosed. I have a link to another protocol that doses less & less frequently, but I have to go dig for it. We have used this, successfully, in South Texas for about 10 years. LOTS of skeeters, zero positives.
And Sal’s post is spot on! Or posts. lol Except for the one about being foggy. Ping me, Sal, if anyone gives you any nonsense. BTDT. I’ll be right over.
Kudos to you, CovenBuster, for starting a really important conversation that, imho, needs more discussion among dog lovers. Bookmarked! I’ll be keeping you & your furry pal in my prayers.
Interceptor is back?!?
Hallelujah!!!
I stopped giving heartworm meds after they ‘reformulated’ it to include flea poison.
*Anything* that makes my dogs’ BLOOD so TOXIC that it kills fleas and ticks that bite them is simply *not happening*, here.
I briefly used IverHeart but in spite of none of my dogs belonging to the breeds sensitive to it, it made them all sick.
More often that not, the tablet was barfed up shortly after they’d swallowed it so I switched to every-month SNAP tests, instead.