Question Author
Hello again Smudge,
Thank you for such an honest reply. Our vet told me that if a kitten is born with epilepsy, and medication doesn't work, the kindest thing is to put it to sleep. So you did exactly the right thing for your poor little Timmy although it must have been heart-wrenching. By the way have you still got Tabitha, or any other cats.
So - back to my Frankie. He is on Phenobarbitol tablets, one morning and evening, and seems to be doing ok, so far. We have only had him for one year. We took him in after his previous owner's moved house and left him behind. Only one day after he moved in to our house, he had 16 seizures in 2 hours, I was frantic, and managed to get an emergency appointment. The vet said he was probably dumped because of the cost of medication, which is now costing me �14.00 every four week, and will do for the rest of his life. He is a real tomboy hooligan, and worth every penny. In the next few weeks he had every test there was, and the diagnosis came up as epilepsy. The vet also said that this disorder is very rare, and the vets practice I use is a very large one, and Frankie is the first one they have seen in many, many years. Apparently, the ratio for the disorder is 5 dogs to one cat. As Frankie seems to be doing well at present, and now on a six-monthly blood test, to check the medication is still in an acceptable range, I was a bit anxious about his longer term prognosis. Thanks to Icemaiden pointing me in the direction of a recommended website, I came across a person who has had their cat on Phenobarbitol in the same dosage for five years, and the cat is doing extremely well. So I do feel less anxious about it now. Frankie only has very minor twitching, just as he is waking up, and the vet said, this is nothing to worry about, it's just his system firing-up after sleep. So thank you so much to everyone who replied with helpful suggestions.
I do appreciate it. Love to you all.