Potassium Bromide & Tummy Upsets

I noticed alot of people are googling Potassium Bromide along with other terms related to stomach upsets. I want to share my experience of giving Henry Potassium Bromide, both on kibble and on raw.

When on kibble, I would make a 'soup' with the Potassium Bromide. If I ever skipped the soup step, Henry would vomit and have loose stools. I made the soup by first putting in about 1/3 cup of canned food (Henry is 80 lbs) then I would inject the Potassium Bromide directly in the canned food, then add the kibble, and then add just enough hot (not scalding hot) water to cover the food. If I left either the water or canned food out, Henry would get sick.

Many worry their dog is not getting the full amount of Potassium Bromide and so they give it straight up, or simply inject it into a small piece of bread. I want to assure you that I have always put Henry's Potassium Bromide right into his food, and he has been able to maintain a good therapuetic level of Potassium Bromide in his blood, usually around 2.4.

With raw, I have not had to make the 'soup'. Raw meat already is very moist, so I just make a little opening with the tip of my poultry scissors and inject the Potassium Bromide straight into a piece of meat.

Henry however is not able to handle great amount of fats. I suspect it may be due to the Potassium bromide, so I do remove as much skin and fat as I can. Chicken is the base of Henry's diet cause it's more possible to remove the fat from that. With beef heart and steak (all beef basically) I find he can only handle organic, and I remove and big obvious clumps of white fat.

If your dog is on Potassium Bromide, and has achieved a desirable therapuetic level in his blood, and you are considering a diet change, you need to discuss with your vet how the new diet will affect the effectiveness of Potassium Bromide. Chloride levels vary in different kibbles and in raw. Just a little change in the amount of chloride your dog consumes can have a great affect on your dogs Potassium Bromide. You need to be careful or your dog may suffer from either Bromism (basically overdose) or may not get enough Potassium Bromide to give the seizure contol you had previously.

There is also another medicine very similar to Potassium Bromide, that if your dog continues to have upset tummy with Potassium Bromide no matter what you do, is a good alternative. I forget exactly what it is called, but your vet will know. I think it is something along the lines of Naproxen Sodium Bromide?

Henry's Improvement

I want to share an observation we have made about Henry. Henry used to frequently act as if he was about to go in seizure, but not necessarily always go in seizure. He'd become very flinchy and his legs would start a sort of paddle motion and his mouth would start opening and closing, but he was still very aware of his environment. Me or my husband would call each other and we'd sit by him and pray and wait, and it would never really start.

We adopted him 4 months ago, he has had one grand mal in our care, and it was terrible. He sounded like an out of balance washing machine on the spin cycle. His legs paddled furiously, and it looked like his jaw was going to break because it was locked open so wide, and he made the same vibration in his throat as our Alfalfa did when he took his last breaths and died. And yes he defeceated and urinated. For an hour and ten minutes afterwards, he RAN! And his brain did not seem to compute not bumping into things, and he was frantically smashing into walls and furniture very hard. I went outside with him. This was 3 o'clock in the morning, I stood there in the freezing cold and cried as Henry ran back and forth in the yard, running into the fence, the swing set, and the garage. (It was impossible to stop him, I tried) Then we went inside, and we both slept on a large sleeping bag in the family room. It took Henry several days to get back to what was considered normal for him. We took Henry to the vet the next morning, and it turned out he had a urinary tract infection. For your normal dog, a urinary tract infection does not trigger a grand mal. A dog who has epilepsy basically has a much lower threshold for environmental/physical stresses and will as a result seize.

Many of you may have noticed I did not take Henry in to the emergency vet right away. If your dog has not been diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy as Henry has, and had as many diagnosable causes as possible ruled out, you need to get your dog/cat to a vet IMMEDIATELY if they have a seizure, as they may have been poisoned or somethng of that nature. Henry has been diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy, so many tests have already been done on him trying to determine the cause. According to the vet, nothing really causes them, they just happen, but I disagree. I think non diagnosable causes are causing the seizures. Such as the kibble, vaccinations and etc.

If your dog has been diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy, your vet will give you guidelines on when you should bring in your dog.

Not all dogs who have seizures seize this badly. We had another dog with epilepsy and his seizures were so much milder. Fortunately, this was Henry's first grand mal where he did not cluster. I believe this was due to a new med he was on, Potassium Bromide. Can you imagine if he would have gone on to have two or three more seizures like that within a short time? When Henry was on phenobarbital and valium, he still continued to have multiple seizures, but they were a day apart instead of an hour apart, which was some improvement, but not enough. The Potassium Bromide was added, and the side effects became unbearable. So we kept Henry on the med that was making the biggest difference,(potassium bromide) and under our vet's supervision, we weaned him off the phenobarbital very slowly. His side effects are much more bearable now. Alot of dogs who have clusters seem to do very well with Potassium Bromide. There's some trial and error involved in figuring it all out.

Anyways, now that I have described how severe Henry's seizures are, you can understand why we were so frantic about him having another. We sincerely hope Henry never has to go through that again. Anyways, about when Henry would act like he was about to go in seizure, but then never actually go in seizure, since we started the BARF diet, Henry has not done this at all! His shakiness is all gone, and I swear, all involuntary movements seem to have dissapeared. This used to be a daily occurence that he would become twitchy and almost go in seizure but not actually go in siezure, and it was getting progressively worse in the weeks before we started the BARF diet.

I really think we started the BARF diet just in time before things would have gotten much worse.

Me and my husband are quite relieved to see Henry doing so well, and that both boys made it through the diet transition just fine! =)

The Delay

Sorry for the delay in starting the BARF diet. We are still waiting on that kelp. See, the amount of chloride in Henry's food must remain consistent because of his seizure medication, Potassium Bromide. Kelp has quite a bit of chloride in it. Since I plan to add kelp I must wait until the kelp arrives before starting the B.A.R.F. diet, and I must add the exact same amount of kelp to every single meal. I will only be giving Henry a half the reccomended amount of kelp to begin with, so as not to throw his seizure med dose off too much at once. I am trying to keep the chloride level similar to his old diet. I placed the order 10 days ago, on the same day as I ordered the meat grinder, and it still has not arrived.

Introduction

Hello, welcome to our B.A.R.F. blog! =) I started this blog because I have found a lack of blogs posting about their own personal journey with the B.A.R.F. diet. I have had so many questions myself, and have had a hard time finding the answers to some of my questions through google. So I am going to share our own experience in hopes it helps other pet owners out there! =)

I will share the cost, recipes I use, equipment I use, and how my dogs handle the transition and how they do after the transition. I will also be sharing how Henry's epilepsy does with this diet change. Henry is on Potassium Bromide, which is a medicine that helps to control seizures. If your dog is also on Potassium Bromide, please learn about how diet change alters the effectiveness of Potassium Bromide before starting this diet. Your dog will need regular blood tests until the new dose has been figured out. How much info I share on canine epilepsy, depends on how much of a need I see for it among readers of this blog.

We first adopted Henry on October 27th, 2007. We adopted him knowing that he has epilepsy. He is our second dog to have epilepsy, so we were not afraid. However, he is our first to have such severe seizures. We have only witnessed him have one grand mal since we brought him home 3 months ago, and it took us by surpise how severe the seizure was. It took him several days to recover. Our last dog who had epilepsy, his seizures were nowhere near the severity of Henry's. There is a special kind of bond you can only have with a dog that has epilepsy/special needs. As long as Henry has not had a seizure within the last few days, he is pretty much a normal dog and you certainly can't tell he has epilepsy. The only thing that is constant as a result of the epilepsy, is the special bond exclusive only to dogs with epilepsy/special needs.

Henry is the reason we decided to investigate commercial dog food. And he is the reason we are starting the B.A.R.F. diet. I am sure our other dog Riley won't object! =D Riley is our American Eskimo. He will be 13 this spring. He is in excellent health, and has been cleared for starting the B.A.R.F. diet. If your dog is elderly, it is a good idea to have your dogs BUN and creatinine levels checked before starting the B.A.R.F. diet. Riley has been with us since he was a pup. We also have a kitty named Mabel. She has been with us for 14 yrs and is approx. 16 yrs old. She will be continuing with her kitty kibble, for now at least.

Currently we are waiting on the arrival of the meat grinder (second one down on the page in that link) in the mail before we start this diet. Hopefully it will be here within a week. (About the meat grinder, please see this post) The B.A.R.F. police will tell you that you don't need to grind the bones, but we have chosen to do so anyways, the reason being that Riley is elderly, and Henry has many broken teeth.

I look forward to sharing our experience with you and hearing from you! =)