[Maggs D]

Hi first let me apologise for the long post post but I felt a bit of background info was needed.

I have a golden retriever who will be 7 in May and since he was two and half years old has been having seizures. He was investigated by Neurologists as they started to become more frequent and the medication he was initially placed on wasn’t having any effect. He was found to have diffuse lesions over his brain, they weren’t able to biopsy as they were small and diffuse, and they put this down as a cause for the seizures.
Over the years he has been on various drugs which were increased and for the last few years has been on pheno, bromide and keppra with rectal diazepam for clusters.
His longest GM seizure free period was 6 weeks, but he still had complex partial ones every night lasting a minute or two, but he became so sedated and his drug levels were high that they reduced the meds. The GM’s returned to weekly, so they increased his pheno again which had little effect in fact no effect. He has been fed on Royal Canin in various forms since almost the start of his disease. However in February 2019 we were away visiting relatives and I ran out of his food, so rather than having to transport a large bag back home I gave him human grade food, which consisted of fresh salmon, rice, and vegetables (carrots, kale, and celery).
I didn’t get the chance to order his food on arrival home as it was a long and difficult journey. I was also back to work the next day, so he remained on the home-made diet (meat or fish with fresh raw vegetables).
It came as a shock and surprise to find that he wasnt suffering his nightly partials. This carried on for several days, each night I was waiting for the partials which were worse than GM’s in that he entered into a fear/flight response but with blindness but they never came, neither did his GM’s !!!!!!
It has now been over three weeks and he hasnt had any sign of a seizure, which after almost 5 years it quite shocking !!!!
I researched the raw diet, but have been reluctant to try it as he hasn’t been vaccinated since he started with seizures (I have titre levels done, to monitor his antibody levels).
I have even reduced his pheno as his recent blood test came back with high levels, and have also by complete accident, missed his nightly keppra on a couple of occasions.
This has been a truly very strange, but happy period although I am still waiting in anticipation of his next seizure, as I have lived my life for so long dealing with this aweful disease.
I find it almost unbelievable to have a ‘seizure-free’ dog for almost a month !! He has even started playing with his toys again like a puppy which is a delight.

I can only say this is my experience and can’t say it was his Royal Canin diet that gave him the seizures but it is pretty convincing.
I hope my story helps as seizures are the worst thing to experience for both animal and owner. X