Celebrating one whole year without a seizure - Well Done Marley!

[wolfpup]

For those of you who are not familiar with Marley  -  he is a soon-to-be 4 year old rescued Siberian Husky  (4^th owner) so his background is unknown.  He started epilepsy at 10 months of age and they came quite regularly, approximately every 27 days for over a year.  Luckily my vet was reluctant to start him on meds at that time because he was so young.

Then in early 2018  he had 5 fits between Jan 7^th and March 9^th  4 in 12 days and  3 in two days  -  my vet wanted to put him on vet meds  (epiphen)  but I said no, I wanted to try cbd oil first.  

To say he was unhappy with my decision is putting it extremely mildly  -  I thought he was going to ban me from the practice.   I have several year-long herbal medicine courses under my belt, and with the help of a qualified herbal vet in the USA  (I am obviously in the UK) we started him on skullcap and passion flower to try and lessen the frequency and severity of the seizures.   

I had also started serious research into cbd oil before deciding which one to start him on.    The first one took him to 106 days (24/6/18), then I tried a slightly stronger one which took him to 108 days (8/10/18)  this fit was extremely mild – only lasting 15 seconds and was basically head shaking only,  I then put him on an even stronger one at a dose of 4 drops a day, dropping to 3 drops on the 27/10/18  and down to 2 drops on 14/11/18  as a maintenance dose, wanting to give him the least possible amount without triggering another seizure.   He is still on that dose.

What makes this all the more amazing is that during the last year he has been extremely ill, having contracted:

1.   Salmonella poisoning which took 4 months of antibiotics before he was clear.   

2.   He developed 9 different food allergies  - High Positive to soya and potatoes,  positive to wheat, oats, rice, corn, carrots, peas and sugar beet.   This was only discovered when he vomited blood and went into anaphylactic shock. 

3.   Tests and a camera down his throat showed he had up to 100 bleeding ulcers in his stomach.

The antibiotics had caused him to develop a leaky gut   so I started researching and learned of ways to go about healing the gut naturally   -  the vet did help with giving me  healthy dog gut bacteria in tablet form  - but I had to buy the prebiotic from the USA as I could not get the one I wanted in the UK at the time (can now).  

He had another food allergy test done about 4 weeks ago  -  and is now only positive for  corn, soya and rice, and borderline for wheat  (no high positives any more), and negative for all the others.    I can live with that  -  more importantly so can Marley.    He now has only grass fed beef and lamb, venison, rabbit and wild caught fish only  (farmed fish are raised on copious amounts of soya - something they would never encounter in the wild) - no poultry of any kind,  or pork  (both are routinely fed the stuff he is allergic to)

Then about 6 weeks ago an operation on a re-occurring sebaceous cyst  on his spine went wrong (he was allergic to the deep stitches) needing 4 anaesthetics in 12 days  - leaving him with a very large, deep, open wound on his back  - which is now almost healed thanks solely to medical grade Manuka honey (his only treatment for this).

Through all of this he has been seizure free   -  yet when I happily told my vet that he had reached day 340  a few weeks ago - thanks to the cbd oil – he completely blanked me  - would not even acknowledge that the cbd is what has gotten him to this stage  -  despite him being on no meds.

I am no young forward thinking  twenty-something ......... I am already in my 7^th decade    -  so if I can accept that plants  can have amazing health benefits – why does a highly trained, very intelligent, vet completely block  all the information out   -    its beyond me.     

All I can say is don’t take everything your vet says as gospel,  don’t follow his recommendations blindly  - do your OWN research.   I am not naive enough to think Marley is cured  -   or that I can keep him seizure free forever  - but it won’t stop me trying or continuing to research.

Happy first seizure free year Marley.   You are an incredible fighter, with the heart & spirit of a lion  - and the gentleness & grace of an angel, you are my soul mate and I love you more than you will ever know.

 

[robke]

Nice one Marley...

[Andy]

Yay a great milestone

[2Huskyfun]

That is sooo awesome❣️❣️❣️

You are so correct. 

I am fortunate to have a vet that can acknowledge when she is unsure of something and works with me a and my crazy  experiments with my boy.

I have started my boy on CBD in hopes it helps leaky gut/IBS issues. We started with a very small dose and will be upping it soon. So far he has not vomited since, still has diarrhea flare ups. But even those have lessen.

I am so happy that Marley is doing good. ❤️

[Shepsky5]

Amazing journey! Kudos to you! seriously, I think that with a different owner, Marley would probably not have made it...

[wolfpup]

6 hours ago, Shepsky5 said:

Amazing journey! Kudos to you! seriously, I think that with a different owner, Marley would probably not have made it...

That's strange    -   hubby said exactly the same thing last night

[wolfpup]

13 hours ago, 2Huskyfun said:

That is sooo awesome❣️❣️❣️

You are so correct. 

I am fortunate to have a vet that can acknowledge when she is unsure of something and works with me a and my crazy  experiments with my boy.

I have started my boy on CBD in hopes it helps leaky gut/IBS issues. We started with a very small dose and will be upping it soon. So far he has not vomited since, still has diarrhea flare ups. But even those have lessen.

I am so happy that Marley is doing good. ❤️

Below is a link to an article that you may find useful   -  but at the bottom of the article is access to a leaky gut workbook  -  I used this to help heal Marley's leaky gut

https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/leaky-gut-syndrome-dogs/

[Jay]

Thats great to hear!!!

[Ymkahusky]

@wolfpup this is so great to hear! Unfortunately,  our husky boy started to have seizures 9 months ago and he is 3 years 7 months old now, he goes 4 to 6 weeks between them at the moment. They last about 30 seconds and it takes him a couple of minutes to recover. Our vet is desperate to put him on meds but I am still trying to find an alternative solution as they didn't manage to find any underlying health issues.  I read a lot about CBD oil and they finally did a real canine trial  this year - 90% of dogs with seizures who participated in the experiment  & took CBD oil over 12 weeks showed improvement. Can you please share details of the CBD oil you used as there are so many available on line? 

[wolfpup]

23 hours ago, Ymkahusky said:

@wolfpup this is so great to hear! Unfortunately,  our husky boy started to have seizures 9 months ago and he is 3 years 7 months old now, he goes 4 to 6 weeks between them at the moment. They last about 30 seconds and it takes him a couple of minutes to recover. Our vet is desperate to put him on meds but I am still trying to find an alternative solution as they didn't manage to find any underlying health issues.  I read a lot about CBD oil and they finally did a real canine trial  this year - 90% of dogs with seizures who participated in the experiment  & took CBD oil over 12 weeks showed improvement. Can you please share details of the CBD oil you used as there are so many available on line? 

The one I started Marley on  - and the one I recommend you using is   SimplyCBD oil  -  you need the full strength GREEN https://www.simply-cbd.co.uk/products/green-cbd-oil?variant=37927970963639 - not the doggie one - its not strong enough.  The initial post tells you how well he reacted.     He is now on a different, stronger, SimplyCBD oil  -  one not normally recommended for epilepsy  - but it suits him  - today he is  1,013 days fit free  (he has 82 more days to go to make it to 3 years).    I assume your boy is 25 kilos or more?    Normally vets dont medicate unless the fits are less than one a month - so don't let him push you into meds yet.  All vet meds have side effects and depending on the particular drug - affect and damage different organs.  Start the cbd low and slow  1 drop per day for the first week, 2 drops the second week  etc    Marley was on 4 drops when I noticed a lack of fits.   However you cannot overdose your dog  -  but you can go over the 'sweet spot'  i.e. the theraputic dosage for your dog (and each dog is different of course) - more is not necessarily better.    If your boy is put onto vet meds  -  ensure there is at least a 2 hour gap between cbd and vet meds - they use the same receptors in the brain.    CBD does not work for every dog  - and different oils work for different dogs  - so some experimentation might be necessary.

Just message me with any queries you have - happy to help if I can.

[PeterHouston]

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