Seizure meds and personality change??

My cat Cooper was recently diagnosed with epilepsy, and his personality has completely changed/disappeared. I am wondering if this is because of his illness or if it could be a side-effect of his medication.

He used to be super playful, happy, loving... Now he just sleeps a lot and is super irritable. he used to be a purr-machine but I haven't heard him purr once since the seizures started (over a month ago).

I am worried that he is miserable. Anyone have any experience with phenobarbital and keppra? (He is on keppra now and we are in the process of weaning him off the phenobarbital because it didn't work sufficiently.)

Anyone have a similar experience? I am worried about my boy!!

alibali said:

My cat Cooper was recently diagnosed with epilepsy, and his personality has completely changed/disappeared. I am wondering if this is because of his illness or if it could be a side-effect of his medication.

He used to be super playful, happy, loving... Now he just sleeps a lot and is super irritable. he used to be a purr-machine but I haven't heard him purr once since the seizures started (over a month ago).

I am worried that he is miserable. Anyone have any experience with phenobarbital and keppra? (He is on keppra now and we are in the process of weaning him off the phenobarbital because it didn't work sufficiently.)

Anyone have a similar experience? I am worried about my boy!!

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ginny might be able to help give some thoughts on this.

If I had to go with my own personal experience (I'm epileptic and on anti-convulsants), yes, they do have some pretty intense side effects sometimes. Especially the older drugs (like phenobarbital). I've never been on that particular one though.

I also have a lot less energy than I would if I was not on the meds. They're central nervous system depressants, so that's understandable. Side effects with humans tend to ease off with time though, and guessing they do with cats also.

alibali said:

My cat Cooper was recently diagnosed with epilepsy, and his personality has completely changed/disappeared. I am wondering if this is because of his illness or if it could be a side-effect of his medication.

He used to be super playful, happy, loving... Now he just sleeps a lot and is super irritable. he used to be a purr-machine but I haven't heard him purr once since the seizures started (over a month ago).

I am worried that he is miserable. Anyone have any experience with phenobarbital and keppra? (He is on keppra now and we are in the process of weaning him off the phenobarbital because it didn't work sufficiently.)

Anyone have a similar experience? I am worried about my boy!!

Click to expand...

Yes, my Nat is different now than he used to be before.  I think part of it is because of the neurological deficits he suffered from each seizure.  He had grand mal seizures.  It took a lot of trial to find out what would work with him.  The hard to understand part was that without meds, the seizures ceased on their own and stayed gone for almost 1 1/2 years.  With no meds.  But when they started back, we tried phenobarb.  It makes him sleepy and kind of listless, but he still loves to eat.  I think as Cooper adjusts to the meds he's on, he will come around and start purring again, but he may never be exactly like before.  

Thanks ginny ...we are pretty sure he has neurological damage from the seizures - he is wobbly when he walks now and falls down

Hopefully the meds are part of the problem too - I just hate seeing him so irritable. He really seems depressed.

alibali said:

Thanks @Ginny ...we are pretty sure he has neurological damage from the seizures - he is wobbly when he walks now and falls down

Hopefully the meds are part of the problem too - I just hate seeing him so irritable. He really seems depressed.

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His dose may be too high.  When does the vet want to draw lab values again?

He got wobbly before we started the keppra - and his phenobarbital levels were perfect - they think he had a bad seizure (or many - he was really twitchy and we didn't think they were actually seizures but after starting the keppra the twitching has totally stopped) and this is the aftermath.

That or he had a stroke. We tested his BP and it was low. Every test we do comes back negative. It's so frustrating. We even did an MRI. They want to do another but we can't afford it

We are still tapering off the phenobarbital so he may get a little better once he's off it, I can only hope!

Poor kitty!     Bless him.  Hopefully he will get better once he's off the Phenobarb.  Poor little Nat would always be so confused after a seizure and would meow for food and have to stay really close to me for comfort and snuggles.  

So your vet did an MRI, but now they want to do it again?  I was told they wanted to do and MRI and a lumbar puncture on Nat, which would be done at the same visit.  But that even then it might not show anything.  I decided not to do either one. It IS  very frustrating to not have a clear diagnosis.  Epilepsy is a diagnosis of exclusion, when they don't know what else to call it.  

Call me harsh if you will, but I think this is totally unacceptable for so-called medical professionals to have no clue about the cause of diseases.  A disease can't be cured unless you know the cause.  Same with cancer.  All that money that has been dumped into the cancer societies, billions of dollars every single year....and for what???  They STILL don't know what causes cancer.  Are they even trying?  So how the   are they going to treat it?  Badly, that's how, and people and their beloved pets continue to die from it.  It's shameful.  No wonder so many people are using alternative treatments nowadays.  But you have to be careful even there too.  So many are out to make a quick buck off someone else's desperation.  That's despicable!!  There are no easy answers, but with all those bright minds supposedly "working on it" for so many years now, you'd think they'd have an answer by now.  

Sorry for the rant, but as a nurse I'm quite jaded by the system because I know it doesn't work.  Medicine only makes customers for life.  One day in the future, who knows, maybe a couple hundred years from now, medicine of today will be considered the dark ages of health and well being.  As cruel, ineffective, and even barbaric as healthcare was several hundred years ago.  

We took him to a vet school a state away because they were supposed to be "the best" ...we did x-rays, MRI, spinal tap (I guess technically a cervical puncture because they did it in his neck), ultrasound, blood work, etc. all the MRI showed was evidence that he had been having seizures. None of the $5000 worth of tests told us anything!

While he was there he had a grand mal seizure (his others were all focal seizures) and he ripped out all but two of his back claws. A few days after I brought him home he was lifeless and had a very high fever... Brought him back in and he had MRSA and another resistant staph in his claw wounds.

I was so unimpressed with his care at that hospital. They wouldn't even examine him without anesthesia because he was growling. And they told me wrong info (I specifically asked if he had MRSA and they said no - then I got the lab report and it clearly said MRSA!) Plus they messed up his blood work the first time and told me he likely had cancer or FIV but the next day called back and said never mind, we messed it up, he's just slightly anemic (which we already knew). It has all just been so frustrating, and we still don't even have an answer!

His new neurologist seems much better, handles him so well and explains everything thoroughly. She wants to do another MRI but we just don't have the money. We've spent over $6000 on him in the last 5 weeks and we're in the red.

At this point idk what the point would be - seems like any diagnosis that is left would be damning anyways. Hippocampal necrosis is one - but there is no treatment so what good does a diagnosis do us, ya know?

Sorry I am ranting now, it's just been so frustrating and I feel so bad for poor Cooper. He just seems so sad, he doesn't even like being petted anymore. He gags and foams whenever he sees me now, from me having to give him so many medications. It breaks my heart.

Yes, Nat hated my guts too at one point, but Cooper will come around.  Maybe not like before but better once he adjusts to his meds.  Several times Nat bled from one of his toenails after a seizure.  

Can't the new doctor just look at the MRI already done?  Money doesn't grow on trees, after all.  They will always tell you that tests that confirm any diagnosis doesn't mean it's going to be treatable.  I'm with you.  Why bother, especially since he's already been through it once.  

I understand how frustrating this can be.  Life events seem to all happen at once sometimes and for me Nat had his first witnessed grand mal only 2 days before my elderly mom moved in with me from hospice so I could take care of her.  And work full time.    

alibali said:

My cat Cooper was recently diagnosed with epilepsy, and his personality has completely changed/disappeared. I am wondering if this is because of his illness or if it could be a side-effect of his medication.

He used to be super playful, happy, loving... Now he just sleeps a lot and is super irritable. he used to be a purr-machine but I haven't heard him purr once since the seizures started (over a month ago).

I am worried that he is miserable. Anyone have any experience with phenobarbital and keppra? (He is on keppra now and we are in the process of weaning him off the phenobarbital because it didn't work sufficiently.)

Anyone have a similar experience? I am worried about my boy!!

Click to expand...

Hi, just read your post from last March and thought it was me writing that! I cannot believe how it's exactly how my cat is and my feelings are like yours too. Button suddenly started having seizures out of the blue in May this year and after several tests and trying times they still could not diagnose it. I didn't go with the MRI as I didn't think he woukd make the journey and just wanted him home, he wasn't happy at the vet hospital. I too have spent all my funds but would spend anything to get him back to his happy loving self. He went missing for 6 days and we thought we'd lost him as he was missing his medication. We luckily came across him quite a few roads away from us looking quite contented but as if he didn't know he was in the wrong place. I have since been reluctant to let him out as I fear he may have brain damage and not know his wherabouts. I have tried a harness and lead, now am trying out a tracker. He does not like staying in and seems depressed. He never wants our affection anymore and yet he used to give lovely cuddles. He has a test soon to see how his tablets are affecting him. I'm just hoping it's the medication making him like this and he will get back to his loving self. How is Cooper now a year plus on, has his personality come back. I do hope so, for your sake too. I am so down and at my wits end with all this.