Another Small Seizure

Mum's been at home with me all day today and has noticed that my behaviour is a little unusual. I've been either emotional since dad went to work or excitable and over energetic. Also feeling very hungry and been very naughty by going into the kitchen bin looking for food, something I haven't done for a very, very long time!

Dad's also noticed that I'm not quite myself still. After being so good on command, even responding to hand signals, it seems as if there is some confusion, or fog and I'm not quite understanding the commands for a while. I'll get it eventually, but takes a while. I hope this is just the effect of the higher dosage of the drugs.

18:20 I followed dad upstairs after he got in from work. Mum calls me shadow as I follow him everywhere. As I lay there with dad just about to update my blog with this update - which was to read "Today's a Better Day" - dad looked around at me and noticed I'd gone stary. Seconds later the chomping and drooling started, but that's where it stopped. "3-2-1 and you're back in the room"

Worst 24 Hours to Date

So far the past 24 hours has been horrendous. Initially thinking that a series of seizures (the previous 3) would see an end to it fell far short of the actual count.

In all I've had another five seizures since those!

22:45 (12 Jan) I was acting all excited as if I wanted something. Dad thought I was after going for walkies as I wouldn't settle and ran upstairs and down between him and mum. Eventually the seizure hit as I was at the bottom of the stairs thankfully. Dad came down and took care of me.

02:55 (13 Jan) Whilst sleeping in with mum and dad I woke them up with another full blown seizure. Dad tried to get me safely downstairs afterwards and nearly ended up paying a trip to hospital after I tripped him up at the bottom.

After this one dad slept downstairs on the sofa to keep an eye on me. For a long time afterwards I couldn't get comfortable and was very restless. I'm sure dad didn't get any sleep.

07:00 Dad didn't get up for work, so was still lying on the sofa when I had another seizure in my bed.

Thankfully the new vet was able to reschedule our 17:00 appointment to 10:10 this morning. So mum and dad took me for a long drive over to see them.

09:15 On the way to the vets I started a seizure. Dad noticed I was drooling a lot and just as I started chomping he pulled over to take a look at me. It turned out to be the shortest seizure so far. After the jaw chomping and gallons of slobber the seizure stopped. Less than a minute, but I was still a little confused afterwards.

The New Doctor

The new vet wasn't so nice. Not for me anyhow. He took a good look at me and spoke with mum and dad about my problems. As expected he advised the Epiphen should be increased to 2 x 60mg twice a day (240mg per day).

The new doctor did a good job on talking with reassuring mum and dad that whilst this is not a pleasant condition, it's not as bad as it could be. The seizures certainly are scary so I'm glad I'm not aware of them at all.

Following the conversation dad asked about Valium and the doctor also prescribed something called "a tube of rectal Valium" to be used in emergencies if the seizure goes on much longer than usual. Now I think that sounds like taking my temperature, so I better not be awake when that happens!

He also gave my ears a really, really good clean. This is why I didn't like him much. When dad cleans my ears it's not as thorough as the doctor did. The doctor was really vigorous in using cotton wool over his finger and getting as far in as he could. Even though dad cleaned my ears only the other day the doctor came out with lots of wax and dirt, yeuch! I guess now dad's seen how the doctor did it, I've got this to look forward to from now on.

I got to go in to dads work with mum, just to say hello as we'd driven all that way just to see the doctor. Before we left they took me around the park so I could get some exercise and see if I could catch one of them pesky squirrels.

11:55 After we got home and mum and dad where having a cup of tea I started twitching and chomping. After clearing the area expecting and full blown fit it turned out to be another small one like earlier.

Mum and dad then both joined me in a nap in front of the TV. It's been a long night/day.

Oh, and Dave and grandma came round just to see how I was. They'd been reading my blog so knew I wasn't doing so good, so thought they'd call in. I just wish I wasn't so slobbery and so happy to see them.

Updated

15:40 As dad was upstairs writing this Blaine came in from school and after shaking my head started antother small seizure.

18:45 Another small seizure whilst lying in bed.

21:40 Whilst lying in the front room.

Evening Seizure

17:00 It was dinner time so I went to get mum to do the dinner and give me my tablet when the head shaking started again. Mum says I stood there shaking my head then doing the jaw chomping until I keeled over into a full blown fit again.

I know mum and dad are really worried so I hope the doctor can come up with something tomorrow.

Lunchtime Seizure

13:45 This time I started having a seizure whilst awake. This is the first time where I've not been sleeping or at least lying down relaxing. I walked up to Christopher and must have scared him to death as I started chomping my jaws and going into the usual routine of fitting. Chris hasn't seen me fitting so didn't know what to expect. Good thing he phoned dad so he knew what to expect and what to do to help.

Dad's booked me an appointment with the new vet for tomorrow afternoon.

For some time now I've had this annoying itch with my ears. I've been shaking my head and scratching them until I yelp. On the advice of my current vet dad's been cleaning my ears with Clean Aural, but it still seems to come back.

Hopefully the new vet can check this out whilst checking me over.

Daytime Seizure

10:30 Had a seizure again this morning. Mum was upstairs and heard my bells jingling. When she came down she found me all confused and I started pacing.

This is the first sezure of the new year. It's also the first time I've had a fit during the day, when mum and dad are usually out at work.

Looks like the bells work though. Mum heard them from upstairs. Dad says I sound like a Morris Dancer.

Dad's going to start recording what food I've eaten too. Just to see if there's a link between the food and the seizures. Maybe there's some allergy to something in the food?

Breakfast: Winalot - Chicken Flavour

Had an Epihany

Dad took me walking in the woods during a winter afternoon recently and although I'm pretty good and finding my way around dad does get lost sometimes. Usually I can hear the choke chain dad carries jingling and can find him, but sometimes he just wanders off and I must go find him.

So I took him to the pet store and we figured I'd get some bells to fit onto my collar so when dad gets lost he can find me again. The store only had cat bells, but they came in threes, so dad got them and put them on my collar. Now he can always find me!

But an even better thought occured to me. Although these were originally to help dad find me, they'd also be really useful for if I have a seizure at night. I know mum and dad are worried that what happens if they are asleep and don't know I've had a fit. Now they should be able to hear the bells!

Veterinary Value

Sounds like dad's had some fun over the past few days. Seems getting prescription drugs online is a a battle of pedantics.

Placing an order with an online pharmacy couldn't be easier. After choosing one of the many online it was simple to complete the order and make payment.

After receiving the order confirmation simply replying with the scanned copies of the two prescriptions, one for Epiphen and one for Previcox, the order part was complete.

Now this is where common sense leaves the room. The prescription for 90 x 60mg  tablets of Epiphen for a months supply means that each time I take the 1.5 tablet dose I'm prescribed, a small 60mg tablet must be broken in two. This isn't an accurate science as it often means the tablet crumbles into 3 or more parts.

So why not order 60 x 60mg and 60 x 30mg - the half size tablets? This equates to exactly the dosage on the prescription, but is more accurate and convenient.

Well it turns out that my current vet wont allow the tablets to be supplied in this way. The online pharmacy calls up my vet and asks if they can supply pills of the correct size and the vet says no!

I suspect that if dad were to ask the vet they would then say I need 3 separate prescriptions to do this. So the vet would charge more and profit more each month.

Dad nor I can see the sense in having to continue breaking pills - where it is not a recommended practice as the dosage can not be precisely controlled. But it would appear that for nothing other than protecting their profits, my current vet insist we must stick to the prescription tablet size and quantity exactly, despite them having supplied half size tablets when they themselves have had them in stock.

Well that appears to be the last straw. Dad got on the phone a called a few more veterinary surgeries and was advised by his boss to call one local to where he works. After a very helpful conversation with the veterinary nurse it turns out that they are willing to assist and can provide a 3 month prescription - either as monthly repeats or as a single 3 month quantity - for £12!!! Yes, that's right, a saving of £6 per month.

Of course this means that I must come under their care and be seen by one of their surgeons, but the savings in prescription charges more than compensates for this. Other parts of the conversation relating to consultancy charges and prices for blood tests suggest even more savings.

So in February we're going to go pay this new veterinary surgery a visit. The extra good news for me is that I get to go to work with dad whenever I need to go see the doctor. It does mean dad would have to drive 35 miles each way if he wasn't going in to work, but as he's in work most every day, it seems like a reasonable trade off.

In all it pays to shop around. You can never ask too many questions and it pays to do some research online so you can get as much information as possible.

Prescription Drugs

Dad's been speaking to the doctor today and trying to find a more cost effective way of continuing my treatment. Not being insured turns out to be rather costly after all, but it's all about accepting certain risks. In my case it hasn't really paid off.

Insurance quotes for me ranged from £28-£33 per month, which is rather a lot of cash. I guess until mum and dad got really attached to me, they thought that a little too much to take on. Hopefully in hind sight they now see it as a small price to pay for a lovable monster like me.

Now with my current condition over the past few months the vet bills have grown more than mum and dad can afford - dad's been looking at some other options. It's not about the doctor, as I know dad's really pleased with them, the service is great, it's just about the money.

The two drugs that I'm taking (Epiphen and Previcox) work out at £69.35 per month when supplied by the vet.  This is made up of:

Description	Quantity	Price	Per Tablet
Epiphen (60mg)	90	£23.12	£0.256
Previcox (227mg)	30	£46.23	£1.541
	Total	£69.35

Now if dad goes online to many of the online pet pharmacies - and you too can just simply Google for almost any of them you'd see prices like this:

Description	Quantity	Price	Per Tablet
Epiphen (60mg)	90	£10.80	£0.12
Previcox (227mg)	30	£24.80	£0.826
	Total	£35.60

Can you believe that? Half the price that my friendly and so very helpful vet is charging! And I do mean friendly and helpful, as they are.  But the huge difference in price really has to be considered - especially with no insurance.

But things are not that straight forward. Since October 2008 veterinary practices can now charge for prescribing these drugs - which in itself isn't unfair, there has to be a cover for the administration of writing and recording prescriptions, or the vet would lose out. But the law now allows vets to charge anywhere up to £60 per prescription. Not that many do or would charge that much - but the law allows for it.

Thankfully my vet has set it's prescription charge at £7.20 per prescription. But that charge increases as I need two prescription drugs, so works out at £9.99. However, they will not provide a 3 month prescription, meaning this will require monthly prescriptions at £9.99 each month. Quite a money spinner as my medication is for a lifelong ailment, my vet is guaranteed £120 per year, for as long as I live.

Taking the vets prescription charges into account
there is still a huge saving of £23.76 per month (£285.12 per year)!

I'll still need to visit the doctor regularly for tests and checkups, so they'll still make money on my visits, but it still seems like there's £120 per year that they are making without any real effort.  I guess they have to protect themselves from people taking advantages of free prescriptions and not taking any of the vets services, but as we're paying for every consultation and test, it seems a better way would be to either offer repeat prescriptions or free prescriptions only where a contract of care between surgery and owner exists.

If a prescription were only issued at the time of consultation and valid only until the next, surely it would be fairer? As I must visit the vet every three months it doesn't sound unreasonable to have a three month prescription - instead I must get a prescription each month.

Dad did phone around other local vets and whilst very, very helpful the feedback was that the prices my vet are charging are typical of the industry. In fact the information regarding the change since October 2008 came from speaking to other practices.

Some very frank responses to the questions regarding drug costs expressed that veterinary surgeries often have high prescription charges simply to ward off bargain hunters, like myself, and attempt to keep the drug revenue within the practice. But if Internet sellers can supply and make money at the prices they charge I find it hard to believe that veterinaries aren't obtaining drugs at better prices and making huge mark ups.

There certainly seems like a large element of self preservation where practices are attempting to hold their market share simply by making the legislation work in their favour. No drugs without prescription, means cheap drugs only if you buy an expensive prescription. I feel certain that in some cases the cost of prescription means cheap drugs are not a viable alternative. In my case it seems there is an option - but how many could benefit by a fairer prescription process?

So far that's the best deal we've got. It's a good saving, but still an awful lot of money year on year. I'll update as we learn more.

UPDATE: Sad to say I missed the deadline in 2008 where the government were petitioned in regard to prescription charges. The governments response can be found here [http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page16942]

The Government is committed to delivering free and fair markets, with greater competition, for businesses, consumers and employees.

That is why the Government introduced the Supply of Veterinary Medicinal Products Order in 2005 to create a market for veterinary medicines away from veterinary surgeries. The Order was introduced following a Competition Commission report which found that the veterinary profession tended to understate the true cost of their professional services and offset this in their medicines pricing. This practice can allow two detrimental effects:

· Veterinary surgeons can hide excess profits in drug prices; and

· Inadequate pressure on manufacturers to maintain competitive drug prices.

The Competition Commission felt strongly that a three-year moratorium on prescription charges was essential to allow animal owners to become used to the availability of free prescriptions and encourage them to shop around. The availability of prescriptions was seen as the key element in opening up the prescription-only veterinary medicines market, increasing competitive pressure and driving prices down. High prescription charges had been a barrier to customers doing this in the past, but the three-year prohibition would kick-start the market.

The independent Office of Fair Trading (OFT) will be monitoring developments after the prohibition on charging for providing prescriptions comes to an end in October 2008 and will consider when and whether any further regulatory action may be needed to ensure effective competition in the supply of veterinary medicines.

Calendar 2009

Why not get this years calendar featuring me of course.  It's quite large at 6.5MB so please be patient.

You can download for free here

[right-click Save As].

You'll need a PDF reader such as the Adobe Acrobat reader which is freely available from the Adobe website.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. As a dog does this mean I get seven new years? Today smells like I'm in for a treat just like Christmas day - lots of turkey, yay! Only thing is mum left the Turkey in the freezer too long so we may only get to eat at midnight today :)

Dad took me out to doggy Disney again yesterday and I had a great time. I even completely ignored a pack of friendly dogs, two German shepherds, a boxer and something else, as I was too fixated on the squirrel in the tree overhead.

Pesky things are just too tricky and always stay in the trees when I only want to play with them... honest.

At least we finally made it to the woods today. Last time dad got to the woods, we just pulled up to park when mum called on the phone. Said that a plumber was calling at home to fix the heating. So without getting out of the car, dad turned around and drove straight home. I was so disappointed. You wait till I get my hands on that plumber!

Dave and grandma didn't get to go to Australia, yet. Grandma had to go to hospital as she'd got a viral infection and pneumonia! Poor grandma, she was in hospital on Christmas day - so Dave came round to join us for Christmas dinner. I'm sure he had some of my turkey. Well grandma's out of hospital and is better now, so hopefully they get to go on holiday soon.

PS. Turns out that both the boys stayed out tonight so there was only mum and dad for dinner. All the more leftovers for me!