I wanted to share my story of Zonisamide with as many people as I can.
I own 3 Australian Shepherds, one female and 2 males. My two males are brothers/littermates who have known each other their entire lives. When they were about 18 months old, the younger brother became very sick due to what was later determined to be an autoimmune disease which attacked his intestines causing him to lose over 20 pounds over the course of several days. He had no muscle mass left, his skin hung on him like clothes on a hanger, and his immune system was completely destroyed. This disease is fatal if untreated which meant that I had to immediately take him to the vet hospital where he was given IV fluids and force fed over a 24 hour period which eventually brought his weight back up. But even after this ordeal, he remained very sick for several months with almost constant diarrhea and vomiting on an almost daily basis. He had ZERO quality of life.
Not only did it break my heart seeing him this way but it also broke my wallet - hundreds of dollars worth of prescriptions were needed to help him get better by controlling the inflammation in his intestines but nothing seemed to work well enough for more than a few days at a time.Then one day when I was at the pet store, I happened to notice Zonisamide as an option for treating epilepsy. The thought of at least giving him a slightly better quality of life was enough for me to give it a try.
Amazingly Zonisamide worked within days and has kept him alive and healthy ever since! Zonisamide has literally saved his life and back to his vibrant self again. It also helped my female Aussie who had seizures as a puppy, it eliminated all her seizures in just 2 weeks after trying every other medication that vets prescribe for epilepsy with no success.
My point in sharing this is because Zonisamide works so well even in dogs which are considered 'exotics' (e.g. Zonisamide is not supposed to work in dogs because they are considered 'exotics'). It was prescribed by my vet back when I first rescued my sick Aussie. Zonisamide has also been used effectively for treating cats with IBD.
It's hard to explain how much better the quality of life has become with Zonisamide but it's as if someone turned on all the lights!
