Dog thats seizure free

[tlwatson]

I have a 6 year old Bouvier de Flanders.  Two years ago he started having seizures and in a 24 hour period he had 6 seizures.  My vet put him on Phenobarbital and he has been seizure free since.  He has had no visable side effects that we can tell.  He is not very active and has put on weight in the last year, however that is contibuted to grandparents that like to table feed him.  His vet now is speaking about weining him off the the Phenobarbital, I belive in hopes of him being able to lose weight.  

I'm aware that if I decide to take him off that it is a long weining off period, but I am concerned about him starting to have seizures again and that stress on him and us.  Is there a reason why we should try and take him off of a medication that his blood levels have always been normal.  He is not having side effects, and he is seizure free.

[zoe114]

I hope it will work well for your pet. I just feel that if your dog is not having issues, then leave it alone. You might go on and ask the vet in this area then and pay the $$ to get some more information..not advocating this, just I worry for you ...really wish you had more to ask. You know what you might ask your vet if he would ask other vets for you in the community group that he belongs to ( they all do) and find out what the outcomes have been. Tell him that you just want to make sure your making the right choice, he will understand.
    

[tlwatson]

I have other vets in the area, but I switched to this vet because I was unhappy with my previous.  We have no one in our area that is familiar with my dog breed.  I really do not want to change his meds at this point unless there is a medical reason.

[zoe114]

I would take him to another vet and ask them this question. I have run into many different vets and each has their own ideas on health issues my dogs have had. Do you have a community forum that you can ask whom others trust in your area?  I had a dog with IMHA and one vet told me that I should give the dog rabies shots, the specialist said never...so I never went back to that vet.  I hope someone on here has more information for you.