Phenobarbital dosage

[PetHuman]

So my little girl Chloe (about a year old) had her first full and violent seizure about a month ago.  She has been fine since then so I was hoping that it was some kind of anomaly.  Sadly though, last night she had 3 seizures in a row over the course of a little under 3 hours so I rushed her into the e vet at about 2 am.  The vet I saw was very nice and understanding and gave me some valium which I can administer to her orally when she has a seizure to help her relax and to prevent her from having multiples as she did last night.  He thought that it sounds like she is epileptic though and wanted to try her on Phenobarbital which is the drug he uses to treat epilepsy in dogs.  He has been in the business for over 25 years and has never encountered a rat with epilepsy and wasn't sure on the dosage or how well rats respond to the drug so I said I would do some research and call him on Friday.  I found a page on ratguide.com telling me about the the drug and the proper dosage for rats but I wanted to see if anyone has had any real life experiences giving their rat Phenobarbital, or if anyone has used some other medication to deal with epilepsy, how effective it was, and what dosage you administered to your little rattie. 

Please help, any advice is GREATLY appreciated.

[Kendra]

Our epileptic rat Seraphim benefited most from a reduced sugar diet.  Interestingly, the seizures became less frequent as she aged.  She lived to be over 3 and maybe had two seizures total in the last year of her life.  I looked into phenobarbitol, but we never had to employ it.  According to Rat Health Care, 8th edition, "In the other cases of seizures in rats that I'm aware of, treatment with sodium phenobarbitol at a dose of 0.6mg twice a day for 2 days and then 1mg twice a day was of limited use.  In one case, it reduced the number of seizures temporarily, but then was no longer effective."  Good luck!

[ratlets]

I'm sure dose is dependant on weight, so other doses listed might not be of any help.

Best of luck with your ratty, and I hope it works!

[PetHuman]

this is good to know and thank you so much for your info.  I think I am going to focus mostly on her diet but still keep the Valium on hand in case of extreme attacks.  Ive been keeping a diary of her episodes so I'll know if there is any change. 

Once again, thanks for your help, and if anyone else knows anything more please let me know.  Epileptic rats dont seem to be very common and I havnt found much useful information