Side effects of potassium bromide
My 6yo rescued dog was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy in Dec 2025. She's currently taking phenobarbital, levetiracetam (Keppra), and potassium bromide (KBr). The latter was the latest addition in early March 2026 to prevent breakthrough focal seizures.
Since then, she has been exhibiting a lot of unusual behaviours, to the point that she seems to have a complete personality change. It has been six weeks of her being restless, pacing around the flat for 45-60 min at a time several times a day. She whines a lot (loudly, if I may add!), being very demanding about food, even in the middle of the night. We feed her before bed in the hopes that she won't wake us up, but she still does. Every night, she gets up AT LEAST twice, around 1 am and 3 am. She will whine so loudly and scratch surfaces that it is so hard to ignore her. She will pee or poo or beg for food during these times. We do not feed her outside her usual mealtimes so as to not reinforce this behaviour, but she seems to be absolutely feral about food. She will again repeat this routine by 5 am.
My partner and I are so exhausted, we've had <5-6 hrs of sleep for over 6 weeks now. Our dog is also tired, I'm sure, as she's used to sleeping up to 16-18 hrs a day.
Our neuro vet is stumped, unsure of what to do. He suggsted we start giving her gabapentin in the hopes that it will help her settle for the night, but after three nights of this, there has been no change in her at all. Her recent blood test shows normal levels of KBr and sodium, so the neuro thinks that the KBr is still leveling out in her system, causing these behaviours. He is hoping that our dog will soon be back to her usual self once this happens (also her horrible ataxia from week 1-5 has slightly improved now which is positive!)
There are literature about some dogs having restlessness and demanding behaviours following KBr intake, but I don't know how long we can still take this. We are so exhausted and irritable all the time.
Has anyone ever experienced this with their dogs?