My mate says his dog the one who has epilepsy medication called phenobarbital? says he is worried because his??

Phenobarbitol is a sedative / tranquilizer. It raises the threshhold for spontaneous electrical transmissions in the brain, making seizure occurance less likely. Being a tranquilizer, phenobarbitol has seditive side effects (i.e the falling over, confusing & sleeping that you've noticed) which r dose dependent. The idea is to give the least amount of phenobarbitol possible while still decreasing the frequency of seizures.
When a dog is first put onto phenobarbitol, the goal is to stop the seizures from occurring for more than one week or longer. the seditive side effects r usually tolerated for this time unless they r very severe. Then, the dosage is reduced gradually until the dog has another seizure again. Then, a final dosage is calculated. Although this can be destressing for the owner it is best for the dog in the long term.
I would not take him for a run i'd carry on with the vets advice & call the vet to let them know whats going on they may start to reduce his medication now instead of leaving it a little longer.

Hope this helps & good luck!

sounds like the meds are too strong/ not right for the dog take him back to vets..whatever is causing the confussion its not right seek proffessional help fast.

I would call the vet immediately. I had a dog that was on Phenobarb, 60mg. twice a day for a 65lb dog. She grained 10lbs in one month & I told the vet she could not continue to gain weight at that rate. The dog was cut down to half the dosage & did just fine. More than likely they will reduce the dosage.
I wish the dog all the best!!!

First, to 'Vet Tech', phenobarbital is not a steroid! I believe u r thinking of prednisone.

As someone already mentioned, that is quite a high dose unless u have a very large dog. Phenobarb can certainly cause drowsiness & lethargy, especially at high doses, & especially when an animal first starts the medication.
I had a German Shepherd, Shiloh, with idiopathic (no known cause) epilepsy, & it was a constant battle to get his dose high enough to stop the constant seizures yet keep the dose low enough so he was not stumbling all over the place.
It can take some time to get a dose adjusted properly. Do call ur vet & let him know what is happening. He may tell u to bear with it for another week or so. Off the top of my head I am not sure how long u have to wait, but eventually the vet can take a blood sample & send it for analysis to show the phenobarb level in the blood. If it is too high, the dose can usually be lowered.
There is another medication, potassium bromide, that can be given along with phenobarbitol & gives a synergistic (works with another drug, making that drug 'stronger') effect, which usually means u can lower the dose of phenobarb.
There r also some newer antiseizure drugs, for example gabapentin, which work differently & may work better for ur dog, although they r generally much more expensive. I wish they had been around back in the day when Shiloh was around. He died at 9 yrs of age due to liver failure--caused by the high levels of phenobarb he had to take daily since he was a year old.
Work with ur vet & I wish u the very best of luck!

Your best bet is to call your vet. We can not answer your question fully because we are not vets and do not know the dog. I would give him the dose tonight and call the vet first thing in the AM before he gets his morning dose.

wow, thats a high dose, we had a lurcher who had fits, and for the first few days he was stoned out of his mind..til we spoke to the vet and he halved it. some dogs respond differently to others. and tyler had a fit free life

The only *normal* side effect of Phenobarb is increased thirst (and increased urine), anything else should be reported to your vet.

I cannot tell you if the dosage is high or not because you have not included your dogs weight. Regardless, you need to call your vet and let them know. Phenobarb is not a medication I would mess around with.

Your dog certainly should not be experiencing lack of balance, lethargy, etc.

Good luck!

call the vet now.

when we put my dog on the medicine he only just got drowsy.

He needs to call his vet and tell them what happening with the dog. The does may have to be adjusted to better help the dog, not put him out cold.