BIOCHEMICAL CHANGES IN THE BLOOD SERUM OF DOGS TREATED WITH PHENOBARBITAL

Despite being described as the safest antiepileptic drug of first choice the presented literature data are much varied as far as dog blood serum biochemical parameters are considered. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of phenobarbitone at different per os doses on the values of selected blood serum biochemical parameters in dogs during both short and long term application. The study was conducted on 30 dogs of different races, both sexes, ranging from 2 to 8 years of age. A total of 15 healthy and 15 dogs suffering from idiophatic epilepsy were observed. During the short term per os application of phenobarbitone (given at 3 week intervals) to the healty population in varied doseses a statistically significant increase in ALT and AP was recorded. Application of 16 mg/kg/day of phenobarbitone to the healthy population during 14 days resulted in a significant increase of ALT ans AP This increase was dependant on the duration of the treatment. During chronic application of phenobarbitone to dogs suffering from idiopathic epilepsy a significant increase in values of AP and ALT depending on the given dose was recorded. In two of the studied epileptic dogs treated with high therapeutic doses of phenobarbitone clinical signs of hepatotoxicity were recorded. Hepatotoxicity resulted in decreased albumin and total protein concentrations, as well as increased blood serum total bilirubin, AST ALP and AP. The obtained results indicate that a long term application of phenobarbitone at high therapeutic doses can cause hepatotoxicity. However, there was no relationship between phenobarbitone dosage and duration of therapy and blood glucose, urea, creatinine, total proteins, albumins, total bilirubin, triglycerides and cholesterol.