updates on Dublin and his epilepsy

I thought I would give a bit of an update as to where we are at this point.  He started 120mg phenobarb daily about five weeks ago.  He adjusted very well and actually after a couple weeks resumed near normal activity.  We made it four weeks without seizures.  I felt relief!  His blood work showed he was barely at theraputic levels of maintaining the pheno in his blood.  But vet felt that he was controlled for now, so we decided to wait and see how it goes.  A few days ago he had what I would call a petit mal seizure.  Just involved his face and drooling.  He was sort of twitching his face.  I spoke to him and he came out of it within a minute and just layed for about five minutes staring at me and then got up like nothing happened.  It then happened again the next evening as well.  The vet decided we should raise him to 180mg a day.  That was a few days ago and except for napping longer than normal he is fine.  He is starving all the darn time from the drugs and drives me nuts about food.  Waking me up by 4am to eat.  I have tried to control his food but he still gained about four lbs already.  Thank goodness he was very very thin prior to this.  And we still walk at least 1 to 1/2 mile a day and play frizbee/chuck it for an hour at least.  I am worried about a fat doggie.  But he steals food all the time too.  I mean stealthy, slinking around corners and snatching whole loafs of bread off the counter and other fun things.  The one thing that I am amazed about is this.  He always had a bad gut.  Bile vomiting and the loose poops every week at least.  The day he started the pheno ended that problem.  I can't get over that.  Was his stomach issue a stress related thing and the sedative effects of the pheno the cure?  Not sure, but I do know that he hasn't had one day of problem since.  Normal firm poops and no grumbling gut either.  So there it is.  Our journey has only begun I know that.  But for now, we have our dog with us!