Carnation is a 20-year old ringneck dove. Her full name is Reincarnation as her egg was layed on the same day I lost a dove to tuberculosis.
About two months ago, Carnation started having grand mal seizures. We were at my avian vet the next day. He gave me injectable valium for her seizures. The valium worked beautifully except I hated sticking her five or six times a day -- everytime she had a seizure. So three weeks later, back to the avian vet we went.
We put her on phenobarbital (oral), using the valium as backup (as it stopped the seizures more quickly). After a week or so, I tried cutting back on the pheno. But she started seizuring badly again so I increased the dose. I had to increase the dose several times which scared me to death.
Now I'm able to cut back her dose again and I haven't had to use the valium. At night, I keep her in a small padded cage. During the day, she's in a four-foot flight with two elderly doves, two cockatiels, and an elderly eastern rosella. She loves that and is distracted enough so she doesn't "think" about seizuring.
I nearly put Carnation to sleep three weeks ago. I'm hoping she is finally (permanently) stabilized so she can lead a somewhat normal life for the rest of her days.