I have a young Border Collie who has idiopathic epilepsy (i.e. no known cause): it appeared when he was just over 3 years old.

After one shocking night when he siezed four times in 35 minutes and had to be taken 15 miles to the vet, he went on medication (2 x 30mg phenobarbitone).

He is now the happy little dog he was before.

I am trying to run a little campaign to raise awareness of this disorder, because I have found that very few people seem to know it exists in dogs. I have a little poster designed, very simple, for putting in shop windows, local libraries, etc. If anyone wants it to download, please e-mail me (Snorrithepriest@aol.com) and you can have it.

It directs people to their vets, but also to an excellent USA site which is very friendly and helpful, at http://www.canine-epilepsy.net - it is a place where one can get all the latest info, plus post epilepsy questions and get answers.

Thank you for your time and patience with this rather clumsy new mwmber!

Ciao, Dougie

Hi snorri and welcome to the board. If you are willing, I would like to put your poster on my own dog site.
sighthounds@hotmail.com

You made it then Dougie :-) Welcome to the forum.

As a new member, you might find the following link on all things 'forum' of some interest.
Don't forget to have a quick read of the forum Terms Of Service too.

Enjoy :-)

I am now in the process of investigating the pros and cons of having a teeshirt made up to publicise Canine Epilepsy and to direct folk to the American site mentioned in the original post.

If it can be done economically, they will be on offer as and when. In the unlikely event of a profit, it will go to a dog charity (something like NCDL or Border Collie Trust UK - although I'll be open to suggestions!).

I am in the very early stages of this, so far, so don't hold your collective breaths! I have a draft design - you can e-mail me for a preview, but it may not be the final version.

You may have gathered by now that there is only one natural dog-related thing that I hate more than epilepsy, and that is the general public ignorance of it.

There are other things for which I hold a great distaste in the dog world, but they can be sorted (usually) by various degrees of communication with the owner! :D

Looks like teeshirts can be done for about £10 plus postage. If anyone is interested, please either e-mail me or reply to this post - so I can guage the level of interest before forking out for the prints!

Also, rough draft of design is available, again by e-mail.

Simply through sending the word out through AOL members, this teeshirt looks as though it is going to go into a second run of 25 prints.

Be there, or be square, as they say!

Once again, I emphasise that this is non-profit-making (in fact, I'm likely to make a loss on the deal, but what the h**l. It's the dogs that matter).

Teeshirts £12.00.. inc P&P, sizes S M L XL XXL, white, print should last the lifetime of the shirt, I'm told, with no hardening and cracking. E-mail for preview.

I hope I am not offending here - I am doing this for dogs, and dogs only.

An epileptic dog is (usually) perfectly healthy otherwise, and I cannot accept the "PTS" euphemism in cases like this. Sorry if this sounds in any way militant or non-PC -I happen to feel VERY strongly on this matter, that's all.