I purchased a racing greyhound pup (female) at welp. The breeding is first rate. The pup is now eight months old and has had two seizures (fits) within the last six weeks. The vet seems to think it is epilesy, but offered no treatment as it is bred for racing.
Q? Has anyone ever come across this in racing greyhound circles?
Q? The intention was to use this bitch for breeding some time in the future.Is that now out of the question?
Q? If it is epilepsy can the greyhound still race if receiving medication?

Hi.
I am sorry to hear about your pup.
I do not think it would be fair to race a Greyhound with epilepsy, even if it was ok to race her. You can confirm epilepy with a blood test. I would do this first then take it from there, there are many causes of fits in dogs.
Dawn.

I'm surprised about the blood test Dawn! Certainly I've never heard of it. There are several different kinds of epilepsy all from differing causes ranging from injury, poisoning and congenital. It can be due to a lesion or inflammation of the brain or due to a disease elsewhere such as renal or heart so accurate diagnosis is always difficult.

As can be seen, almost any of these causes would restrict the dog’s ability to race without incurring problems! One thing I found when I had an epileptic Labrador was that she never fitted during stress but the stress seemed to bring it on shortly after. For this reason she lived as stress free life as possible and died of a totally unrelated problem a few days short of her 14th birthday.

As far as breeding is concerned, in at least some breeds, GSD's Labradors and Goldens to name just three, Grand Mal Epilepsy is almost certainly hereditary and in quite a few other breeds it is suspected so with this type breeding should be out! Other types of epilepsy, types caused by injury or illness are not so clear cut. Although there is no chance with these of it passing to the puppies, the risk then could be to the health of the bitch, only your vet can advise you there I'm afraid.

Sorry I can't be of more help, John

Hi John.
There are tests being done in th US for hereditary epilepsy at the moment, and I know my friends GSD was diagnosed with Primary Epilepsy through a blood test. medical advances eh? must be a good thing.
Dawn.

New things are coming along all the time Dawn. The real secret I believe is in genome but with firms taking out patents on gene sequences they are beginning to ruin the whole project in my opinion. Research is stagnating and what few tests are available are costing more and more because of paying royalties. I also heard on Saturday of a positive genetic test for an eye condition which could not be confirmed with a visual test! The person concerned, one of the top canine ophthalmologists in the country told me that he is 100% sure the dog is clear!

Regards, John

Human epilepsy can't be diagnosed through a blood test! The most important element in diagnosis is accurate observation of the seizures.
Nowadays some hospital units use a combination of continuous video and electroencephalogram, to record the changes in the brain waves and how these changes show themselves clinically. MRI scans are sometimes used to ascertain if there is any area in the brain where the seizures begin - however, many people with epilepsy do not have any obvious focus.
I don't know whether any vets do such sophisticated investigations on dogs - I would think it would be back to good old-fashioned observation!
Cathy.

Dawn, are you sure that your friend didn't just send a blood sample to the Canine Epilepsy Research Consortium or VetGen for DNA testing?

Can't tell you where it was sent Sharon, but the result meant the dog received the correct treatment and drugs, and the GSD has been fit free for nearly 2yrs. Success in anyones eyes.
Dawn.

Hi guest,
Your situation is rather unusual.
My cocker mix had seizures begin to develop when she was about 18 months old. The first time, we thought she pulled a muscle. She jumped off the sofa and couldn't stand up after that for about 2 minutes. Then she was fine. When it happened about 3 months later and continued much longer than the first one, I took her in to the vet.
They did a blood test to rule out certain diseases/disorders that can manifest themselves by begining with seizures. When those came back negative, he told me about seizures. The research that I've done seems to confirm what he told me. Usually seizures show up in dogs 12months and older. So yours starting out so young is extremely worrisome.

Canine Epilepsy and other seizures is a wonderfully informative site that might be able help you with answers.

I was told by my vet that if Chienne had 4 or more seizures in 6 weeks time, then medication could be addressed to help her. Except for a really horrible experience where she stayed with someone else, she would have 2-3 mild seizures a year. This was manageable off meds.

I found that if she was stressed and over heated (NM weather :rolleyes: :) ), a seizure would occur about 5-6 days afterwards. She also had to have regular walks/runs to cope with her stress levels. We discovered that if she didn't get out on a long walk about every 8 days, she'd have a mild seizure too. So over and under exercise makes a difference in the brain.

Moving her since to cooler climes has really helped out. We're down to about a seizure once a year or longer now. It's fairly predictable now, since she's just over 7 years old. The last time it happened was in June, exactly 5 days after a long, very hot drive to our vacation destination and meeting up with a huge nosy (but nice) Bernese Mountain dog who was ignoring her back off 'requests'.

Living with a dog who has seizures is doable as you can see from John and I :) I know others who have their dogs on meds, but also developed them later in life. With you getting your dog for the intention of racing (very stressful, esp. the waiting and training times) + her having siezures so young, it is a definite concern for long term health.
good luck,
toodles

Hi i have a stafford dog with epilepsy when he first started with them the vet told us the only way to be really sure it was that that was causing his seizures was to have a brain scan hes on tablets to help control them and lives his life to the full we were told that the blood test just cancels out any thing else

Very interested in this, if it can be diagnosed by a blood test that will be a big help when it comes to selecting breeding stock. Would a test be able to clear a dog from carrying epilepsy, if so it would make available for use for breeding, dogs who are not used because they are related to those who have suspected but unproven epilepsy. Jackie