They were both Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, totally unrelated and they had Eosinophilic Granuloma which is extremely rare in dogs.
They had bad ulceration in the mouth and throat causing them to choke sometimes till they collapsed, they were also very stressed and scared during thier choking fits.  They also became very lethargic and tired and did not want to go for walks.
Eventually the ulcers spread down thier throats until they could no longer even manage soft food.  They may have even reached thier stomachs.
It was so awful watching your babies go from being happy lively dogs to unhappy lethargic scared animals that would choke when they even tried to swallow soaked soft food bringing it all back.
Steroids were the main treatment for my first dog but they didn't work.  Then a new treatment came on the market and we gave it a try on my second dog even though it cost me £100 a month but unfortunatly she deterioated and did not respond.
My vet said very little was known about it in dogs being only a few recorded cases in another country and there was no cure, you could only hope to get it under control which in our case we failed.

I could understand two related dogs having something in their genes making them liable for vaccinosis or even if it was something common within a breed but unrelated dogs with a rare condition suggests to me an environmental cause being more likely.  What did your vet think?

My vet said it was just unlucky that I had 2 dogs go down with it as there was only about 6 recorded cases then in the world.
Isabel What do you mean by enviromental issues being the cause?  Do you mean something in my home or something I done?

My vet said it was just unlucky that I had 2 dogs go down with it as there was only about 6 recorded cases then in the world.

I find it extraordinary the difference in scientific studies and personal experiences.  I have found that, having worked for a phamaceutical company, clinical studies find whatever the lab assistant is looking for.  Also that you can prove whatever you want to prove by presenting the findings in certain ways.  And as always nothing in science is written is stone, can change frequently and is always "in the light of current knowledge"!

My personal experience is that Cavaliers appeared to be particularly sensitive to vaccinations/boosters, although the majority were OK.  But that's no consolation if yours is one of the unfortunates! :(

Yes I agree totally V, the words unlucky & rare get mentioned quite a bit.

I also find it extraordinary the people who pay for the research into vax are the vax companies themselves, only a handful of independant studies :rolleyes:

A case of who pays the piper calls the tune..........

There is increasing evidence of more breeds becoming *susceptable* to auto-immune disease & those diseases are undisputably on the increase  :(

Bev, I was told by Merial, the makers of the vax given to my pups, the disease he had was only case in Europe :(

ps environmental means outside influences, any chemicals in the air, pollution etc. It covers a wide range of things out of your or the manu`s control.

Not your fault or something you could have done anything about. I call it the get off scott free card

>I call it the get off scott free card 

Perhaps :) when it's one dog but when it's two unrelated dogs I call it the law of probabilities :)

As Christine says environmental issues can mean absolutely anything they have come across in the home or out the vast majority of which is totally out of your hands :).  Even if you allow for some exageration of the rarity of this disease the probabilities of two unrelated dogs in the same home developing the same thing is extremely improbable unless it is environmental relating to something they have both been exposed to.  If it was due to a fault with the batch of vaccines you would expect the vet to have seen the same effect in the others at his surgery that received the same batch.

I didn't think it was due to a fault in a batch of vaccines.  I am concerned it was due to immunising yearly when maybe it wasn't required so causing auto immune disease, which I am now finding more and more cavaliers are prone to.

I have just come back from my vets after having a long chat with the head vetinary nurse there whom i get on very well with and who knew all about my two babies I lost.
She was pretty much in agreement over dogs not needing yearly boosters and said many dogs do get lifelong immunity from thier puppy jabs or thier first booster.  The only thing she would be concerned about would be lepto but you can vaccinate for that on its own as she said that is an awful long painful death.
She is going to speak to the vets about doing Titre tests and find out cost etc and about my concerns and get back to me within the next couple of days.  But she said both my dogs will probaly be fine if not done or titre tested for thier first due booster but then titre test just before they would have had thier second.
She said it may also be worth looking down the homeopathic route although she couldn't help me with any practioners contact details.
She also did say that the yearly boosters my two dogs had that died of the auto immune disease, could have been the problem, but obviously can't be 100% certain.

Bev

Sounds very nasty Bev, poor little things :(
I found a little snippet at this link   http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1748-5827.2002.tb00026.x

I was also told the disease my pup had was extremely rare.

Going back to your original q`s, you can`t titre for Lepto or Pi & if your dogs were vaxed last yr they won`t need doing for another 3 yrs for the other 3 diseases :)

Bev heres some links with info about reactions.

http://www.cavaliers.co.uk/articles/articlevaccine.htm   Link below is what UK vets say

http://www.britfeld.com/vaccine-uk-vets.htm

http://www.dogsadversereactions.com/vaccinePredisposed.html

http://www.cavaliers.co.uk/articles/vaccineprotocols.pdf

Thankyou for all the links they make very interesting reading.