So a friend of mine has a GSP that has been diagnosed with epilepsy.  Is this common, I see a number of websites show that is not unusual for our breed.  Also, is this always genetic (i.e. should he contact the breeder), he ran the puppy really really hard when it was young (I expressed my concern at running a GSP that hard when it was developing), so I am wondering if he induced the condition?  The dog has always stayed super lean and has had trouble keeping weight on.  Any help is appreciated.

Ken

that's rough, my GSP had a few seizures over the summer but it didn't appear to be a result of epilepsy,  as she hasn't had any in the last 12-14 weeks I'm confident that they were triggered by environmental factors. we're off to the vet for her yearly in December so I'll be able to discuss it more thoroughly then.

anyway I made this thread about it, there are a few good links provided by some of the posters.

good luck to your friend.

Thanks Almost Heaven. She ended up having three over the summer but no more since I decided to stop taking her to the park in question.

I do hope it was pesticides but I'm leaning more toward a particular plant as I read that a few species can cause seizures in dogs. I tried to find some information about the plants in that park but to no avail, all I know is that there are some trees and flowers there that aren't exactly native to the area. Pesticide is a good bet but do you think that residue could last that long? The city tends to put up warning signs when spraying.

Fortunately, for someone living in the city I have a whole lot of places to go, many off leash, within 10 or 15 minutes walk so I'm not losing anything by avoiding one park in particular.

I'll ask the vet next month what he thinks and I suppose the final test will be next summer.

To me if this is in some lines, then folks should be told. What lines? Nobody wants to rat on another breeder, but if it is not brought out in the open we will not be able to isolate and fix the problem. I am sorry about the seizures. I would feel terrible if I produced a dog that had seizures or some other terrible genetic flaw that prevented the owner from having a whole dog .

What lines? Cough up your information so this doesn't happen again. Maybe the breeders doesn't know either if the info isn't making it back to them.

Matt

The diagnosis of epilepsy is a diagnosis of elimination, meaning they eliminate other potential causes of seizures and when nothing is left they diagnose epilepsy. Most vets will do a battery of tests to rule out other potential causes like tumors, toxins, etc.  Epilepsy is considered to be handed down from generation to generation, so if it is even suspected (as in Dwayners case) it would be good to let the breeder know.  Also, if it is epilepsy the breeder may already know as other dogs they have produced might have had seizures as well.  However, the family connection may be on the sire's side in which case the breeder may not have a clue unless another pup out of that litter has had a problem.  I would think in either case the breeder should be notified now.

Here is a link to a pretty good article overview: www.peteducation.com/article.cfm

Michigan is a rescue dog and we don't know anything about where she came from, her lines or if she's even a purebred.

The shelter had her for about four months apparently and I didn't notice any indication of seizures in the records we received from them. It's strange that the seizures happened after visits to a particular place so hopefully it's just that she ingested something.