Sad news - Gunner has been diagnosed with epilepsy

We're heartbroken for Grey's brother Gunner (Stormdancer Swell) and his owner. The day before Grey went in for his MRI, Gunner had an MRI too. He's been diagnosed with Idiopathic Epilepsy. This is really devastating for his owner. He's started on medication which has side effects. He's very drowsy and has peed in the house at night. But without medication he was having fits every couple of weeks. If left to have repeated fits he could end up with lesions in the brain and eventual damage. The last two were in a single morning, the day after his MRI. The fits last from3-5 minutes. His back legs collapse and he goes down.

Epilepsy could be like a ticking time bomb for the UK slovaks. It can show up from 6 months to 6 years. The other slovak we know that is fitting but who hasn't been tested yet is of the same parentage as Grey and Gunner, but he's 5 years old. The UK slovaks are very closely bred with a small number of studs and breeding bitches, themselves from lines that are very closely bred. I would say the time has come for responsible action to be taken.

I'm trying to find out if there are links with the pain issue and epilepsy or if it is just a separate issue that we may have to face. Ideally I'd like to speak to someone in Slovakia for advice to hear if they have had experience of epilepsy in their lines.

Here is a link to Grey's pedigree. You can see that the dogs Hajasov Dvor appear again and again.

Someone kindly posted some useful links on canine epilepsy. If there is a plus side to this story, we're not looking at thousands of dogs that are potentially affected. We may have a chance for a case study because of the small number of dogs and also of the breeding stock.

http://www.aht.org.uk/genetics_research.html

http://www.canineepilepsy.co.uk/

http://www.veterinary-neurologist.co.uk/seizures_epilepsy.htm

http://www.ourdogalfie.com/