Grey's 2nd tremor incident might not be tremorgenic mycotoxicosis

We're now back in the realm of mystery with regard to finding the cause of Grey's second tremor incident of last week that lasted around 12 hours. The Environment Agency visited the area and found the patch of bright green in the field that Grey had obviously eaten from around 40 mins before tremors started. They confirmed it was a form of algae that had formed on the surface of the field.

I then spoke withe a neurologist at the Royal Veterinary College where Grey had been treated in January. They stated two things: Firstly, that tremors could be caused by algae. But secondly, that now he has had two incidents, it is possible that other than an intoxication, this could turn out to be an idiopathic tremor incident. In which case, I have to send them videos of anything suspicious if it occurs in the future.

So, this leaves me slightly in the dark and a bit worried. Grey's brother, Gunner has idiopathic epilepsy and is on medication to manage his seizures. It could be that Grey has a predisposition, a sensitivity to something in the environment that triggers a central nervous system response of this nature.

So, I'm putting the call out to fellow Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer owners to please please submit health reports to either the breed club or the SRHP health site or preferably both. Please get in touch with me by email (louise.oldfield@gmail.com) if your Slovak has ever had shakes, unsteadyness, tremors, fits, seizures. No matter how mild. I'm also desperate to know more about the incidents of cancer that have occured in the breed. I know of another dog with the same parents as Grey but from a different litter that has also had a Mast Cell Tumor.

It's so important. Grey's treatment for his tremors was easier this time because the vet knew what sedatives had worked last time. Please get in touch if you think you can help.

Grey had a 2nd tremorgenic mycotoxosis incident

I couldn't believe it yesterday after we were heading homewards after a lovely walk with another dog walker. I'd just said goodbye and was heading down the track to the car when Grey started shaking in his back legs again in the same way as the first incident in early January. He was less affected and I was less taken by surprise. I got him straight into the car, took a faster route to the vets so we got there 30 mins earlier than the January incident. He was put straight on phenobarbital rather than diazepam. The latter in January had caused him to be more agitated. He was at the vets on a drip from 2pm until 6.30pm when it was decided he had stabilised enough to come home for the night. He was restless and having mild tremors until 11pm. He settled as long as he was in contact with one of us. He seems to calm more if in physical contact. During the restlessness, grey kept doing nose nudges on me, as if trying to tell me he wasn't right. He's been taught nose targets in training for life rewards, so it makes sense to me that Grey would try a nose target to get to do or change something.

Yesterday was the first time since January that I walked in the same field that we'd been in on the day of the January incident. He'd obviously had a drink from the surface water on the field. Yesterday there was some green residue at the entrance to the field that was left in his beard.

But I have to underline that this sounds really rare and it's likely that Grey is particularly sensitive to something. No other dogs have been affected. I've called round the local vets and they haven't heard of anything. So perhaps it is like an allergy.

We shall have to avoid that area now.

Today he was unsteady still on his hind legs and walking with a cowboy gait. He is now resting and seems back to himself, although a little knocked out.

Blog post on popular sire syndrome in UK Slovaks

This blog post over on Galody says it all really.  The Slovak breed council are breeding less SRHPs than the UK and they are removing stud dogs from their breeding programme before they get to have too much influence on the overall population.

Surely, with the import of fresh blood from Slovakia the reliance on the already overused UK breeding stock should stop?

Grey had suspected tremorgenic mycotoxicosis

The beginning of the year was truly hellish. Out of all Grey's previous health related ups and down, apart from when he was 8 weeks old, I never felt we were close to losing him. But  I did feel it the first week in January and it nearly broke my heart. To cut to the happy ending of this story, he's fine now.

Grey started to have acute muscle spasms along his hind legs and entire torso on Thursday January 3rd at the end of what was a lovely walk in the countryside. He was shaking and having what I can only describe as convulsions. He remained on his feet throughout. After what turned out to be over 24 hours of intensive care at 3 vets, he was discharged on the evening of Saturday January 5th and diagnosed with suspected tremorgenic mycotoxicosis. In layman's terms these are toxins in the form of a mould that cause severe tremors and spasms by their effect on the central nervous system.

Here's a friendly easy to read basic guide to tremorgenic mycotoxicosis 

"Ingesting even a small amount of mold can cause small muscle tremors and ataxia (which will cause your pet to look like he/she is drunk or having trouble walking) for a period of hours or days. A large amount of mold exposure can cause severe tremors, seizures and even death."

Grey must have had a substantial exposure. Here's a video of the very beginning of the attack. I started filming him within a minute of the first spasm.



The new year had started started out with Polka having learnt to open all the kitchen drawers and cupboards barr one. I had stupidly put off moving all the baking stuff until my day off after New Year and I thought she couldn't open that particular type of cupboard door. That was quite stupid of me, because Polka is a very fast learner, and has set herself the task of learning all the doors! We came home from the cinema on New Year's Eve to find the floor strewn with empty packets of currants, sultanas, popcorn, Atora Suet.

We knew Polka would have eaten her weight in contraband but Grey looked less like he'd partaken of the booty. Off we went to the emergency out of hours vets in Canterbury to see in the New Year with the hounds being made to sick up what they'd eaten. Currants, sultanas and grapes etc are potentially lethal. Vets don't know why. it might be down to something they're sprayed with. Whatever it is, if it's going to be harmful, it might only take a couple. You can't really mess about if they've eaten this type of food.

Both dogs were given Apomorphine to induce vomiting. Polka had eaten literally the hugest amount you could imagine and more. The nurses came out to wonder at how could such a petite dog pack away such an amount of currants and raw popcorn. Grey had eaten less, but still it was currants and an entire packet of suet with parts of the cardboard box. They both recovered well and the next day we had a lovely long walk with our friend on New Year's Day on Tuesday. Wednesday we went on a long walk with Grey's brother Gunner and his owner.

Then came Thursday January 3rd. I went out with them both at lunchtime to our usual walking area; a network of fields covering a massive area below Minnis Bay and Reculver. The sun was shining, bright blue sky, fields were green. Both dogs had a lovely relaxed walk. Polka was almost clean as a whistle as we were homeward bound. Just as we were headed to within 500 metres to the car, we bumped into a fellow dog walker and his pack of english pointers and a spaniel. Grey unsurprisingly got a little over excited and started playing in an OTT fashion with Polka. He does when he doesn't really know what he should do. So Polka ended up covered in mud. We said our goodbyes, everyone calmed down and we three headed off back to the car.

As Polka and Grey were trotting in front of me down the long concrete road through the fields, I started paying particular attention to how differently their hind legs worked as they moved side by side. I didn't think there was anything wrong at this point other than fascination. Then Grey suddenly stopped and went on point to the left. His hind legs started to tremble. This in itself wasn't what got me worried. His hind legs often tremble through tension if he's pointing something he's caught a scent of. But this was a different to a point he was slightly crouched up and I could see he was confused or worried. He then walked across the path and into the field to the right. It was instantly clear something was wrong with how he was walking, his gait wide, his back legs now shaking more violently and tremors started up his torso. He was clearly worried and not fully in control.  I immediately started filming him for 1 minute the video is here.

After the video I managed to get him into the car, so that took me 2 minutes. By the time I was phoning home and the vets, literally a minute after, he was having violent spasms in the crate in the back causing him to hit his head repeatedly as he fell off balance.

It took me 40 minutes to drive to our vets through rush hour traffic. By the time I arrived he was in a dreadful state with very rapid repeating spasms and unable to walk. Our vets met us and came out to carry him into the surgery. I assumed it was some kind of seizure, perhaps epilepsy like his brother Gunner has. Our vets tried to stabilise the spasms over the next few hours in the hope that we'd be able to take him home and we'd have to then figure out a plan of action moving forward.

But the spasms didn't stop. He was given diazepam and later phenobarbital. By the time our vets were going to close for the evening, he'd been there for 3 and a half hours and he was still having spasms. We took the decision to transfer him to the out of hours emergency vets in Canterbury where he'd been on New Year's Eve. I found it very hard to leave him. Grey also suffers from stress at vets and being confined, especially in a strange place. At this point they were treating him for a possible intoxication of some sort, but thinking that the cause would turn out to be neurological. It was in no way related to the New Year's Eve episode as too much time had elapsed between and Grey hadn't presented with any symptoms in between. The spasms also had been very rapid in their onset.

Grey continued to spasm until late in the evening when he was more deeply sedated. We visited him at midnight and he was very deeply under with his tongue out. But he was still having muscular spasms.  At 8am the next day we transferred him from the out of hours vets to our own and from there he was referred to the Royal Veterinary College to their Queen Mother Hospital intensive care unit.

The journey there was horrendous. Grey was very stressed in the crate, attempting to pace and circle. He was repeatedly falling onto his face onto the walls of the crate and dragging his muzzle and side of his head along the wire. There was no other safe way of transporting him on the motorway than the crate. He was crying, howling and whining the entire journey of an hour and 45 minutes. There was nothing we could do to consol him. We just had to get there. He was clearly also suffering because of the drugs he'd had and by then he'd been having muscle spasms for 18 hours. He was exhausted.

The RVC is amazing. Everything you would wish a hospital for humans would be. They took him into the ICU and took a detailed history from us. The RVC told us that managing prolonged seizures or spasms of this nature was quite tricky. The use of Diazepam to control the spasms could have the side effect of also causing more unrest in some cases, which in turn could raise the temperature. Prolonged temperature rise could lead to organ failure. If the spasms were not brought under control, they said they may have to put him under to a deeper level like a G.A. for up to 48 hours where he would then need assistance for breathing and management of fluids. This would bring the risk of pnumonia. The further complications are managing dogs like Grey who present in an already stressed state. Panting, pacing, agitated. Again it was being treated first and foremost as a possible toxin related incident and secondly as a neurological issue.

We left the RVC with heavy hearts. I started the fear the worst. It suddenly hit home that this could turn out to be really serious because of the length of time that it had gone on. And then thinking about all the possible outcomes. As we drove near home, past the fields where he'd been taken ill, it was exactly 24 hours since the whole episode started.

Later Friday evening we finally got a call that turned it all around. The RVC vet who was looking after Grey called to say how he was sat in with Grey and how the tremors had more or less stopped. That they had tried to sedate him when he was admitted and that hadn't really worked, so they had moved all of the cats to another department! I had to smile at this. I was already feeling better about his stay at RVC because a friend had told me how the ICU there is laid out: Central desk with the cages arranged all around, so all the animals can be viewed. Importantly for me, I knew that when Grey was starting to feel better he would love being able to see everyone and that would reduce his stress.

The RVC said that they suspected that Grey had had a tremogenic mycotoxicosis. Basically, a tremor/spasm causing mould or fungal intoxication that he could have picked up from the environment that we walk in. In urban dogs this might be a mouldy cheese sandwich under a park bench or dogs getting into and ingesting material from the compost bin. They said it could have been some mouldy apples or something in leaves on our walk. It's probably more common than is picked up because when it starts it could be a number of things.

The wet weather we had for the entire autumn is possibly the cause. Everything was rotten and stagnent. Who knows what it was that he ate.

Reading up on the condition it seems specialist care is paramount. There are dangers of over heating, dangers of pnumonia, you shouldn't really induce vomiting.

Here he was the day after he came home. Looking beaten up like Rocky. Sore nose and eyes. But home:

  I feel incredibly lucky to have him back. I had a glimpse of what it would be like to lose him. I don't want to go there.  It took him about 3 days to start walking normally again. He's really well. Apart from one little lump on his skin on his hip that seems to have grown over the last few weeks that we'll have to get checked out. But we really hope we've had all our bad news in one go for a while. 

Please, no more scares.

http://cp.vetlearn.com/Media/PublicationsArticle/Bough-ToxBrief-SeptVT06.pdf

Extract from the book, Small Animal Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, by Elizabeth Rozanski, John Rush

Health Reports sent off

Good or bad, it's important for our breed to report the health of our dogs so that the breed can be taken forward. I've sent off a completed health questionaire to the Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer Breed Club and also to the new Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer Health website. I've also emailed Grey's breeder, Sandra Rowbury from Stormdancer.

Grey's Histology Report

                                                             
Here is Grey's histology report. The difficulty we have in comparing them to other MCTs is that most of the comparable data is for dermal MCTs. Grey's was subcutaneous within the tissue.  

I've been invited to join a weim group on Facebook where there is more experience of dealing with MCTs. So far have only heard of Grey as the Slovak with this condition.

He's on fine form. Being very well behaved at home without being offlead for over a week.                                                                   
                                             
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     
      ASG  : 4.7mth m SlovRHairPoint    
      Report Date  : 04/12/12  
      Request Date  : 30/11/12  


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Histology
Diagnosis        Mast Cell Tumour
Prognosis        Fair but possible recurrence, requiring attention.

Mass caudal right shoulder -
Breed: Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer (SRHP)

1 sample received; 3 sections examined
Adipose tissue: Expanding the subcutaneous fat tissue is a
neoplasm composed of loosely arranged sheets and cords of
neoplastic mast cells. Neoplastic cells are round, with distinct
cell borders and moderate amounts of pale amphophilic
cytoplasm with fine granulation. Nuclei are round and centrally
located, with finely stippled chromatin and small or
inconspicuous nucleoli. Mitoses are rarely observed, averaging
less than 1 per 10/400x fields, and there is minimal cellular
atypia. Larger numbers of eosinophils are scattered throughout
the neoplasm. The center of the sample is cystic. The neoplasm
appears to have been completely excised in the section
examined.

COMMENT:
This is a subcutaneous mast cell tumour. A recent study
suggests that most subcutaneous mast cell tumours are cured
surgically with a low incidence of recurrence and lymph node
metastasis. There is a more favourable prognosis for mast cell
tumours such as this that have a low mitotic index with only
minor invasive growth. Please note that the grading schemes
used for dermal mast cell tumours have not been validated for
subcutaneous mast cell tumours like the one present here.
However, if this mast cell tumour was present in the dermis,
then it would be compatible with an intermediate grade (Grade
II) neoplasm.

The C word - Grade 2 MCT (Mast Cell Tumour)

Oh buggeration. If the number of past serious conditions in one dog would enable us to be able to cash in our chips to avoid a future bad result, we'd be in. But nope. Grey's vet called today with his results. Unfortunately at four and a half years old, we've now added the dreaded cancer word to our vocabulary. But as many dear friends have been quick to point out Mast Cell Tumours (MCTs) are really common in dogs. I've not had time or inclination yet to delve into the depths of Google to find out our chances of this being hopefully the first of few lumps to have to remove and consequently many happy years ahead of us, or this being an agressive bugger of a thing that might get the hold of him.

MCTs are a form of skin cancer. Normally the tumours are subcutaneous. In Grey's case the tumour was in the tissue, which our vet said was unusual. They confirmed they were able to completely get all of it out. Which is good.

Grade 2 MCTs are a bit of a hard one to tackle. They're above the lowest risk which would be a Grade 1. But they're the equivalent of fence sitting in terms of estimating where on the scale they fit between the 1 the lowest and 3 the highest. Grade 3s have a very poor prognosis.

My friend Jo has blogged about the ins and outs of Grade 2 MCTs over on the excellent Galody blog after her bitch Slate was diagnosed with one last year. It seems we really need to know more about the mitotic index and the Ki-67 tests. This will tell us much more what we're facing and what our chances are. I'm very grateful Jo has done this research and published it. Not sure I'd be as able.

As soon as we get the vet report in we'll be sending off a health report to both the Breed Club and http://www.srhphealth.org/ With such a young breed (I believe most Slovaks are under the age of five in the UK?) it's important that we get as much information as possible collated for the breed as a whole.

For the moment, we'll have to embark on training to desensitise Grey to future needle aspiration at the vets for any future suspect lumps that are likely to appear. Unlike Jo's dog Slate, Grey gets very stressed at the vets and won't allow for sample taking. This reminds me of this excellent footage as inspiration from Denver City Zoo. 



And of course Kathy Sadao's excellent advice on spending as much time training general husbandry as tricks. Everything you ask a dog to do is really a trick.

For now, Grey is happy. Blissfully unaware that anything has changed. He's fit, healthy and insured. Of course I'm worried and really don't want to think about anything happening to my best boy.

Can you help? 6 year old Eva (Aucassin Despina) very sick with suspected AI Disease

Sadly the new year didn't get off to a good start for this 6 year old female Slovak called Eva (Aucassin Despina, d.o.b. 17/12/2005). I was contacted by her owner who is desperately looking to bring her back to health. She's been struck down with what looks like another of those mysterious Auto Immune Disease (AI) conditions, and has lost the use of her hind legs with suspected hind limb ataxia. She comes from what sounds like an awfully sick litter of Slovaks with a few of her siblings having died at young ages. Her brother had hind limb ataxia at 18 months of age (he later died). Eva herself has had a life of overcoming sickness, since 16 weeks old she suffered with AI issues and meningitis problem. Her pedigree is the same mating that was repeated two years later and produced one of the main stud dogs in the UK, Bruce (Aucassin Tonto of Rosetinted). They both therefore share the COI of 20.3%. You can see from the pedigree their breeding, hence the high COI. The inbreeding coefficient of Slovakian Rough Haired Pointers is 11.5%.

Eva's parents are Sholto de ''Etang aux Colverts x Aucassin Comfrey.

The problem I've seen with so many of these mysterious AI pain issues that have come to light that result in steroid or anti-biotic treatment, there seem to be as many diagnoses as there are dogs. But one thing they all share is how distressing it is for the dogs and their owners. So if you think you can help with advice or experience, or if your Slovak is related to Eva, please get in touch: greytheslovak@gmail.com and I'll forward it on.

If you suspect your own Slovak might have had a health concern, no matter how minor, that you can now recall, please do take the time to fill out a health report for the breed club. Did you have a pup that reacted badly to vaccinations? Any pain incidents that seemed strange? It is only through reporting of issues within our breed that we can help get to the bottom of conditions like this. The link to the health form is on the breed club website to download.

Here is the lovely Eva (aka giant Doof) in happier days spaniel sitting this summer.

Eva has now had a max dexamethasone jab, after which she picked up so it does look to be auto-immune related rather than trauma.

She is now on prednisolone at 4x original dose ie maximum plus antibiotics in case there is a spinal infection. Problem looks to be at L4/5 or thereabouts.

When Eva was small she had recurrent bouts of elevated temperature, pain, neck stiffness, loss of appetite all responsive to steroids from around 16 weeks on. The attacks put her on a drip in the surgery if not spotted quickly enough. Then decreasing attacks and almost no problems for 2 years with the last 12 months clear. One week ago she was looking for pheasants in fields. She had slightly stiff neck next day, no temperature, but over 3 days reducing hind limb proprioception ending up in loss of motor power and no response to pain. Very sudden and a new manifestation.

Her brother died in England at around 2 years after a lifetime of the symptoms suffered by Eva although he had some loss of proprioception earlier. Another sibling died at a few months of age in the breeder's vets. Another sibling was ill.

Really hoping that Eva recovers soon. If you think you can help, please do get in touch. 

UK Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer Report is now published

A very good day for the future of UK Slovaks. The health report written by fellow Slovak owner, Kate Reevel, has been published on the Breed Club website and is availble to download.

http://www.slovakianroughhairedpointerclub.org.uk/healthreports.html

It's also been linked on the following forums for discussion:

http://workinghprs.myfastforum.org/about4072.html

http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?p=2334293#post2334293

We Love Slovakian Rough Haired Pointers page on Facebook

Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer Facebook group

 

Water therapy

Firstly, thanks everyone who has asked about Grey and his skin infection. He's made an almost total recovery, so it looks like our vet was right. It was an infection rather than an infestation. It's more or less cleared up and he's no longer itchy.

He's had two sessions of hydrotherapy. He's been on the water treadmill. He did really really well. Tried to drink most of the water in a typical Grey way. Was much more confident by the second session. So really pleased with him. I think he'll be going in the actual pool for a swim on Saturday. Yay!

He's doing much better with walking and so I feel that we're really on a road to recovery now. Just have to keep it up.

Grey now also has a skin infection

Just when we thought it was all moving on to being better in the world of Grey and I noticed he was getting sore with some scabby browny red deposits on his back legs, bum and tummy area and then the fur started coming out around it. I'd first wondered if it was a type of mange, which might also have linked to a compromised immune system, but a trip to our vet revealed it is most likely a skin infection, but this could be linked to an immune issue. He's now on anti-biotics, Piriton and having tea tree oil cream applied. So he has the look of a monkey bum from behind. Let's hop he doesn't go bald on these patches.

top of tail on his back

on his side of hip

inner leg from back view

side of tail from back

Grey's doing ok at the vets

Just heard that Grey is recovering well from his surgery. Hopefully can get the monkey back tomorrow. Vets now think that he has some kind of trauma to his shoulder that is causing instability. We'll know more tomorrow.

Night, night, monkey.

Off to the ortho specialists tomorrow

We've got an appointment tomorrow to see an ortho specialist vet in Hertfordshire tomorrow morning. We were referred by our vet today. Today's consultation revealed that Grey's lympth glands are still up and they agreed his limp is bad. It will take us about 3 hours to get to the vets. He's off the metacam now and has been resting all day. I've not taken him out the front to stretch his legs at all. It's too exciting and he needs the rest. He's slept through.

Back to the vets tomorrow

I'm taking Grey back into the vets tomorrow. he may have to stay in and have xrays again. This is just so shitty and depressing for him. He's generally more insecure now while he's ill. I don't think he's feeling too happy in himself today. He stood and had a howl when some unusual noises came on the radio and growled at a sock on the floor that he'd left there earlier. His limp is worse today and I just hope we can find what is wrong with him.

Another young slovak with pain issues

We sadly heard of another young male slovak of 12 months with the same extreme pain symptoms as Grey, Gunner and Indy had. Crying in pain so much that had to be hospitalised. Jed has had extensive tests and the diagnosis is sterile meningitis. We hope that Jed gets better really soon and makes a speedy recovery. Details of his condition were posted on Dogsey Forum.

So why are these young slovaks coming down with such extreme symptoms? We have four reported cases of a pain condition. Two have been found to be discospondilitis (Gunner and Indy), one sterile meningitis (Jed), and Grey is the unknown. There is also a friend who has a 3 year old bitch (Eva) who also had meningitis and had to be isolated for 9 months from the age of 6 months.

Update on Grey: He's on the second day of a 25KG dose of Metacam. He's still limping and had a little yelp when going down some stairs. He's been kept in today and we'll speak to the vets tomorrow. We're just hoping that we can find out what the heck is wrong with him and get him fixed.

Grey's Results and Further Testing

Grey is doing really well. All pain has now gone. He's down to one set of broad spectrum anti-biotics (Cephorum), pain killer (Tramadol) and a pro-biotic ( Protexin). We had a second opinion on Friday regarding Grey's treatment and results. They said that it would be a good idea for him to be seen by a specialist to see if we can get to the bottom of what is showing up in his results as some kind of immune response to some kind of stimulus like an infection, virus or something else. What I don't want to risk is this going the way of Gunner's pain problems which were also linked to an infection that went undiagnosed for a period of time. We're being referred to AHT in Newmarket.

Gunner is waiting for his MRI scan to see if they can find out why he has been collapsing every two weeks. We heard from another slovak owner who has a 5 year old male from the same sire as Gunner and Grey that he also has collapsed four times in the last year in a manner that sounds really similar to Gunner's episodes. This is obviously a real worry and with such small numbers in the gene pool, it's really important for this data to be shared amongst owners and breeders. It may be that the cases aren't linked at all, but alarm bells do ring when you hear of other dogs with the exact same mystery symptoms.

We heard back from the breed club health rep the other day that Grey's details were part of the list that has been compiled re the slovak bite fault issue and that guidance has been sent to the Kennel Club. I've requested to see this advice.

For now, I've been working on doing bits of training with Grey to try to keep him from being bored. We've done more lead walking on the halti. My friend sent me this Susan Garett video to work through which I'd forgotten about!



In general he's really wanting to go and run now. But we've been told he can't until further notice. He's had a few mad runs round the kitchen island after we've got home from a lead walk. Bless him. He's going to kick up his heels after this.

Report back from the vets

Quite a mixed bag of news really. He's had a every test there is to have and is now home with shaved bits and feeling sorry for himself. The vet doesn't think it's cancer, so it's a huge relief. They don't know what it can be and have mentioned that it could be as a possibility immune related arthritis. His xrays look fine on all joints and spine. We've been sent home with more painkillers and anti-biotics until Thursday evening. So I guess more of the lying around moaning until then.

Let's not forget it's Gunner and Grey's 2nd birthday today. Here they are when they were reunited as adolescents and below a video I found on my phone from a few weeks ago up Botany Bay. Happier times. Both are not too well at the moment with also Gunner having fortnightly collapses. Happy birthday lovely boys.

Exercise Induced Collapse - EIC

Grey's brother, Gunner has had a couple of scary episodes where he has collapsed while out exercising. His back end went and he was out of it with eyes rolled back for 10 mins. He's had investigations and the current prognosis is that it is EIC which is Exercise Induced Collapse. It is possibly hereditary so something that I would like to get more information on for Grey.

http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/exercise-collapse.html

Dr Jimmy Simpson is doing a study on it at Edingburgh Vet School.

http://www.basc.org.uk/en/how-to/...deal-with-a-collapsing-gundog.cfm

Gunner's owner has contacted our breeder who is also the health rep for the breed club, so we should hear back soon. It would be useful to know if other dogs have had this in the breed and what is the best thing to do.

Gunner is home!

We just heard that Grey's brother, Gunner, is now home at last. He was sent home on morphine patches to manage his pain and the vet thinks he has diskospondylitis (also spelt discopondylitis). I don't know much about this condition yet, just starting to look into it now. I found a pdf paper on it. On wikipedia it refers to it being linked to Brucellosis in dogs that can be screened for in a breeding programme. I'll post more as I dig more out.

More info: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2105&aid=269

Photos of Grey's bite from the beginning

Grey's bite at 16 weeks old.




Grey's bite at 27 weeks old after baby teeth have been removed and the adult teeth have come through. The issue hadn't righted itself and required further treatment. The adult canines are puncturing the upper palette and he is clearly overshot.






After he'd worn the brace for a couple of months and had had an adult tooth out:





Latest photos after the brace has been taken off. He's now 11 months old. Not sure it's looking too great. The front teeth have come through in more of a jumble. His lower canines still seem to be impacting on the upper gum. His teeth are a bit discoloured in parts where the acrylic plate was.