breeding

B Thompson · Post by **B Thompson** » Mon Jul 23, 2001 6:09 am

My bitch had a puppy who had a fit at 6 months, then nothing until 12 months of age.I have since found out that the sire has had another litter with a son with full epilepsy. 3 of his sons have had litters with no problems so far. Is it reasonable to suppose that the problem lies with the sire, not the dam?

Ned Patterson DVM · Post by **Ned Patterson DVM** » Mon Jul 23, 2001 7:46 am

It depends on the mode of inheritance in your breed. At this time the mode of inheritance in not well documented, or not documented at all in most breeds. For our studies the first thing we are trying to do is determine the most likely mode of inheritance within a breed. Next we are trying to find a genetic marker linked to epilepsy in that breed, and finally find the actual genetic mutation or mutations.

Depending on the mode of inheritance in your breed (which probably has not yet been determined), the problem could lie with both the sire and dam if the mode of inheritance is recessive or polygenic(a number of genes), or could be with the sire if the mode is autosomal dominant. If the sire is not affected with epilepsy the mode of inheritance could be autosomal dominant with partial penetrance, or single gene recessive or polygenic recessive. There is no way to know at this point unless your breed is one of the few with a fairly well documented mode of inheritance. In any breed there is no absolute way to know where the problems lies until we determine the genetic mutation. This has not been accomplished yet in any breed but we are optimistic that this will happen in one or more breeds in the next few years. We believe that it is likely that there will be different genetic mutations and different modes of inheritance in the different breeds.

I strongly encourage you to consider participating in our studies - see the reseach section for details. We we like to have the dam, the sire , the affected dogs, and as many siblings as possible participate. Grandparents of the affected dogs would be also appreciated.

[This message has been edited by Ned Patterson DVM (edited 07-23-2001).]

B Thompson · Post by **B Thompson** » Tue Jul 24, 2001 6:45 am

As far as I have been able to research, there has been no sign of fits in this bitches ancestors.
I have since heard that an ancestor of the sire did have fits.
If I am careful to research the lines of a new sire, is it reasonable to suppose that her new pups will be OK.
Epilepsy is not a great problem in this breed.

Janet Woods · Post by **Janet Woods** » Wed Jul 25, 2001 10:55 am

Hi
Epilepsy is not common in Bloodhounds either, but my baby has it. Found out that the uncle may have had it. The breeder moved out of my area, no way to find them (out of state) Anyway, the vet I go to tells me they had just put her step sister down a couple of months before I went in with my dog. I immediately took her to a neurologist as hers were very bad at first. I wish I could participate in a study and wish I knew where her brothers and sisters ended up and how many are also epileptic, she was in a litter of 12 or more puppies.I heard that they had the mother fixed. I agree some of this cannot be explained and just happens.
Good luck with your dog, my dog had hers at rest as well out of a clear blue sky, very scary hard to tell why.
janet

Ned Patterson DVM · Post by **Ned Patterson DVM** » Mon Jul 30, 2001 8:12 am

B. Thompson,

You would be as safe as reasonably possible if you research the new lines carefully and if everybody is truthful in their answers. However if it is a recessive trait in your breed it would still be possible for the new lines to have some 'silent' carriers.

LZaworski · Post by **LZaworski** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 6:57 am

My dog has sired a litter in which 2 of the 5 puppies are seizing. Do I remove him from the breeding pool? My breed has a very small gene pool.

Thanks for any advice.

CEN

breeding

breeding

Breeding