Thank you all so much; Rufus is much more like himself today and here he is jumping for joy on the beach



We are very fortunate to have such a good vet and also lots of helpful and supportive people on here. Alison has given me some interesting stuff about nutrition and seizures/epilepsy which I am reading through at the moment. Obviously if anybody wants the links just let me know.....

Katherine

Love the ears

Can't edit my post; Alison is, of course, Frosty......

I started similarly about 2 years ago with my doodle.
His seizures were very definite though with the whole body jerking down on the ground, lasting about 30 minutes before the quiet recovery period started.
I talked it through with different vets within the practice, in the early days.
Sadly the fits got more regular and a lot worse.
Then he started having 2 in a row, coming out of the first then going immediately into a much bigger seizure.
The severity became worse also, eg chairs knocked over, a bitten tongue and a cut eyelid from damage during the fit.
Eventually he was admitted to the veterinary college hospital.
He was there for 3 days and had the full work up, including full neurological examination, MRI scan, sampling of the CSF [fluid around the brain] and yet more blood tests.
They ruled out another more sinister in terms of prognosis [brain tumours etc].
The diagnosis was 'epilepsy' and with no other cause found they explained that it was almost certainly hereditary.
The specialists told me to inform and advise the owners of the parent dogs that they should seriously consider not breeding from those lines again.
He does still have seizures [not as dreadful as the dangerous ones] but remains well in between times on daily medication.
It has been very difficult to get the dosage right though, and he still has to go in for regular blood tests - so he often has funny little bare patches in his fleece.
It would be interesting to see if there are any similarities in the family trees of any doodles with seizures.
In such a small gene pool it would be tragic to breed this horrible condition into the doodle community here.
I hope you don't have such an awful time as we have had, I think our experience was at the worse end of the spectrum.
Kind regards and best wishes.

Jill, what a ghastly thing to have to live with. My first dog, a lab cross, had seizures in later life and despite medication eventually got into one he could not recover from. I dreaded seeing his eyes begin to bulge as the fit started. He always needed intervention to get out of fits which is why he was medicated, and blood tests initially proved nothing although eventually his liver count was very high.

Like you, I would hate to see any congenital problem in the labradoodle "breed".

Katherine, how is Rufus? Been watching this thread for the latest! Hope he's had no more problems.

Thank you Claire.
Very kind.
In between it all he's still a mad and happy doodle.
So that's wonderful.
Dogs are amazing - they really do live for the moment, don't they.
Jill

Jill, thank you for sharing your experiences and I am so sorry to hear of the dreadful time your doodle has had.....We have so far been fortunate in that Rufus has been perfectly fine since this one episode.

I know that epilepsy is very difficult to diagnose and it is a series of elimination. My own niece became epileptic as a teenager with the grand mal type which was a great shock to us all. Her specialist has never been able to identify the cause of this as there is no history of epilepsy in either side of the family going back many generations and nor has she ever had an accident which might trigger the condition (violent head injury etc). The drugs have been a problem for her; getting the dosage right is a nightmare and there are side effects such as constantly feeling hungry, being excessively tired and feeling down.....We are very proud of her for managing to overcome all these problems,taking an excellent degree and having a successful career. But it is a very serious condition and it is a constant worry, particularly when she travels abroad alone....

Going back to doodles, I agree wholeheartedly that it would be dreadful to think of this condition becoming common in the doodle although I believe that poodles are prone to epilepsy and it often doesn't appear until the dog is three years old. So people could well be using stud dogs who are otherwise fully health tested in complete innocence. I do know that Rufus's siblings have not suffered any kind of fits; if he does have another one he will be having the full range of tests that you describe.

I hope your boy continues to do well on his treatment and lets hope for more advance for dogs and humans as so much of this condition is still shrouded in mystery......
Best wishes
Katherine

Thanks for thinking of Rufus, Sue So far so good but it is very sad to read about Jill's experiences.....I know how upset I was after just one minor seizure so it must be terrible to see your dog going through repeated episodes.

Katherine

We could all learn a lot from dogs

I meant to say, Jill, that I am sorry it took me so long to respond to your post. I have been away for a few days with limited access to the net, arrived home and my hard drive collapsed so have had no way of getting on here til tonight.....

Katherine

[quote="KateW"


I meant to say, Jill, that I am sorry it took me so long to respond to your post. I have been away for a few days with limited access to the net, arrived home and my hard drive collapsed so have had no way of getting on here til tonight.....

Katherine[/quote]

I was wondering where you were Katherine, I was about to PM to check that all was well in Gods Country

Thank you Katherine.
I'm glad things remain well with you and your Dood.
Jill

Been keeping my eye on this thread Katherine. I'm very pleased Rufus has stayed well