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Originally Posted by Margo
There are two types of epilepsy - acquired and inherited. To check with which case we deal by a dog we have to examine him. First the veterinarian will try to exclude the possibility of acquired epilepsy which can be evoked by different factors: injury of the head, diseases, aso.. If all this reasons are eliminated it is probably inherited epilepsy. Additionally in the most cases the inherited epilepsy disclose before the age of 5 years (usually earlier).
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I´m no neurological specialist either, and in dayly veterinary hours it isn´t that important. Under normal conditions you can´t diagnose epilepsy directly, you need a EEG for that and it is not available for normal diagnosis in dogs and only used for research. If you get in a dog that seems to have had a epilileptic seizure you look for all other reasons that could cause alike problems like heart failure, failure of several organs and so on. If you can´t find anything you diagnose epilepsy. If you have seizures without any diagnosable changes in brainstructue its primary epilepsy (thats the german definition, I don´t know if I translated it correctly) if there is any organic brainproblem it`s the secundary form. There are forms that only make changes in some parts of the body or cause strange behaviours and a generalized form with the typical seizures.
In humans the primary form is definatly genetic. In dogs there is a primary form at least in some breeds. Research for that exists only for some laboratory breeds and lines. The diagnostic possibilitys in dogs are often not good enough to differ between those two forms and the genetic way seems to differ between breeds. In cases like the discribed one where the seizures got worse under treatment and the dog had to be put down a secundary form is much more likely.
The primary form normally occurs between two and five years of age. Brain damages that can cause epilepsy don´t have to be that bad and the seizures can occure years later. We once had a case where we
think, that the seizure causing accident happend 4 years before, the dog ran into a fence and was a little bit dizzy for one hour. There is no way to get a secure diagnosis of secundary epilepsy in a case like that.
All these problems make the diagnosis of inherited forms so very difficult and more or less its a question of counting cases and watching lines. Anyway a dog with epilepsy should be kept out of breeding and it is for great interest for breeding that it goes to autopsy after his death.
As you see I´m not any wiser than you are and I have looked up every book in reach some month ago. As long as there isn´t a relevant increase of cases in a special line we don´t know if there is a genetic problem in the breed or not. The authors of the diffrent books give different advise for consequences. Some say you shouldn´t breed the parents of the dog too some just speak of the dog itself. I think you should watch the family very carefully, if there aren´t any more cases in the nearer relatives it is enough to keep only the dog out. But this means too that there is a problem with breeding dogs very early or very often. They might have a lot of offspring that has bred too before you get the first case.
regards
Ina