Genetic idiopathic epilepsy - Page 3

JHC:  I purchased a Quenn grandson;  I am freaking out right about now.  Thank you for this information. 

Nans GSD - I do not think that you should freak out too much.  Remember Quenn has been a widely used male and with the inbreed the way it is at the moment he will appear in many bloodlines.  Nothing, as far as I am aware has positively identified Quenn as being responsible.

If breeders are going to be really serious about eradicating epilepsy, along with many other diseases that we see more often now, they would serve the breed as a whole much better if they opened up the bloodlines, even if this meant that they took a step backwards.   There are some anatomicaly good working dogs around which would help in this direction.  Also, in my opinion, the breeders should be more prepared to use a grey, bi-colour and black dog in their breeding programme.   These colours are still within the breed standard.   The colour that we see predominately today was just one man's dream and the only way the President of the SV could achieve this as quickly as he did was to closely inbreed for the colour.   Unfortunately by doing this it also stamped in the points detrimental to the breed.  During his term of office we also saw quite a few incorrect pedigrees which left breeders unknowingly using problem animals because of the corruption.

Mackenzie

Mackenzie, two thumbs up on your post!

When Koos Hassing (Tiekerhook Kennels) asked a past-president of the SV when a sable dog was going to receive a VA title, he was told "Not during MY tenure in office!"

Now that REALLY REALLY sucks! If a dog really deserves a VA title, it should get it, REGARDLESS of colour!

does not matter that quenn is in the line that means nothing the only thing that can be said for sure 100% is that both the sire and the dam are carriers of epilepsy the rest you are speculating about, the rest of the pedigree can not come into play unless there are animls in it that have been implicated in producing a fitter or is itself a fitter.

I'm not sure both parents need to be carriers of idiopathic epilepsy.

Scientists are still struggling to find out how epilepsy is inherited in dogs. Willis did say he thought MULTIPLE genes were involved, so it's not a simple case of a recessive gene, where both parents need to be carriers. Also, there are several different types of epiliepsy that affect dogs. The GSD kind seems to be multi-genetic. This means it can be inherited, so you should either stay away from lines known to produce fitters, or at least make sure you are not doubling or tripling up on these lines in your pedigrees.

In my post on this thread 23rd March I listed several known epileptic producing males who are behind the two VA dog I revealed on this thread.  The thing is that we will never know how far forward the disease has bred on.  The question is would you use these dogs with so many epileptic producing males behind them?  I would not.

Mackenzie

When mentioning Quenn, IF this is genetic, how many other well known dogs throughout the pedigree, would also HAVE TO BE carriers.

    And, I thought many were in agreement that color has nothing to do with most breeders decisions on who they will breed.

    Color has everything to do with 'alot' of the breeds problems.when breeders put color aside and breed for health and temperment first, we can get back to the basics of true German Shepherd standards.  JMO

Idiopathic epilepsy has no known cause, that why it's called idiopathic.  Fevers, injuries, toxins, any or all of which can be responsible or not. It's a very complicated disease and not all seizure disorders in dog are caused by epilepsy. I would hate to see an outstanding producer like Quenn have his reputation tarnished by the unfounded assumption that he is responsible for epilepsy.

If you have a dog that has been diagnosed with epilepsy, participate in the study I listed above. It will help the researchers isolate the gene/s that are responsible so non-symptomatic carriers can be identified and withdrawn from breeding. It's a no brainer that dogs that suffer from epilepsy are not breeding candidates.

Thats why I said that Blitzen, you can't just pick one dog out of the entire pedigree and point a finger,

    It takes two to tango, X2, X2 and so on and so on...