It has been one month since the original epilepsy research post. I spoke to Liz Hansen today to see how things are going. Liz said they have received 7 more samples in the 3 weeks that followed. She was pleased, and said it is always slow going and this is a good early contribution rate. She did not say how many pairs they have so far. She said they had updates to the list from last week that have not been entered yet.

The hardest part can be to get blood from dogs that do not have seizures. Generally, people with non-seizing dogs are willing to participate, but they have no sense of urgency. Typically they say they will be happy to have blood collected "the next time we are at the vets." I have one non-seizing dog whose blood I will have collected tomorrow. One of my girls is having a progesterone test so I called the non-seizing dog's owner to see if they would let me take her along to have her blood drawn. They were happy to have me do it.

I have spoken to a number of people who either have sent or are going to send blood from sibling pairs. Together,that will come to a total of 6 sibling pairs. I am sure there are other people who are participating that I don't know about.

You can send blood from more than one dog in the same package to save on shipping costs. You can keep blood in the refrigerator for a couple of days before sending it. So far, vets have not charged for the blood draws when they learn it is for research.

It looks like we are 1/4 of the way to having the study begin. If you haven't done so already, please participate. And a big THANK YOU to all who have completed the online survey for seizing dogs, and to those who have submitted blood samples. Let's keep it going. Remember, all we need is 25 sibling pairs, one with a history of seizures, and one that has never had a seizure.

Here are the links that tell about the research and how to participate.

http://www.canine-epilepsy.net/Docs/DNAsampl.pdf This one is supposed to be sent in with the blood sample. I had to send it in separately for one dog & that was OK.

http://www.canine-epilepsy.net/Srvy_Ins.htmpdf This form is to be filled out ONLY if the dog has seizures. You can do it online. You do not need to submit blood to complete this survey.

http://www.canine-epilepsy.net/Docs/DNAhowto.pdf This one talks about what they are looking for. IGNORE the part about entire families.

http://www.canine-epilepsy.net/Docs/SampHand.pdf This one talks about the blood collection & has the address for sending it.

I recently arranged to meet the seizing dog's family at their vet clinic and came with our 3 " Normal " dogs who are related to the seizing dog. His vet did charge me to collect from the 4 dogs. We did tell the dr that this was for research on epilepsy. I don't think alot of vets in our area do this sort of thing for free. Their time is worth something to them and their business is more or less the attitude.

What happened to the epilepsy research program that was going on in Canada? Has anyone heard about it at all? this was a few years back when it was an active topic on the board.

Maybe this was included in your other post, Joan, but is there a minimum age the dogs must be before their blood will be useful in the study? I ask because I know that epilepsy can present later in life- say when a dog is 3 or even older. The status of a littermate might therefore change, and that would be important to the study. I assume that there is some follow-up that would control for this? Fortunately for me, unfortunately for the study, I have no epileptic dogs and don't know of any off-hand. I'll keep it in mind in case I hear of one.

They do not state a minimum age. But they do ask if epilepsy has been diagnosed by a veterinarian. You are also expected to let them know if a dog's status has changed from non-seizing to seizing.

I was able to submit a littermate pair that is now 8 years old. That would be ideal as they are well past the age first seizures usually occur. There are 2 dogs that seize out of a litter of 9. You would expect 2 out of 8 for a recessive trait.

One of the links I posted is incorrect. The link that is wrong is a survey that is to be filled out for dogs with a history of seizures. It would be useful to the researchers to have this information, even if the dog is deceased and no blood is sent in. Here is the correct link.

http://www.canine-epilepsy.net/Srvy_Ins.htm This form is to be filled out ONLY if the dog has seizures. You can do it online.

I went to the link but it states that the survey should be used for dogs who will participate in the DNA research.
I have all the info from a repeat breeding many years ago where pups from both litters had seizures. I had waited to repeat the breeding until the first set of pups were two years old-did not matter as we know-first pup from first litter had first seizure at 3.
Should I still fill out?

The wording on the site is:

"We would prefer that the dogs reported on in this survey have been or will be participating in the DNA research."

Which I gather means, info is better than nothing.

That said, it sounds like you may have access to a sibling pair (if there are any still living), which is exactly what they need to start the study. If you can round up an appropriate pair, you can bring them to the vet together, and send their blood in the same package. Chances are your vet will not charge you for the blood draw. The cost for overnight shipping would run anywhere from to $30 - $40. I figure that is a small price to pay if it means you would never have to produce a pup with seizures again. Please consider getting blood for the research.

I would have in a heartbeat-this was almost 18 yrs ago-no pups alive..however I have a boy who was used as a stud (from those lines, 2 generations removed) who is fine but some of his get have seizures-we are asking the owners to send in those sibling pairs.