Good to learn and have this feed back. It is out there more than we think. Sorry, for the dogs that have to go through even one episode of this. We can test and avoid it in the future.

It has become clear to me over the past week or so that EIC is out there way more than we think. It is tricky because it seems that an affected dog can go its whole life without an episode. On the other hand, your seemingly healthy dog can one day have a seizure and die. Because of this contradiction, it is easy for us to either put our head in the sand or over react. There is a lot of clear information, including a good test, available for us to make balanced decisions with. Making reasoned and balanced decisions is what we all need to do.

That is great for those EIC affecteds that have not collapsed but give them the right scenario and trigger, they will. I know of more than one dog that is MH level, EIC affected and has never collapsed running hunt tests or training even. If you think about it, hunt tests are controlled. Yes, they are and so is training.

These MH dogs that I know of will and have collapsed every time running a rabbit. Think about it. This is not controlled and they run and zig zag for quite awhile.

EIC is out there heavily and it's real. The test is designed so we never produce another EIC affected.

At field training I was speaking with the owner of an OTCH MH Golden Retriever who is EIC Clear....and has had collapses when food is involved. These are experienced dog people who swear that these are true collapse episodes.

the dog is collapsing from something other, if the dog is truly EIC clear.

My EIC affected is 9yrs old. Has been working in the field for 4-5 years now. No episodes nor symptoms to lead me to think an EIC collapse would occur. This heat and humidity this year has been the worst ever and still no symptoms/collapse. Oh, and my dog does chase squirrel and rabbit, but this dog is not a beagle in the sense of running rabbit. Those beagles will run for miles and no sensible labrador of mine will run like that. For my dog, retirement from competition is only a short time away.

I can only hope as we learn about the more and more EIC Affected Dogs(whether they collapse or not) that are out there we are using this information to better the breed. As we all do I have surfed websites and still see breeders breeding EIC Carrier to Carrier or EIC Affected to Carrier. The idea is to take your knowledge and put it to work.

I know for me and my affected girl it is a matter of knowing I can only Breed her to EIC "Clear" which will result in a litter of EIC Carriers. When we run on the next generation we Breed that pup to a "Clear" and then in a matter of 2 Generations can erase the Affected from my program and that line.
I think we owe it to our breed.

I have a 6mo which one parent was clear, the other a carrier. When should I have her tested. I am assuming that she will not be affected, but want to make sure.

What are the signs of EIC?

If the parents were tested clear and carrier, your dog has a 50/50 chance of being either a clear or carrier. There would be 0% chance of being affected. I believe you can do the test at any time.

Yes, that is correct you can test at any time as early at 2 weeks of age. I believe the information is on the Univ of Minn website.

You can send in dew claws, so that's pretty early