Coming Soon: The EPI Database for the GSD - Page 2

Brady bee is my sister so i know what she and her dog have been through,hopefully he will not develop EPI. Anyone out there with a dog with this terrible condition PLEASE use this brilliant service provided,BREEDERS,AND OWNERS hide ths no longer speak up,for the future of the breed.

STILL NO EPI DOGS OUT THERE,COME ON THERE MUST BE SOME!!!!!!!!!!  LIZ

I have a dog with EPI in the UK, he is the second rescue dog I have had with this dreadful complaint.  The first dog (RIP Shadow) was a long coat, I have his pedigree, although black and tan he was bred mostly from whites.  My current dog I have no pedigree for.  Both dog developed this complaint at approx 3and a half.  Both dogs neutered. 

Is there anything happening in the UK to get to the bottom of which lines actually carry this terrible condition.  I do some work with rescue and recently yet another with epi turned up in rescue kennels, this condition is much more common than most people acknowledge.

Is there a current database in the UK, would people contribute their pedigrees if there was one. 

If my dog was a show winner (impossible because he is longcoated and not kc reg) but if he was, he would have most probably been used at stud before 3 and a half thereby passing on this condition.  There are tests once the dog shows signs but this is too late.

Any info gratefully recieved, I would even set up a UK data base if anyone is interested.

LynOD, don't assume this is not an inherited disease just because only one or two puppies in a litter are affected. There is also a chance that one could breed together 2 carriers and not get any EPI dogs and repeat the same breeding and get some. Statistically, if 2 carriers of a disease  inherited via a simple recessive mode are bred together, 25% of the litter will express that disease, 50% will  be normal carriers, and 25% will be free of the gene. These odds do not always breed true in a single litter, you need more like 25 puppies from the same mating to make the determination OR you need to breed together 2 dogs that have EPI. If it's a simple recessive, all puppies will also be affected. It's like flipping a coin 100 times; the odds say 50 times you will get heads, 50 times tails. However, the first 5, 10, even 15 tosses may yield heads.

I do agree that there is probably more than one form of this disease; one that may be juvenile expressed as the result of an immature immune system These puppies will outgrow the need for meds, however they might be assymptomatic carriers and used in a breeding program. There are many questions to be answered about EPI in this breed. Frankly I don't get a good feeling that there will ever be enough breeder cooperation to learn much more than we know today. Most of us are aware of one or more heavily used studdogs that have produced EPI in litters that are still being offered at stud with no disclosure of their ever producing this disease/condition. That sort of thinking has put this breed into a very deep hole where most all health issues are concerned.

Thank you for the info Blitzen.  I have contacted texas a&m in regard to participating in the study.  Right now they have enough samples to start.  They are going to keep my info and let me know if in the future they need more samples.  We may have to make public the breeder info to get an impact on this but I want to see what the research yields.  Shame on the breeders who knowing breed dogs that are carriers producing more dogs with this disease!!

Hi Blitzen

You say there are heavily used stud dogs have produced EPI in litters and are still being offered at stud, how can someone like me - currently a pet owner with my second EPI dog find out more information.  I just draw a blank.

If I decide to get another dog I would try to do as much research as I can to ensure the pup I bought had parents who were screened but as this condition has no current way of screening how on earth would I find out if the dam or the sire had thrown pups that developed EPI.

My dog is now gaining some weight after losing 15kl, thank god he was a bit overweight or he would have died with renal failure, it was touch and go and he nearly gave up the fight as his liver was in trouble due to the ongoing problems.  I would not want anyone to go through that if there are ways of avoiding it.

But if breeders are not coming forward where do we go?  I suppose it is all blamed on the BSB but my first dog with this condition was KC reg, hardly a BSB.  I only got hold of his pedigree by chance when he was taken out of a home where he was never allowed out of the kennel into the light for his first five months of life.  The owner was pleased to pass on his pedigree (the mind boggles)

Does one have to presume that all the dogs in the showring who are used for breeding have never developed EPI or thrown litters which gave dogs that developed EPI?

I also had a dog with EPI, she was just 1 year old when she was diagosed. I cant offer any blood or other samples but if it is wanted I do have her pedigree.

Estweyn, that's just it, you can't know which dogs produce any health issues as long as there is not an open database. Look on the OFA site at all the health tests they will report, how many GSD's do you see listed there? Not many compared to the number being produced every single year if you don't count hips and elbows.  It's all about peer pressure IMO and as long as the big players aren't going to take advantage of health tests and report the results in a public venue, other breeders won't do it either. The feeling is - why should I test my dogs and make those results public when   XXXXXXX  breeds a lot more litters than I do and gets a lot more money for their dogs than I do and he/she doesn't test and/or report their dogs. The Breed Betterment Board that has been talked about here many times of late is not used nearly as often as it should be. Why? Not a clue. I can tell you that some breeders really don't take it well when an owner reports a negative health issue about a dog they have bred. Some owners have been harrassed by breeders to take down the information. Some have complied, some have not. One of the things I noticed when I bought my first GSD was that very few GSD breeders had CERF certifications done on their dogs' eyes. Whe I asked why, I never did get much of a response other than - we don't have many eye problems which may or may not be true.

Ironic that GSD breeders place more importance on titles than they do on assuring the health of the dog before it is bred.