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We now have a new website dedicated to Episodic Falling. It will provide a lot of information including a video of an affected dog and a bulletin board for help and support. Please go to the link below |
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My grateful thanks to my good friend Dorothie Hellman for caring enough to sponsor this new site and for all her hard work in getting it up and running. |
UPDATE APRIL 2004 Great news, research into Episodic Falling is in progress at The Animal Health Trust, Newmarket, UK, led by neurologist Dr Jacques Penderis. To continue to a satisfactory conclusion ( a DNA marker) support and information is required from breeders and owners of affected animals. Blood samples and pedigree information are needed and will be treated in complete confidence. For full information please contact Dr. Jacques Penderis directly . Please support this research and come forward now with any information. It is so important for the welfare of our beautiful breed. Please don't let this wonderful opportunity pass by. UPDATE JUNE 2005 Dr Jacques Penderis is now located at The University of Glasgow where he will continue his research in collaboration with The Animal Health Trust. Please note his new email address below. |
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IMPORTANT NEWS September 2003 Episodic Falling has been in evidence in Cavaliers for over 30 years. In the past it has been wrongly diagnosed as epilepsy,hydrocephalus,scottie cramp or simply written off as a "funny turn". Mrs. Tina Whittaker (Tilalee Cavaliers), who owns a bitch suffering from this condition, has been trying to raise awareness and find more information and it is due to her that I have,once again, become involved. There has recently been a significant increase in the number of reported cases, not only in the UK but also in New Zealand, USA and Canada. Thanks to one very dedicated breeder in New Zealand, Mrs. Christa Krey (Lessentine Cavaliers), we now have NEW EVIDENCE that this condition is hereditary and that the mode of inheritance is likely to be a straight recessive gene. Please read her findings below:
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To the person that is not familiar with the syndrome of episodic falling in Cavaliers, a severe case can look like an epileptic
fit, but the dog keeps looking at you and does not lose control of bowel or bladder movement. However epilepsy is a brain
malfunction and the falling syndrome is associated with a muscular deficiency (my vet has done some research and found that
a muscle biopsy could identify the problem), mostly activated by stress. Running at high speed may be enough stress to trigger
an episode, but a sudden shock can also start one, and in some cases the dog falls over so frequently without obvious stress,
that putting it out of it's misery is the only solution. The various degrees of symptoms have led to a variety of diagnoses
in the past as, on the whole, veterinarians have not been aware of this problem. Though the problem has been around for over
20 years it was considered very rare in the U.K.
Well no longer, as the mode of inheritance is a straight recessive one as far as I have experienced. Carrier dogs are completely
unaffected and therefore unrecognised. If used in breeding the probability that their offspring are carriers is 50% if the
other parent is clear, and these pups will go into the gene pool unrecognised as well;thereby increasing the possibility that
two carriers will meet in a mating over time. When this happens, the Mendelian expectancy is one in four pups to have the
problem, two in four pups to be carriers and one pup to be clear. The carriers and non-carriers can not be distinguished from
one another. So years can go by in a breeding line with carriers present in each generation and nothing happens because by
chance the carriers are not mated to each other or the problem is put down to other causes when it shows up.
This is what has happened to me. In retrospect I know that I have had carriers for over twenty years from some English imported
dogs I used. I even had some dogs that had the problem unbeknown by me. For instance a bitch that died long ago, fell off
the staircase and had a fit, I rushed her to the vet, (by the time we got there she was long back to normal) and he thought
she must have fallen on her head and gave her anti-inflammatory drugs. Sometime later in her life she had another fit and
that was all she ever had. I strongly suspect now that she had the syndrome. I have since had another bitch who had a fit
when coming off a plane, this was put down to stress by the vet and I was told not to worry about it as dogs could have an
isolated fit for many reasons. I know now that she has the problem as she produced the first and worst affected pup, that
started my search for information. (The litter consisted of five pups, the badly affected pup , a mildly affected pup and
the rest must be carriers.) The sire is a carrier and so was his father before him, as some of his pups are also affected,
meaning their dams were carriers also. I had thrown two lines of dogs together when this problem came out into the open. So
to get to the bottom of this, I have done test matings over the past 18 months, deliberately mating my bitches to a dog that
had the problem in a mild way. He would go slightly stiff in the legs when running at speed. Initially I had him checked out
by a vet because I noticed this, but the vet could not find anything structurally wrong and told me not to worry. So I used
him to a bitch who was unbeknown to me a carrier, she produced my second severely affected pup. I test mated after that to
find any other carriers in my lines. As all my dogs go back to two imports I can now identify, by tracing back, which dogs
are carriers These dogs came from well known kennels in the U.K. and were used extensively in Australia and New Zealand, and
of course their parents (one of whom must have been a carrier) were used in England. These dogs are all dead now, but their
genes are, by now, widely spread. It is also fair to assume that they were not the only carriers in the U.K.
By test mating I have identified more carriers and produced more pups with the syndrome.
Here is what I have found:
The problem becomes apparent between four and five months of age. I have kept all my litters until then.
The number of affected pups has been true to Mendelian expectations e.g. carrier to carrier - one in four pups has the problem,
carrier to affected dog - two in four pups have the problem.
Variety of symptoms: The isolated fits, like an epileptic fit, can occur at any time in life and do not pose a problem to
the dog on the whole, but if they occur the dog should not be bred from. The other symptoms appear at aroundf our to five
months..
Two severely affected pups kept falling down frequently and had to be put down.One of these was also a fly catcher. (I bought
them back as they had been sold at eight weeks before awareness of the problem). I had one more severely affected pup in a
test mating, it was also put down.
The mildly affected pups (and I have had several in different litters), have symptoms from suddenly just standing as if frozen
for a couple of minutes, to haring when running or running with stiff back legs slightly sideways, or occasionally falling
over when running at very high speed or jumping up at people.
I have been fortunate in finding good free homes for these pups, always telling the owners that there is a small possibility
that the dog might have a fit in the future if highly stressed and not to panic if that happens; and given them a printout
of my vet's findings, so their own vet will know. In the pet home situation with older people who do not exercise their dogs
vigorously or excite them unduly, the symptoms are not noticeable as a rule.
As for future breeding ? I could have chosen to pack it in as most of my dogs have turned out to be carriers (all going back
to the same two imports and their descendants) but most of them are old and through my test mating I have also identified
the clear dogs and will further test mate my young bitches in the future. How to do this? If a bitch is mated to an affected
dog, all the pups will be carriers but fine as pets, if the bitch is clear! If she is a carrier, one in four pups is expected
to have the problem by five months old. (This is the expected percentage only, I had one in a litter of three and two in a
litter of six). Mating a dog to an affected bitch you can find a clear dog. It is time consuming and costly and can be heartbreaking,
but the only other option, buying new stock, is no guarantee that it will not happen again.
Lastly I have spoken to some breeders who have in the past used the same dogs as I have and the same problem had cropped up
for them but was not recognised by vets for what it was. So I am sure that inheritance is not random and my own matings have
given the expected results for direct inheritance through a recessive gene. Because of the wide range of symptoms, it has
been suggested to me that the mode of inheritance may be poly-genetic. I am more inclined to think that we are dealing with
a dilution factor like the C gene in the inheritance of coat colour in the Guinea pig, where CC = rich gold, cd/cd =buff,
ck/ck = cream and c/h/ch = white, and their combinations= shades ranging between gold and white. It would need research to
find out if this is correct.
Christa Krey
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We are now appealing to all breeders and owners to come forward with any information and pedigrees of affected animals they own, have owned or have produced, which will be strictly confidential. It is not our aim to discredit any breeder or kennel and we are not interested in hearsay or rumours. We need hard evidence . The information will be used to further Christa's research and to determine just how prevalent this condition really is. The ultimate goal is to instigate a research program. Below is a list of symptoms to look out for: |
Episodic Falling in the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
RANGE AND SEVERETY OF SYMPTOMS
By Christa Maria Krey
VERY MILDLY AFFECTED: the pup will freeze in mid-run and just stand there with back legs looking slightly stiff for some seconds,
then carry on.
MILDLY AFFECTED: the pup will bunny-hop when running at high speed.
SLIGHTLY MORE SEVERELY AFFECTED: the pup will occasionally lose control of it’s hind legs when running at high speed
for several
seconds, running with a very wobbly rear end, then carry on normally.
MORE SEVERELY AFFECTED: the pup will loose control of it’s hind legs and fall over while running at high speed for several
seconds, then carry on normally.
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VERY SEVERELY AFFECTED: the pup will fall over frequently when excited, not just when running at high speed. This pup may
also be a fly catcher.
ALL THESE SYMPTOMS ARE EVIDENT AT FIVE MONTHS OF AGE IN MY EXPERIENCE.
INTERMITTENTLY AFFECTED: the dog lives a normal life, but when under high stress will go into a muscular fit involving all
limbs. Limbs twitch and go stiff alternately. There is no loss of consciousness and no salivating or wetting. The fit may
last up to three minutes and can occur at any time in life. One known dog had his first fit at two years old, one known bitch
had her first fit at four years old and by age seven had had three fits altogether; all induced by high stress situations.
I would like to add to Christa’s list the symptoms shown in my own affected bitch.
The hind legs would be flexed and stiff, her back would arch and twist her neck to one side.
Her front legs would rise stiffly over her head and cross behind it. These attacks could last anything from a few minutes
to three or four hours. Again no loss of consciousness just a wide-eyed frightened stare.
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Please help NOW by forwarding information and also by using these articles to raise awareness of this condition . Don't wait untill it is too late !! If you have information or if you need help and advice please contact us.
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