A glance at Oscars pedigree
would have been enough to set alarm bells ringing for those who were around
in the late 60's and early 70's and who will remember, if they care to,
the Hendrawen Quadrille of Eveley episode but younger breeders will possibly
not have heard of him. Quadrille was by Hendrawen's Vondaun Quebec ex Vanity
of Eveley. He won a CC early in his show career and, as breeders then were
not much different from breeders today, including my late husband "TV"
and I. This resulted in there soon being many of his progeny winning while
he was still a young dog himself and as a result even more breeders used
him.
Stories started circulating
that Quadrille was having fits but his owner said that these were the result
of him having been in contact with the distemper virus and that his fits
were no more hereditory than a broken leg is hereditary. Then George Woods
and Harry Dunkely of Novem alerted other breeders that 3 of a litter they
had bred by Quadrille had started fitting. We have retained a dog "Sheracyn
Nevada" and a bitch "Sheracyn Nemesis" from a litter of 10 by Quadrille
ex a Ch. Ludwig daughter so although neither were having fits we took them
to Dr. Phyla's Croft to have an EEG. Breeders were sceptical of this EEG
equipment which certainly did not inspire confidence. It consisted of various
leads which were attached to the dogs heads by pins and a bulldog clip
attached to their neck chains. The brain patterns were recorded on a length
of paper which Dr. Croft studied later. Of necessity the reading was not
very long so if it showed unusual brain activity indicative of epilepsy
on the short strip then it must be assumed that the dog was an epileptic.
EVEN IF HE HAD NOT HAD FITS. However, if there were no unusual patterns
on this short strip it could NOT be assumed that the dog was definitely
clear because unusual patterns may have shown up if the test had lasted
longer. Some breeders did not understand this and if they were told by
Dr. Croft that there were no unusual patterns they assumed that the animal
could not possibly be an epileptic. To further complicate the matter, some
owners who's dogs who actualy did show unusual brain patterns and who were
pronounced epileptic said that their dogs never had fits and this gave
further fuel who described the test and or the idea of epilepsy as an hereditary
problem. The fact that some dogs gave epileptic patterns but did not appear
to have fits may be because they were kennel dogs and the owners were never
present when a fit took place or possibly that the dogs never encountered
the circumstances which might stimulate the brain into a fit, but whatever
the reason some breeders used this as an excuse not to use the servics
of Dr. Croft and her EEG.
We received the verdict that
Nevada was an epileptic and was highly likely to eventually start fitting
but Nemesis graph showed nothing unusual so Dr. Croft felt that she might
not have fits. We decided to keep Nevada and to carry on showing him but
never to breed from and Nem we gave to a game keeper on condition that
she was never bred from. Unfortunately Nem had a misalliance with a labrador
and whelped a huge litter, the stress of which triggered off fits and she
was put down. Ultimately 5 from our litter of 10 died or were put down
with fits. Nevada continued to win and although it was well known that
Dr. Croft had pronounced him to be an epileptic quite a few breeders tried
hard to persuade us to let him mate their bitches. One lady who was emigrating
even wanted to take a bitch in whelp to Nevada to her new country "after
all, nobody there would know about epilepsy".
Then came the day that Nevada
had his first fit. To see this lovely and much loved dog thrashing in the
dirt, mouth bleeding from a bitten tongue, eyes staring, no control over
bladder or bowel and, rather unusually screaming quite horribly was a pitiful
sight is unforgettable.
Nevada gained his title at
Crufts 1970, was BOB and RCC in working group. A couple of months later
he started to fit in the morning and as he came out of one fit he went
into another. I was on my own that day with no transport and unable to
get a vet to come to the house. I sat with him all day watching him get
weaker and weaker but the fits continued until TV eventually arrived home
and we took him to the vet where he was put to sleep with us holding him.
After Nevada's death
other Quadrille sons and daughters "disappeared" though some went on to
be bred from quite extensively and have themselves produced epileptic progeny.
Quadrille himself died and his obituary, written by one of the then most
respected breeders (now deceased) ignored all mention of fits and stated
that "he died of a tired heart". Of course he did, so would have Nevada
if the vet had not intervened.
German dogs were coming into
this country thick and fast and many breeders felt confident that by their
use there would be no problem with epilepsy. Fant V D Weinerau arrived
and in time produced several different progeny from different bitches.
Luckily he had not been used very much and his owner removed him from stud
before too much damage was done. There have been other imports known to
have produced fitting off spring and some are mentioned in Dr. Willis book
"The GSD a Genetic History of the Breed".
The division in the breed
between "English" and "German" enthusiasts meant that the 2 sides rather
lost contact with each others pedigrees and Quadrille has now disappeared
off most pedigrees altogether while his sons and daughters who are known
to have produced epileptics are almost off. This means that the newer younger
breeders on the "English" side are often unaware of what lies behind their
litters. Isabelle Donkin is regularly asked to search the pedigrees of
fitting Shepherds and has been horrified by the amount of lines going back
to Quadrille, in one case in excess of 30 lines. Those on the "German"
side would not, of course, be using dogs that have this amount of Quadrille
in them but he lurks off some of the pedigrees of both dogs and bitches
of this side too. Recently Isabelle sent me details of a Shepherd who could
be described as colloquially as being on the "German" side. Quadrille appears
6 times just off the pedigree and while Quadrille 6 times that far back
will probably give no problems what will happen in a year or two when the
unwarily start doubling up.?
There are always breeders who will not see the
writing on the wall, some even doubt that epilepsy is inherent. At the
AGM of the League in 1982 a breeder who is still alive and still breeding
cast doubts on epilepsy as an inheritable condition and put forward the
theory that rough play between litter mates causes blows to the head that
can later result in fits. About the same time a very well known German
judge giving a talk over here said that fits in Germany were not inherited
but were due to a vitamin deficiency. Blows to the head, white flour, contact
with a virus, vitamin deficiency, crossing the North Sea (that affects
the hops too!) etc., etc., may well be causes of fits but when none of
these things is the reason it only leaves the pedigree.
So why have I dragged up
all this ancient history?. Not to start a which hunt but hopefully to persuade
breeders to check further back than the actual paper that the pedigree
is written on and to suggest that stud dog owners check behind the pedigree
of bitches brought to their dogs. It may be very flattering when someone
from the other side decides to use your dog but you will not be very happy
if the bitch has multiple suspect lines but your dog gets blamed for any
later problems! I also urge owners and breeders to send details of fitting
Shepherds, or of those suffering from ANY other suspect inherited conditions,
to be put on the Breed Councils data base, to paraphrase Shakespeare "The
evil dogs do lives after them" so unless the breeders of today take a more
open approach than those of the past there will be more broken hearted
owners like Linda Allan asking "WHY ME?".