Clinical characteristics and mode of inheritance of familial focal seizures in Standard Poodles

Objective—To determine clinical characteristics and mode of inheritance of seizures in a family of Standard Poodles. Design—Case series. Animals—90 Standard Poodles descended from the same maternal bloodline (30 with probable idiopathic epilepsy [PIE] and 60 without any history of seizures). Procedures—Researchers contacted owners to determine whether dogs had ever had any seizures and, if so, the nature of any such seizures and any potential underlying causes. Dogs were considered to have PIE if they were between 6 months and 7.5 years old at the time of seizure onset and had no evidence of any underlying cause. To determine the mode of inheritance, segregation analyses were designed to allow the family to be analyzed as a whole, as opposed to as nuclear families. Competing models of inheritance were compared statistically for their ability to explain the data. Results—Of the dogs with PIE, 28 (93%) had focal onset seizures with or without secondary generalization. Median age of onset was 3.7 years; 6 do...