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This is not an easy post to write, but transparency is one of the cornerstones of my program. With the highs of raising dogs also come hard moments, and I believe it’s important to share both.
On August 9th, one of our younger puppies, Aelin, experienced several seizures, including three grand mal episodes, and was admitted to an ER veterinary hospital in Reno. Her initial bloodwork and distemper test came back normal, and at this time we do not have clear answers as to why this happened. Possible causes could include exposure to a toxin, head trauma, reactions to anesthesia or medications, infectious disease, or an underlying neurological or genetic condition. She was started on Keppra, an anti-seizure medication, which has kept her stable since. Between that first dose at the ER and her second dose (delayed by pharmacy timing), she went a full 24 hours with no medication and no seizure activity, and she has remained completely her normal self since then. As with many neurological conditions, one of the hardest parts is the uncertainty. We don’t yet know whether this will prove to be an isolated event or something ongoing. What we do know is that Aelin is safe, stable, and happy in the present moment. I believe strongly in transparency, so I want to share this update openly here. At this point, there have been no other seizures or neurological concerns in any related dogs from either side of Aelin’s pedigree. While it is of course frightening, there is not currently evidence of a broader pattern. For now, we will continue to monitor Aelin closely and work with her veterinary team. I’ll provide relevant updates as they happen. Because the cause is uncertain and we cannot say for sure whether it was environmental or genetic, I have made the decision to remove all of Aelin’s siblings who were being considered as future breeding prospects from those plans. Lapis, her dam, is already retired from breeding (for unrelated reasons), and Mushu, her sire, has no additional litters planned at this time and likely will not in his lifetime. For her half siblings, both the purebred Border Collies through Mushu and the purebred Whippets through Lapis, I won’t be making any final decisions on their breeding potential for quite some time. My plan is to carefully watch them and all related dogs over the course of several years before making that call, especially with the Border Collies seeing as they are still very young. It is not a decision I make lightly, but health and responsibility come first. I would rather be over cautious than take risks with something as serious as seizures. The one saving grace is that Aelin was here with me when this happened so I have been able to shoulder this responsibility myself and no puppy owner has had to endure it. The day the seizures happened was the day she was going to be picked up by her future home, and the day after returning to me after being with a trainer for a one month sport puppy start. She will still find a loving home and of course she always has a place here with me, as every puppy I bring into the world does. Update – 09/03/25: Aelin had her follow-up appointment and is looking great. The vet feels that the most likely cause of her seizures was toxin exposure rather than an ongoing neurological condition, though we can’t know for certain. We now have the option to start weaning her off Keppra in about a month, or to wait longer if her new family prefers. I’m also happy to share that Aelin has officially been placed in her new home. Her owners will work closely with their veterinarian to decide when and if to taper her off medication. For now, she is thriving, loved, and getting to live the happy puppyhood she deserves. Depending on how things progress for Aelin, there is a chance her Border Whippet siblings who were breeding candidates may be considered again in the future but I am in no rush to make that call and will need to see Aelin seizure free for a long time before I feel comfortable making a decision like that.
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Lapis’s labor began normally and there weren’t any major red flags but things slowed down and we weren’t making the progress I wanted to see. I tried all of my usual methods to help things along and assure everyone was okay, which they were, but it was going on too long for my liking. I checked the puppies regularly with my fetal doppler and they were never in distress, nor was Lapis panicking. She would push for a period of time and then rest for even longer, and while this can be considered normal, I was feeling unsure.
I brought Lapis to the vet (a different one than my usual, because they were closed) over an hour away and she was relaxed in the floorboard the whole time. They checked us in and did a progesterone test to make sure the pups were far enough along to be born - something I already was certain of, but they wanted to check anyway. Then did an x ray to count, showing just two puppies. Ultrasound confirmed they still weren’t in distress, just like I had confirmed several times at home. It was still stressing me out that Lapis wasn’t making progress and it was getting later, she was getting tired. So we opted to do a cesarean. It’s a good thing we did because once inside, the vet found a lot of scar tissue from her previous c section. I asked about this and they said it can be common for deep chested breeds to heal that way after a cesarean, and it wasn’t any fault of the previous vet or anything that could have been predicted or prevented. They agreed with me that this was the likely cause of there being only two pups and was why she wasn’t laboring like normal. Due to the scarring, the vet had to make a different incision, which is going to lead to even more scarring in the uterus later, so I decided right away that Lapis will be officially retired from breeding. I was already planning on retiring her after seeing such a drastically smaller litter, because to me that’s her way of telling me she’s done having pups! I want to see nice easy whelps and good litter sizes; this is part of how I judge a dog is a good candidate for breeding. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I usually like to keep my dogs intact even after retirement, with all of the scar tissue in her uterus, Lapis is at a heightened risk for pyometra so she will be spayed before her next heat cycle. I’m blessed and thankful to have so many lovely offspring from her to continue her line in the future. It's bittersweet to be raising her last litter but I'm sure the pups will make us proud. Let’s talk about CDDY/IVDD.
Chondrodystrophy (CDDY) is a common body shape in many breeds and is characterized by relatively shortened legs compared to body length. Although it is also found in many breeds that aren’t necessarily short legged but also just small. I’ve been doing a ton of research on is the CDDY gene in Papillons. From my understanding, it’s a fairly new DNA test and it’s also only a linked marker test through several labs. To reiterate, CDDY stands for chondrodystrophy and it’s a gene associated with short legs and a long back but it’s in most toy breeds as well as the low rider breeds and most bulldogs and spaniels. In some breeds it’s definitely an issue and some of the breeds with this gene are known to have back problems. While it is seen in most spaniel breeds, including Papillons, Paps and most other spaniels are not known to be riddled with back issues. Obviously they can and do pop up, especially in regard to injuries that small dogs are more prone to due to their size and fragility. CDDY is a fixed gene in many breeds, meaning most if not all dogs in the breed have the gene, like Toy Poodles, Beagles, Cocker Spaniels, Cavaliers, Papillons, French bulldogs, and more. My findings have been that somewhere around 80% or more of Papillons have at least one gene for CDDY. From the research I’ve been doing, with either one or two copies it doesn’t mean the dog will develop back problems, but that they’re at a higher risk and that risk level appears unclear. I’ve been speaking with a lot of other breeders of BorderPaps and Papillons about it and most of the Papillon people aren’t at all concerned about the gene and I haven’t seen any washing dogs from breeding because of it. It wouldn’t really be feasible to try to breed out of the Papillon population entirely because of how it would bottleneck the gene pool and raise co-efficiency of inbreeding, leading to more and other issues. The BorderPap people I’ve talked to mostly agree with me that it’s something to be aware of and worth testing for and within sport mixes, trying to avoid breeding two dogs with the gene, especially since we have Border Collies who are free from CDDY. Therefore it would be more of a problem in the multigenerational mixes. Overall, my findings have been that Paps and Pap mixes don’t have a high incidence of IVDD or back problems. But as with any dog, it’s good to be careful especially while a puppy is still growing not to do too many jumps over shoulder height, not allowing them to jump off furniture over and over, making sure they don’t get stepped on by bigger dogs or roughhoused too badly. From what I’ve found, dogs with phenotypically shorter legs and longer backs are at a higher risk of actually developing back problems - I.e. Dachshund like body types. Below is a list of breeds that UC Davis classifies as appropriate for testing, which you’ll see does not include Papillons. They do mention that it is not a complete list of breeds, since research on the distribution of the gene across breeds is still ongoing. Breeds appropriate for testing: Alpine Dachsbracke, American Cocker Spaniel, Australian Shepherd, Basset Hound, Bavarian Mountain Hound, Beagle, Bichon Frise, Boykin Spaniel, Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Chihuahua, Chinese Crested, Clumber Spaniel, Coton de Tulear, Dachshund, Dandie Dinmont Terrier, Danish Swedish Farmdog, English Springer Spaniel, Entlebucher Mountain Dog, French Bulldog, German Hound, Havanese, Goldendoodle, Jack Russell Terrier, Labradoodle, Maltese, Pekingese, Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Pinscher (Miniature), Poodle (Miniature and Toy), Poodle (Standard), Portuguese Water Dog, Pug, Rat Terrier, Russian Tsvetnaya Bolonka, Schweizer Laufhund, Schweizerischer Niederlaufhund, Scottish Terrier, Sealyham Terrier, Shih Tzu, Skye Terrier, Yorkshire Terrier. Appropriate breeding decisions regarding dogs which have inherited the gene need to address both the potential loss of genetic diversity in a population which would occur if dogs with this mutation were prohibited from breeding. “The Fibroblast growth factor 4 (FGF4) retrogene insertion on chromosome 12 may be responsible for a portion of cases of chondrodystrophy and increased risk for Type I IVDD in certain dog populations. Dogs with one copy of this variant have modestly shortened legs, while dogs with two copies are more likely to have the characteristically short legs with a relatively long body. CDDY can be caused by other variants alone or in combination with this FGF4 retrogene. The FGF4 retrogene also increases the risk of Type I Intervertebral Disc Disease (IVDD) in a dominant fashion. This means dogs with one or two copies of this variant are at an increased risk of developing this disease. While this variant is known to increase the risk of Type I IVDD, it does not explain all cases. There are other factors that contribute to the overall risk of developing Type I IVDD, including other (unknown) genetic variants, lifestyle and other environmental factors. It is important to understand the frequency of this variant within certain populations is very high, because certain breed standards call for a chondrodystrophic (short legs, long body) appearance. When deciding whether or not to breed a dog with this variant, we recommend considering the whole dog (rather than this one test in isolation). Other factors to consider include: * Have any relatives of this dog shown back, neck, or neurologic problems? * Does this dog meet the breed standard? * Has this dog passed its breed-required health testing? * Does this dog have the desired temperament for the breed? * Is this dog otherwise healthy? If all other health and temperament parameters are desired, then breeding dogs with one or two copies of the variant to dogs with no copies is a first step towards reducing the high frequency of this variant within certain breeds. Among breeds in which the frequency of this variant is high, dogs with one or two copies of this variant should not be immediately removed from the breeding population. This practice can reduce the size of the breeding population substantially, leading to other health issues associated with inbreeding and reduced genetic diversity.” - Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. “Please note that this variant is extremely common in many small and chondrodystrophic dog breeds. In these breeds, this variant may not be the strongest predictor of IVDD risk compared to other genetic or environmental factors. Research indicates that dogs with one or two copies of this variant have a similar risk of developing IVDD. However, there are some breeds (e.g. Beagles and Cocker Spaniels, among others) where this variant has been passed down to nearly all dogs of the breed and most do not show overt clinical signs of the disorder. This suggests that there are other genetic and environmental factors (such as weight, mobility, and family history) that contribute to an individual dog’s risk of developing clinical IVDD.” - Embark Veterinary, Inc. To sum it up, as with many other things in dog breeding, it’s a gray area and something that should be assessed by each individual as to what their comfort levels are. It will be my goal to eventually breed out the CDDY gene but I do not plan to cull otherwise exemplary dogs from breeding due to this gene. Sources: UC Davis, Paw Print Genetics, Cornell University, Embark |
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August 2025
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