Health Testing
JME
(Junevile Myoclonic Epilepsy)
Dogs Affected with this genetic disorder display frequent twitches and or jerks which can start to become evident at or around the 6 month age period. Dogs affected by this disorder display jerks in line with what you would expect to see from an electric shock and are often very severe. The twitches occur most often when the dog is relaxed and just as they are drifting off to sleep or have been woken by noise and are still very drowsy, but they are not limited to this scenario, and they can happen when fully conscious and walking around or just sitting.
Like epilepsy in humans these episodes can be triggered light flashes, lightening or flashing lights, or strobe lights etc. The jerks themselves seem to be mostly apparent in the trunk of the dog and the head region which causes a nodding movement of the head and face. The severity of these eposides varies and is individual to each animal.
After the event has run its course (like their human counterpart) the dog will be very confused and may appear to be scared, due to the frequency of these events ( up to 100+ episodes per day) the dog is often lacking in energy and is tired due to sleep disruption.
There are some treatments that may help minimise this affliction but there is no known cure and this will often affect the life span of the affected animal.
The best and only prevention for this condition is testing to ensure that affected dogs are not produced.
Due to the import of semen into NZ from a carrier dog and progeny from this line being used in several litters from a range of breeders we know that JME is present in possible breeding pool of dogs here
To ensure there are no issues with this disorder in NZ testing for this issue is must to ensure healthy offspring
As far as anyone is aware this condition had not presented itself in pups bred in NZ, but as the test has only been recently developed (within the last 10 years) it is difficult to say if there were JME carriers already in the breeding pool here prior to carrier semen being imported and used here which is why in our opinion this test is the very minimum that you should be looking for prior to purchase of a pup