Aramis is a white German Shepherd who arrived with us in around June 2004 after a local private rehoming didn’t work out. We were told when he came in that he had two retained testicles but when he arrived we also discovered that he had a very bad skin irritation over the whole of his underside, he had a chronic upset stomach and his hips and conformation looked dreadful.

Aramis was booked into the vets for blood tests to check for hormone levels to decide whether he did, in fact, have two retained testicles. Blood tests were also run to check for problems that could cause the skin and stomach problems. At the same time Aramis had both hips x-rayed to check for hip problems. Whilst waiting for all these results we continued to work on his diet and tried a number of special prescription diets to settle his tummy.

The results from the tests came back and showed that castration was definitely required, which meant abdominal surgery to try and locate the testicles. The blood tests also showed that there were no other problems so his skin/stomach problems were probably stress or food related. The x-rays showed no major hip problems although the hips were not brilliant. We arranged for Aramis to have the castration and he was microchipped at the same time. We also managed to find a food that suited him and his stomach settled down and his skin started to clear up.

In August we were visited by a lovely family who had been referred from our vets after losing their old GSD. We were showing them what we had when they spotted Aramis and it was love at first sight. They were experienced owners and were happy to take Aramis on with all the potential problems, although he had been given a full, clean bill of health by the vets. They visited Aramis here a number of times and in early September the home check was done and Aramis went off to his new home. We had a number of updates saying that everything was going really well and we thought that was the end of that………………………

But then on May 17^th 2005 Aramis was back!!!

We got a phone call from his owners at 11pm to say that Aramis had had a fit after bed time and had become aggressive. The owners could not get out of their bedrooms for 20 mins. They rang 999 then the RSPCA then the vet......... no help forthcoming so they rang us having managed to get him out into the garden. They were scared witless saying that he had gone crazy.
Dave got there 40 mins later and he was OK if a bit growly and after an hour settling him he brought him back. All was quiet when he got back here so to avoid further stress to Aramis Dave left him loose in the van asleep. All was still quiet in the morning but in the night he had trashed the van!!!! We took Aramis to the vets the following morning and they checked him over. He was in good shape and the vets decided not to start treatment but to see how the epilepsy developed.

Unfortunately Aramis continued to have seizures at the rate of one a month so the vets started him on Epiphen, initially at a fairly low dose. The seizures continued happening around once a fortnight now and generally in groups of 3 or 4 when they occurred. In August the level of medication was increased to try and reduce the fits. We also removed everything artificial from Aramis’s diet and cut out all treats except ultra hypoallergenic ones to try and remove any possible chemical triggers. By keeping a record of days, times and events leading up to fits we also established that excitement and high levels of exercise seemed to trigger episodes so we altered his routine to keep him calm and try and minimise these factors.

 By November the seizures were continuing at approximately 18 day intervals so Aramis returned to the vets for more blood tests. These showed that the levels of Epiphen in his system were a little below the recommended therapeutic dose so we were told to increase the amount he was given. At the same time we decided to split the tablets into 3 evenly spaced doses instead of the two he had previously been given in an attempt to reduce the drops in the levels between tablets. This whole new regime seems to have helped as the gap between that and his next seizure cluster was 6 weeks. However it was his worse event yet and required two doses of Valium to stop it. We now have emergency medicine in case Aramis should go into Status and we are constantly checking to make sure that he is supervised and is never left in a situation where he could be a danger to himself or others.

 We have now added Potassium Bromide to his treatment regime which so far seems to be helping. Blood tests are due to be taken in June to check his levels.

Aramis is currently on medication 3 times a day which costs around £25 per month and a special additive free diet which costs around £40 per month, emergency Valium costs about £20 per use, so any sponsorship towards his costs is a great help to us.

You can keep track of Aramis's seizure history by following the link here.