Luckily it doesn’t happen in fearful situations and he never gets angry, so we haven’t seen it triggered by that. Interestingly, they have determined that there are two major reasons why narcolepsy with cataplexy occur: genetic and immune response. It occasionally will happen with his regular meal but it will also happen when he is particularly happy in being outside or eating snow. ![]() It used to happen when drinking water but that has subsided. This makes sense because most of Dozer’s episodes are triggered by extreme happiness what we have now dubbed “Toy Joy.” When we give him a new toy or he is playing with a toy he especially loves, give him a special treat like French fries or food that he doesn’t have often, he will have an episode. ![]() By the way, I hate the word “episode” but haven’t come up with something better to describe them in general terms. Kind of like a misfire in the wrong direction. When a heightened emotional response occurs and it can’t regulate hypocretin, it throws paralysis neurons out of whack and triggers an episode. So Basically, the brain regions that help control emotional response unite with the same regions that regulate paralysis. So elevated moods, mainly anger and happiness, most likely have a connection to narcoleptic and cataplexic episodes based on the chemical function of these. People with narcolepsy largely have a deficiency of hypocretin, a neurotransmitter in the hypothalamus that is connected to serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. There are most likely only 70 dogs in the United States affected with narcolepsy. Apparently, they estimate 1 in one million dogs is affected with this which means Many people have asked how a dog can have narcolepsy, so I wanted to explain what I have read/been told by the leading canine narcolepsy research team and try to formulate that into a completely uneducated layman explanation. Cataplexic looks like narcolepsy in terms of dropping to the ground and not being able to move, but his eyes are open and he is aware of what is going on around him. Some episodes were not just narcoleptic but cataplexic as well. It was winter, and we had snow and every attempt to play in it resulted in a pass out. Every time he tried to drink he would pass out. He had episodes numbering ten or more per hour and lasting be- tween 15 seconds and two minutes. He arrived and had a rough first few days. She was right and we scheduled his transport for the following week. Our intake coordinator knew our rescue would be able to give him whatever medical tests and care he needed and knew that I wouldn’t even blink about taking him. The rescue, not completely sure what care would entail or if it really some was something neurologically worse, considered euthanizing him but reached out to their rescue partners and we were one of them. Thinking they wouldn’t be able to care for him, they contacted a local rescue to where they live in the south and surrendered him. ![]() I guess I never really thought about dogs having narcolepsy but why couldn’t they have it? She went on to explain that someone had purchased him from a breeder as a purebred (he is not purebred) and that they soon discovered he had narcolepsy. “He has narcolepsy.” Um, what? In 23 years of being a trainer and working with thousands of dogs, I had never heard of this before. “But there is one catch….” she continued. We NEVER get rottie puppies though, so long ago I claimed the next one! And it was finally coming! Having a Rottweiler and a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, the big joke in our rescue is that if the pup is black and tan or brown, I’ll take it. “I have a 15 week old rottie puppy for you to foster!” was the text I received from the intake coordinator of the rescue where I volunteer.
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