Royal Veterinary College Canine Epilepsy Research

22/01/2026

16/10/2025

🐾 EPILESPY AND MCT OIL 🐾

We have been extremely grateful to many of our followers for taking part in our clinical studies exploring the impact of including MCT oil in their dog’s diet (either as a supplement or integrated within a specialist kibble diet) and the impacts it has had on their dog’s epilepsy, including seizure frequency/severity, behaviour and cognitive abilities.

We are currently looking for owners (whether they have been part of our studies or not) who previously used or currently use MCT in their dog’s diet to share their experiences with us - this only needs to be a short comment (but can be longer if preferred!), and will help us demonstrate the impact of this research on dogs and their owners.

Please either leave a comment below, or email to [email protected]. Thanks in advance!

07/05/2025

*UPDATE 7th May - RVC PET EPILEPSY TRACKER*

The problem causing the app to not load up was thankfully a simple fix and has now been rectified! Our app developer has recommended users force the app to close, then re-load, and they should be able to login successfully again.

Let us know if you encounter any further problems following this, and thanks for your patience and support for the app as ever!

06/05/2025

*RVC EPILEPSY TRACKER*

We are aware some users have experienced challenges accessing the app in the past few days. We are working with our app developer to resolve these problems as soon as possible and will update as soon as we know more, and will hopefully have it up and running again very soon!

Many thanks for your patience and continued support of the app 🐾

23/04/2025

*****LAST CALL - SURVEY CLOSING MONDAY 28th APRIL*****

We have now received over 6000 responses to this survey - phenomenal 💥

This is your last chance to take part and tell us about your experiences with your Frenchie or Dachshund - whether they’ve had IVDD or not - please share! 🐾

*********

Calling all Dachshund and French Bulldog Owners!

Do you currently, or have you previously, owned, a Dachshund or a French Bulldog?

We would love to hear from you about your dog!

A vet student in our team, Daniel Selimi, is conducting research on the spinal health in these popular, much-loved breeds.

We are interested in hearing from ALL current and previous Dachshund and French Bulldog owners, regardless of whether they have experienced spinal problems in their dog(s) or not.

If you would like to take part, please follow the link below or scan the QR code in the poster to take part in our short 10-minute survey; we really look forward to hearing from you!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/spines

27/03/2025

🧠 Important research update on epilepsy for French Bulldog owners from our colleagues at University of Cambridge

Seizures in a Frenchie? Idiopathic? Think again.

Epilepsy is familiar territory for a general vet and if you have a patient with seizures between 6 month to 6 years and otherwise normal, it is more than likely idiopathic epilepsy (IE). The Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force (VETF)* use this as their Tier 1 level of confidence for IE.

A group at Cambridge University have just thrown a very well considered spanner in the works. What happens if your patient is brachycephalic?

The retrospective study investigated dogs seen for seizures and categorised them into brachy or non-brachy. They looked at a few things but most interesting was the actual cause of seizures in the '6 month to 6 year and otherwise normal' category - the ones we mortals would assume were idiopathic.

The results: an astonishing 1 in 3 brachycephalic dogs actually had structural causes for their seizures! For reference, all the non brachy patients idiopathic (as expected). Pretty strong.

Their recommendations: ‘’…MRI of the brain and CSF analysis should be strongly considered in brachycephalic dogs who otherwise satisfy a tier I confidence level diagnosis of IE, independent of the interictal neurological examination.’’

The paper is not open access but here is the link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jsap.13857?saml_referrer

27/02/2025

We’ve had over 1400 responses to our spinal health survey in the past week - huge thanks to all who have completed and shared! 🐾

Please help maximise our understanding by continuing to take part and share with your networks, we hugely appreciate your support 💜

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/dachshund

Have you ever owned a Dachshund or a French Bulldog? 🐶

A veterinary student at The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) is conducting research on the spinal health in these popular, much-loved breeds.

Regardless of whether your dog has experienced spinal problems or not, The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) want to hear about your experiences of owning these breeds - past or present!

Complete the survey here: https://bit.ly/4keIpSg

21/02/2025

Calling all Dachshund and French Bulldog Owners!

Do you currently, or have you previously, owned, a Dachshund or a French Bulldog?

We would love to hear from you about your dog!

A vet student in our team, Daniel Selimi, is conducting research on the spinal health in these popular, much-loved breeds.

We are interested in hearing from ALL current and previous Dachshund and French Bulldog owners, regardless of whether they have experienced spinal problems in their dog(s) or not.

If you would like to take part, please follow the link below or scan the QR code in the poster to take part in our short 10-minute survey; we really look forward to hearing from you!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/spines