This is one of those "don't ask me, I don't want to know" type questions. My wife and I recent had to have one of our dogs, Brandy, put to sleep. It was one of the hardest things we ever had to do. See
this thread for more details. Brandy had epilepsy, and we did everything we could do to keep her going, and she did everything she could do as well. We could have kept her going, but the inevitable reality was that the siezures had become uncontrollable, and longer lasting and we just couldn't let her endure them any more. We were completely out of options.
Over the almost three years that we had that dog we could have bought 10 or 20 more of the same breed for what was spent on vet bills and drugs. But we would never have the same dog. We received over 50 emails and well over a dozen sympathy cards and letters regarding this dog, not including the responses here on SMC. These were from people who knew her directly, or had heard about her though others. Everyone likes to think their dogs are special, and they are to us all, but this dog left an impression on so many people.
So now, believe it or not, we found another dog of the same breed. The breeders were sincerely overjoyed to find out that we were interested. This dog comes from respected breeders with no known history of epilepsy in the family history. But we are also aware that there are no guarantees. Unfortunately, the new puppy is having some issues with a possible UT, or Kidney infection, and she spent the night at the vet's office last night getting flushed out with IV fluids.
Before this she was losing all of her baby teeth all at once, and basically wouldn't eat. Then she was either injured by rough playing with the big dog, or had a strange reaction to the lyme diesease vacination as she wouldn't put any weight on her right hind.
Thsi is all very frustrating, and we'd really like a break, but we realize that all of this does come with the territory.