This is Tahvo´s story:
“Tahvo was a very tender and kissing dog from the beginning. He wanted always to be where I was. His character and temper was sweet and kind. The first things we spotted that was strange was Tahvo´s clumsiness but we thought it was just puppy-kind of movements and therefore normal. It did not, however, get any better as the time went by and he had very difficult of learning to lift his backleg during his pee, so he peed like a girl for the most of the time. When he finally learned to lift the backleg he fell over. He also had trouble to learn not to pee inside the house. Tahvo started to have some odd seizures, his eyes went back and forth and he preferred to lie down. During these seizures he reacted to my voice and could even walk to another place to lie down on. The nystagmus could at the most severe seizures continued for hours. During these severe seizures he usually also started to vomit heavily. During these seizures we took him to the veterinarian, and every time they told us that it did not seem like an epileptic seizure but they could not tell us what it was. Every blood sample was normal. At one point they suspected Tahvo had been eating something that he had reacted to by vomiting and movement of his eyes had started because of that. Last Fall 2012 Tahvo got so clumsy and seemed to walk with his spine like an
arrow. We took him to an Orthopedist and they found nothing wrong in the x-rays of his hips and spine. The Orthopedist told us Tahvo was suffering from ataxia in all of his legs, and he suspected a neurological disease surprisingly in the cerebellum. At this time the reflexes in Tahvo´s backlegs and the corrections of the position of the backlegs were very delayed. We took Tahvo home and he seemed to be a happy dog, with his small defects, for a while. But a turn for the worse soon took place. Tahvo got scared of people and got also unpredictable and did not approve strangers and strange dogs to come near him. He even started to growl at people. He even tried to attack a dog and it seemed that he would have bit the dog if he could have reached out to it. He could get scared of something so intensively that he started to walk in circles very nervously even though I did not see anything that could had scared him off that badly. Beside all these symptoms Tahvo could not cope to be left alone in the house. We have taped his sounds during a day alone at the house. On the tape you could hear him walking around restlessly and howling the whole day. He calmed down when I came home. Tahvo was always a very small sized lagotto, he only weighed 11 kg, and he had never a good appetite. Kiia arranged an appointment with Tarja Pääkkönen DVM, Dipl ECVN at the University of Helsinki and the clinical examinations showed ataxia in the legs and at this time the reflexes in Tahvo´s backlegs and the corrections of the position of the backlegs were even more delayed than before. The MRI-scan showed some defects at the cerebellum and we got the crashing news that this was probably Cerebellar Abiotrophy and he got a calculated time of six months to one year of life left. The MRI-scan also showed that the brain chambers were bigger than suspected. We went home with the fact that Tahvo had to be putted to sleep in a very short time. This was devastating for me. But I will forget the staff at The Helsinki University. They were very friendly and understanding all the time, very professional, and they really cared for my feelings and understood that I did not understand and so they explained over and over again, tactfully, the situation. The dog was a member of my family and the thought of losing him hurt so much. Kiia has stood by my side during the whole sad story and done everything in her power. Nobody could have done more. I hope that my Tahvo and his brother Remu can make a difference for every other lagotto in the future and keep others healthy so the breed can go on and give joy to their owners. The priority of all Lagotto owners’ should be to care about the breed in the right way and to be open and not hide illnesses. Tahvo was euthanized in January 2013 at The University of Helsinki and the Dog Genetics Research group received his remains for autopsy. The histopathology exam showed that Tahvo had Lysosomal Storage Disease.”
“Tahvo was a very tender and kissing dog from the beginning. He wanted always to be where I was. His character and temper was sweet and kind. The first things we spotted that was strange was Tahvo´s clumsiness but we thought it was just puppy-kind of movements and therefore normal. It did not, however, get any better as the time went by and he had very difficult of learning to lift his backleg during his pee, so he peed like a girl for the most of the time. When he finally learned to lift the backleg he fell over. He also had trouble to learn not to pee inside the house. Tahvo started to have some odd seizures, his eyes went back and forth and he preferred to lie down. During these seizures he reacted to my voice and could even walk to another place to lie down on. The nystagmus could at the most severe seizures continued for hours. During these severe seizures he usually also started to vomit heavily. During these seizures we took him to the veterinarian, and every time they told us that it did not seem like an epileptic seizure but they could not tell us what it was. Every blood sample was normal. At one point they suspected Tahvo had been eating something that he had reacted to by vomiting and movement of his eyes had started because of that. Last Fall 2012 Tahvo got so clumsy and seemed to walk with his spine like an
arrow. We took him to an Orthopedist and they found nothing wrong in the x-rays of his hips and spine. The Orthopedist told us Tahvo was suffering from ataxia in all of his legs, and he suspected a neurological disease surprisingly in the cerebellum. At this time the reflexes in Tahvo´s backlegs and the corrections of the position of the backlegs were very delayed. We took Tahvo home and he seemed to be a happy dog, with his small defects, for a while. But a turn for the worse soon took place. Tahvo got scared of people and got also unpredictable and did not approve strangers and strange dogs to come near him. He even started to growl at people. He even tried to attack a dog and it seemed that he would have bit the dog if he could have reached out to it. He could get scared of something so intensively that he started to walk in circles very nervously even though I did not see anything that could had scared him off that badly. Beside all these symptoms Tahvo could not cope to be left alone in the house. We have taped his sounds during a day alone at the house. On the tape you could hear him walking around restlessly and howling the whole day. He calmed down when I came home. Tahvo was always a very small sized lagotto, he only weighed 11 kg, and he had never a good appetite. Kiia arranged an appointment with Tarja Pääkkönen DVM, Dipl ECVN at the University of Helsinki and the clinical examinations showed ataxia in the legs and at this time the reflexes in Tahvo´s backlegs and the corrections of the position of the backlegs were even more delayed than before. The MRI-scan showed some defects at the cerebellum and we got the crashing news that this was probably Cerebellar Abiotrophy and he got a calculated time of six months to one year of life left. The MRI-scan also showed that the brain chambers were bigger than suspected. We went home with the fact that Tahvo had to be putted to sleep in a very short time. This was devastating for me. But I will forget the staff at The Helsinki University. They were very friendly and understanding all the time, very professional, and they really cared for my feelings and understood that I did not understand and so they explained over and over again, tactfully, the situation. The dog was a member of my family and the thought of losing him hurt so much. Kiia has stood by my side during the whole sad story and done everything in her power. Nobody could have done more. I hope that my Tahvo and his brother Remu can make a difference for every other lagotto in the future and keep others healthy so the breed can go on and give joy to their owners. The priority of all Lagotto owners’ should be to care about the breed in the right way and to be open and not hide illnesses. Tahvo was euthanized in January 2013 at The University of Helsinki and the Dog Genetics Research group received his remains for autopsy. The histopathology exam showed that Tahvo had Lysosomal Storage Disease.”