There's a cat behind you!

This is Sparky who is generally very well but who has intermittent epileptiform convulsions. Drugs are helping a bit, but I think we could do better.

Sparky was not a good candidate for portraiture - he was agitated because he was sure there was a cat behind me (there was, but I was trying to distract him). Epilepsy is not uncommon in dogs. So called "idiopathic epilepsy" is diagnosed if no primary cause can be found. It usually is first seen in young adult dogs and is somewhat more common in bitches than male dogs. There is no cure but the condition can often be controlled with drugs - so that seizures occur infrequently. Uncontrolled seizures sometimes become more and more frequent to result in serious disability or death. Unfortunately there is no perfect drug regimen to control epilepsy and the drugs themselves are often rather toxic.

I have been reading a marvellous book about the discovery of the structure of DNA "The Double Helix" by James D Watson. By all accounts his version of events is somewhat partial, but I am finding the tale absolutely thrilling. I picked it up only 24hrs ago but ought to have finished it by bedtime. I highly recommend it. It gives a very strong feeling about what University Science was like 60 years ago or so. Very different from my experiences in the 1980s and 90s. Other themes also come through - such as the real post-war austerity which meant that everywhere was cold and a lot of the food was extremely bland. The Cold War too was at it's height - this meant, for instance, that Linus Pauling the great Chemist (who later won two nobel prizes) was refused the opportunity to leave the USA for a European Conference because of his leftist views!