My friend has an 11 year old pet lab that has had a couple of episodes where she collapsed and gets ridgid after running around. She's alert when it happens and doesn't seem to have any after affects. She did have a cancerous tumor removed from her jaw about 5 years ago but has been fine since.
This problem started a couple of weeks ago after the owners put down their older lab who was her buddy.
Blood & urine are normal, did chest & stomach x-rays - also normal. She's scheduled for a color doppler test on Sunday. She is a overweight.
Has anyone had this happen before? I was thinking they may want to do an EIC test if the color dopper comes back fine ...
Could it just be a reaction to loosing the other dog??
Their vet has no idea what the problem is. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
She's alert when it happens and doesn't seem to have any after affects. She did have a cancerous tumor removed from her jaw about 5 years ago but has been fine since.
I hope I am wrong, but I would consider the possibility that her cancer has recurred in her brain.
It does start in the rear but she goes down very quickly so its not as if she's dragging her rear for any period of time.
I agree w/ Peggy I don't believe its a seizure, cancer in the brain could be a possibility but it seems to only happen when she's running round that's why I was starting to lean towards EIC but I thought it was odd that it appeared so late in life.
Some Labs can have episodes of what they call syncope after exercising... Their brains dont get enough oxygen and they feel faint. They wobble, go down , and look into space. I cna't remember if our girl's legs were rigid, but the episode lasted only about 1 minute then she got up and ran off...
Hoping your Lab is OK.
the rigid legs suggest seizure, dogs who just collapse, like a human go limp.
I had a dog with seizures and she stayed alert when she went down but her legs were rigid.
She had a tumor in the eye that spread to the brain.
Thanks, it does sound like snycope. I spoke to the owners and she does tend to go down on one side. Hopefully the echo will give them some answers. Thanks!
Another thing to look at is an ear infection. I recently had one of my old dogs go down one morning and not be able to get up without falling over on one side. When I would wipe out this dogs ears there wasn't any gook nor was there any smell, but the infection was so deep down into the ear canal that you couldn't notice it. The vet deeply flushed out the ear and after a few days of Tresaderm good as new.
Syncope means a partial or complete loss of consciousness and awareness of surroundings. Usually the recovery is spontaneous and quick without intervention. Also called fainting.
Cardiac causes are only one group of reasons syncope occurs.
Laryngeal paralysis can also cause a dog to collapse.
My neighbor's Lab had this and about age 11 had surgery, he would collapse while hunting and after a bit he would be okay. The surgery helped him alot and he lived a couple more years.
