Yesterday it was 87 degrees here. I had let a 2 year old to play outside most of the day. There is a pool, tree shade and an EZ up in their play area. I did not fill pool with fresh cold water like I had previously so it had warm water and did not put ice in their fresh drinking water as I had done previously. I had been letting dogs back in to air conditioned area at 11 or 12 previously on hotter days, but left them out until 4 pm yesterday (yes, I regret this)

Chocolate bitch running in to be fed and cool at 4 pm dropped down and rolled on back, she had tremors in legs, glassy eyes but was alert, tail wagged when talking to her, head and eyes turned to our voices. She tried to get up with front legs but they were tremoring and back legs tremoring and immobile. We quickly carried her in to air conditioned area and gave IV fluids, she came around with tremors stopping and eyes looking normal after about 150 cc fluid. Gave her a total of 500 cc lactated ringers. Temp (once we found the thermometer) about 15 minutes after coming in was 103, temp later that night was 101.

She is EIC clear, what was this?!

You could run blood tests, but they rarely show anything if it was something like epilepsy. 2 years of age is common for seizures to start showing though.

Heat stroke? I do not know if the body temp would decrease that fast in 15 minutes. 103 is high but not sure how high it needs to be to cause heat stroke. It's also a prolonged recovery vs. say and EIC episode (which it not what it was) or a seizure (they usually snap right out of it once the episode has passed).

Keep her cool and hydrated for now. Maybe do the check at the vet. Our seizure dog has episodes every 5 to 7 months, so keep your eyes open.

Sounds like a 2-year old girl I had that recently started having seizures. I hadn't seen them in my lines, EIC clear as well, so I was taken by surprise. They quickly increased in frequency - she was spayed and placed in a pet home (for free) who had experience with epileptic dogs and is doing well on medications. This all happened within a 3-month period from first indication to frequent seizures.

Forgot to mention she totally stopped panting and gums were a weird color. Panting resumed 1/2 way into the IV fluids and gums slowly returned to normal. We saw her panting hard under the EZ up just before we came to let her in.

Could be a seizure. More likely it was heat stroke. During a seizure the dog is not alert and won't wag its tail except as part of the seizure. Normal temp is 102, so if she was 103 after 15 minutes of cooling, then her temp was probably quite high. Dogs only cool from pads of the feet and tongue, and with humidity it's hard for them to cool. Even when other dogs tolerate the heat fine, others do badly. It might be that she is in a part of her heat cycle that raises her temp. She may have extra energy and played to her limit. She may not have kept herself hydrated overnight and started the day a little dehydrated. People do the same thing and they know better! Be very careful with her from now on in the heat. What's unfortunate is that heat stroke can cause brain damage which can make her more vulnerable to seizures in the future.

Sorry Nancy, but my bitch WAS having a seizure and WAS alert, responding to commands during the seizure. So there are many different ways that epileptic seizures can present.

It could be seizures. I did have a boy that started at 2 yrs old...very similar episodes to what you describe. He would never go completely into what you would think of as a normal seizure...he would stay alert but could not get up. They increased in occurance and severity as he aged.

If it is seizures...you will see it happen again in the future.

Just my experience for what it is worth. I would just wait it out and see if it happens again. Hopefully not.

Putting ice in a dog's bucket has some severe consequences.

Read here:

http://rogersparkdog.blogspot.com/2007/08/dogs-and-iceice-water-dog-owners-be.html

Your bitch showed many of the signs of hyperthermia: very heavy panting, increased body temperature, bright red or purplish gum color, collapse, seizures, high body temperature.
If her body temp was 103 15 minutes after cooling down, you can bet it was much higher.
You did not say what color the gums were, but I am assuming by your saying weird that they were bright red or purplish? Mucus membranes can go bluish or purplish with seizures also, but my guess is that the seizures were precipitated by overheating.
Factors that can contribute to one dog overheating in high temperatures where the others do not: obesity, age, other underlying health factors, exercise, no access to shade or cool water, or just individual physiological intolerance to heat.
My guess is she just overheated---you will need to watch her in the future for this and take precautions.
One of my dogs is miserable in the heat, panting and won't move. This is very attractive in the show ring, not! I stopped showing him in the summer a long time ago, and always have to watch out for his comfort, since he really does suffer in the heat.

Write down the date and time this happened and keep a "diary". If it continues to happen then you'll have your answer. With regard to possible heatstroke and the offering of liquids, I was taught by my vet never to give/force drinking water because it will block the airways. I was told to take ice and rub it on the throat. Also, put the paws in cold water and make sure you get that belly with the cold water.

We went to the vet today and had a full panel of tests drawn - electrolytes, creatinine, Blood Urea Nitrogen, Thyroid, etc. It was sent out since she is stable and results will be back in am.

Right now vet is thinking it's a heat induced issue due to the change in gum color, alertness, response to IV, weather here previous days which probably stressed her, etc. If it is, Creatinine and BUN should be at least slightly elevated.

Vet knows us very well and visa versa. This girl is now our house dog where we can watch her closely, including teens watching late at night when they facebook and finish homework, etc. If she does not seize again within a year, she will be put back into our breeding program assuming it was heat related. So for now waiting on blood work and watching closely for a year. She's already obedience titled, we were hoping to continue with a hunt title, too. All that now is on hold. All her other clearances had just come back - heart, optigen, hips, elbows, EIC and I thought we were good to go.

I had a girl go down to heat stroke a few years ago, also EIC clear, but her body temp took MUCH longer to reach 103F (the point at which you cool an overheated dog to) w/ a garden hose running on her from deep well water (~60F or less). After 10 min or so of cooling, I ran in and got the thermometer, and she was still 106F. :( Another 10-15 min of that, I was able to load her up into my suv in front of the AC vent on high. She was finally 103F 20 min later after we had to carry her into the vet clinic where they treated her for the onset of convulsions.

It's really hard saying what your girl had, but I doubt unless you were applying cold water and / or alcohol (not recommended), that you'd get the temp down that fast. Here is a good article on the subject.
http://www.caninehealthevents.org/canineheatstroke.pdf

I had my heat stroke girl w/ me last weekend at an obed workshop on day 1 just to watch her since I was auditing that day. It was 102F as a high that day, though felt better than that in the shade and it was dry heat too (thankfully!). She did great. The next day it reached 107F there (she was home in the shaded kennel w/ a kiddie pool and fine at ~103F high). Unfortunately, unless you saw her get really worked up and know what her temp was as a high, you probably won't know much for sure for awhile. TG, mine never went down again but I had to pull her from SH training as she's never had the stamina again after that.

Sibling Testing,

I always think the same thing. Have the people who write about their seizing dogs sent blood for epilepsy research? I know there are hundreds and hundreds of seizing dogs whose owners could send blood samples to the researchers. It would be wonderful if we could help them with our blood samples so they can find the gene(s) and devise a test.

Here is a link to a page containing some basic information about the research & how to participate. http://tulgeywoodlabs.com/pages/EpilepsyResearch.html

Not sure what exatly it was but as for the seizures here some info from some EIC comparison.
"Some Labrador Retrievers that we have evaluated because of collapse episodes do not have EIC but instead have an unusual form of epilepsy. The "collapse" episodes that these dogs experience typically have a very sudden onset and very sudden resolution and are sometimes very brief (less than 2 minutes) - unlike EIC where there seems to be a more gradual progression of weakness, incoordination or collapse and a gradual recovery taking from 5 to 30 minutes. In this unusual form of epilepsy (almost exclusively seen in Labrador Retrievers) the dog maintains consciousness but exhibits a problem with gait, balance, or muscle tone. Excitement and exercise are common triggers for these seizures in affected dogs (perhaps because of hyperventilation), leading to confusion between this seizure disorder and EIC. In some dogs with this form of epilepsy the episodes do not progress further, but other dogs will develop more typical generalized seizures later in life with loss of consciousness, muscle twitches, paddling of the limbs, etc" http://www.vdl.umn.edu/ourservices/canineneuromuscular/eic/taylor2008/home.html

I have had 2 dogs with seisures like this and know of some others as well.

My beautiful, show-trained rescue from 1994 had seizures like the latter. They started more focal, and she could down on command the first few years and track me with her eyes. For several years, she just had one or two of those a year that we knew . Around the age of six or seven, they progressed rapidly one year to cluster grand mal, at which point she was put on phenobarbitol. She lived to be about 15.5 yrs old, still on the same dose of phenobarb (1 grain) and low dose of thyroid meds. What a great personality she had.

I have a new idea of what may have caused the seizure although we may never know unless she seizes again. I had been filling the puppy pool with water from our pool as they are near each other. We had just put in lots and lots of algaecide in the big pool, I filled the doggy pool with several pails from the big pool. This girl was drinking quite a bit of her pool water; at the time I didn't think about all the chemicals in the water. Now I am wondering if all the copper in the high amounts of algaecide was a factor.

If she seizes again, we will send in the sibling pairs. The breeder I purchased her from has 2 full siblings still.

Atypical Collapse in Labrador Retrievers



An episodic movement disorder that may be a form of atypical seizure has been recognized in Labrador Retrievers. This disorder has been called atypical epilepsy, paroxysmal dyskinesia, episodic dyskinesia and Chinook seizures. Affected dogs are normal between the episodes which occur suddenly, without warning. Some affected Labradors simply stagger and look dazed for a few seconds and then recover, without ever falling over. Others have a 2 to 5 minute episode (occasionally longer) where they appear anxious and are unable to stand erect and walk, experiencing either uncontrollable trembling or muscular rigidity as they attempt to crawl. Affected dogs maintain consciousness and can obey commands during the episodes. Some Labrador Retrievers have exercise or excitement as an apparent trigger for their episodes, prompting consideration of disorders that cause exercise intolerance (especially cardiac arrhythmias, low blood sugar or EIC). Some dogs with this disorder will develop more classical generalized tonic-clonic seizures later in life where they lose consciousness and paddle their limbs.



This syndrome has not yet been well characterized but we are suspicious that this is an inherited form of epilepsy in Labrador Retrievers. If your Labrador Retriever has had 2 or more episodes that fit this description we would like your help as we try to describe the syndrome and search for the genetic cause. Please take the time to fill out the questionnaire and send us a DNA sample and pedigree from your affected dog. If you have a video of your dog having an episode we would like to have the opportunity to view that as well.

Taken from: http://www.cvm.umn.edu/vbs/faculty/Mickelson/lab/EIC/AtypicalCollapse/home.html

As stated by previous posters, epilepsy generally comes on at about age 2 and I had a lovely imported bitch years ago who started her seizures at 2, Maggie Mae lived to 13 1/2 on light meds.
I had another bitch also years ago who was what I would call a "high end" type, at a big show one day, it was hot but not unbearable, we had not fed her before she went into the ring, she was sleeping deeply at my feet when a passing dog barked and startled her, she flew up and immediately seized. I was horrified but she got herself together and I fed her some meat and a yogurt and she went back to 100%. Many $$$ in testing gave nothing positive, however conclusions were that a combination of the heat and the empty stomach and her sudden awakening. The term I was given is hypoglycemic seizure. She never had another episode but I also was careful to feed her many small meals on show days.

Sounds like an a-typical seizure to me. However, not all a-typical seizures are genetic, yes, even in the Labrador.

What food are you feeding? Did you recently switch foods sometime in the past 8 weeks?