Re: Border Collie with exercise-induced ataxia

Bob Russell — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:28:39 GMT

Most people have phones with video facilities (even if a lot of them don't know how to use it). I quite regularly ask clients to video 'events' and it is surprising how different they can look to the description in the consulting room!

Re: Border Collie with exercise-induced ataxia

shanley barber — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 20:23:52 GMT

Thank you, Mark, that has been really helpful. Shanley

Re: Border Collie with exercise-induced ataxia

Mark Lowrie — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:46:26 GMT

The description seems to fit ‘exercise induced collapse’ and it certainly can occur in Border Collies although less is known about the condition in Collies vs Labradors. Minnesota University are currently investigating it.

http://www.cvm.umn.edu/vbs/faculty/Mickelson/lab/EIC/bordercollieEIC/home.html

When I see a suspected case I usually ask them to video an episode to check it looks like they describe (the blindness and deafness in this case is odd and not what we would normally expect). I assume the dog is clinically normal in between episodes? I would then ensure you have done a fasted haematology and biochemistry (incl. glucose and bile acid stimulation) and to be complete, and because the signs are unusual, an MRI scan of the brain can be considered.

Some dogs can respond to conventional anti-epileptic medication but so little is known about the disease it is hard to say more. If the episodes are bad enough I would consider a short trial with phenobarbitone (3mg/kg BID to achieve therapeutic serum concentrations) to see if this helps decrease the frequency of the episodes but don’t be scared ot stop it if it has no effect.

Otherwise, follow all the rules as per ‘exercise induced collapse in Labradors’. If you get a video feel free to post it here so we can see if the episodes look similar to what would be expected for EIC.