My friend has a collie, about 7yrs old.  He's had a few seizures, and so far, no answers have been forthcoming.

I've only witnessed one but she tells me the others have been the same.  In the one I saw, he was worried but otherwise ok, then he went totally stiff and fell over, legs out - as if I'd pushed over a figurine, say - and laid on the floor for maybe 5-10 seconds.  Then he laid properly for 10 or so seconds, looking a bit out of it, then he was absolutely fine.  Fortunately we were in the vet waiting room at the time - well, maybe not fortunate so much as this has been the trigger each time.  The vet checked him over and didn't find anything untoward at all (he was in for a checkup on his foot after he got a foreign body in it).

The last one he had a few weeks ago, he'd been taken out back at the vet to have bandages changed after a separate foot injury, and he had the worst one yet - gums went white and he ended up admitted on a drip.

He's had an echo on his heart, he's got thickening of the heart valves but the vet is not concerned about this and says it shouldn't cause any problems until he's into his teens.  He's just had an MRI which showed nothing.  The referral vets have suggested taking fluid from his brain but my friend won't let them due to the potential side effects (I don't know what these are but she is adamant about this).

He is a generally stressy dog for various reasons, I am trying to persuade her to expose him less to other dogs as this is his main issue but all three seizures have happened at the vets.

If anyone has any ideas as to what might be going on we'd really appreciate it, she seems to just keep hitting dead ends atm.

stress it's just too much for him not sure how to stop it unless they get vet to come to them or see him in car parking lot
just a thought if this is only since the foot injury have they checked for tetanus

Well epilepsy often does not have a known cause, and you will not find anything in tests. The reason for why I declined to do an MRI on my Golden was that the vet told me it would only show something if the cause was a brain tumour, and then we'd not be able to do anything anyway, so really not much point as the dog is a pet and not used for breeding etc. Some epileptic dogs tend to have the seizure when at rest, but I have had one in the past that it happened to whenever she was excited, which sadly almost always meant during walks.

What drugs was he given for the first injury?  Collies of all types can be more than sensitive to many drugs.  :(

I have said to her that whatever it is might not show up in tests, but rather be found through diagnosis by elimination.  The MRI I think was mainly to look for a tumour or other such things, I think she thought they'd find some abnormality pointing to epilepsy though if he does have it.

Now, I've missed some info that you guys have reminded me of...

He caught some sort of bug around 2011 or 2012 in Devon, and hasn't been quite right since - longer to get over injuries, that sort of thing.  It affected his stamina badly at the time and took him months to get over.  May or may not be related to the present problem, but what it actually was was never identified.  I don't have much detail on that atm but I can get it.

He never gets any conventional meds apart from ABs, and not those if possible.  He is a super sensitive dog.  The most recent foot trouble, he'll only have had GA/sedation for, certainly no conventional painkillers of any kind.  He did have another foot problem a few years ago (this was prior to Devon) - his foot was sliced by a chunk of metal but he got over that fairly quickly I think.  The first seizure was post-Devon, it happened last year.

He had a referral for this last year and got a cautious diagnosis then of Collie Collapsing Syndrome - but only because they didn't find anything concrete, she's never thought this was the problem.  Certainly it's not exercise induced as he can charge around like a loon for an hour with no problem.  So stress induced epilepsy is what we're thinking, I think she's hoping something will confirm it.

So stress induced epilepsy is what we're thinking, I think she's hoping something will confirm it.

Well, as a visit to the vets generally brings it on I really wouldn't need much more proof, dogs can certainly have strokes, epilepsy through stress and fear.

Sounds comical but a friend of mine had a dog who was absolutely terrified of her cat, she found him twice shaking on the rug like he was having a fit, when the cat had gone for him and once he was completely paralyzed, lying on his side, legs stiff, just as you described, once took him a few hours to come around.  We deduced what the problem was and I took her cat away to be re-homed, the dog never looked back.

When you think about it stress and fear quicken the heart rate, pumping the blood too fast, which can cause a lot of problems even when our hearts are fine,  it makes people pass out or become paralyzed too, so quite possible this is what is happening to this dog.

I would perhaps in this case have a vet visit her home instead, in case of an emergency or arrange to give the dog a sedative prior to the journey there. :-)

I have fainted due to schock and or pain more than once.

Pain was caused by painful periods.

Recently I got up from my bed in the morning because one of the dogs was barking.  I was not quite as awake as I could have been, and the light in the ahll at the bottom of the stairs ahd been left on. 

For some readon I misjudged the bottom step and stepped off the next oen up thinking I'd reche the bottom, went over on my ankle and couldn't get up.

Called hubby as couldn't get up (this ankle is a bit iffy from a past fall).

I sorted the dogs out and suddenly felt faint and slid down with my back against a kitchen unit as I felt faint, calling out to hubby.

Next thing I knew he was hovering over me helping me up looking worried.

Turns out he had come down when I called found me slumped on the floor, and had spent several minutes trying to revive me, and was on the verge of calling an Ambulance!

I also had an ache by my eye, turned out to be a scratch, where I suspect one of the dogs had pawed at me while I was out for the count.

Nikita,

Your description of your friends dog reminded me of Fainting Goats/Myotonic Goats,  it can affect dogs too

http://sutcliffesgoldens.weebly.com/fainting-goats.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fainting_goat

It may  be that the vet could either confirm or rule this out ?

I would be looking at this as potentially non-epileptic seizures.   In other words, seizures, but not epilepsy.   Has your friend been in touch with the breeder - it might be worth doing as if there is epilepsy, or other fainting episodes in her bloodline, it might help the vets with a diagnosis, which you/she does need.   Epilepsy can be controlled with medication, but only if this IS epilepsy.

If a dog starts fitting when young, then I'd go straight to epilepsy.   If this begins in later life, there are many other factors as to why, to be considered.   Including a brain tumour.

What Carrington says - stress, heart rate, blood supply - all relevant, maybe.

What Carrington says - stress, heart rate, blood supply - all relevant, maybe.

Hypoglycaemia or fear induced hypocalcaemia?

> Has your friend been in touch with the breeder - it might be worth doing as if there is epilepsy, or other fainting episodes in her bloodline, it might help the vets with a diagnosis, which you/she does need.

Not a chance.  The "breeder" was a farmer who was going to shoot this dog and his brother, then 4 weeks old, as being untrainable simply because they are red and white.  He was prosecuted for it.

I'll mention the latest suggestions to her when I see her later, thanks :-)  She should be home with him by now but he's back in two weeks for a checkup on his foot so more tests could be done then if needed.

ETA even if this is proper epilepsy she won't put him on conventional medication for it and I agree with her on that.  He's too sensitive and we've both seen dogs very badly affected by it to try it with such a stressy dog.