Border Collie
Breed Description - see AKC for detailed standard
Breed problems can be both inherited or diseases and disorders seen frequently in a breed and mode of inheritance unknown. Both are listed.
Breed problemsCentral progressive retinal atrophy
Corneal dystrophy
Epilepsy
Hip dysplasia
Lens luxation
Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis
Osteochondritis dissecans
Osteochondrosis
Progressive retinal atrophy
Border Collies are independent thinkers and are also the breed most often used as the example right now of just how dogs think and how smart they can be. Betsey, a six year old Border Collie in Vienna, Austria made the cover of March, 2008 National geographic and is part of a group of animals that have been changing the way scientists understand the minds of those animals that share our world.
If you want to share your life with one of these smart working dogs, please plan on giving it plenty to do with its time. This is not a dog that can spend the day home alone and be happy with a walk morning and evening. Like Betsey an mental job will do fine, but the dogs have to have a job.
Epilepsy in Border Collie
Last night our dog what our vet thinks was an epileptic fit. He woke us up jumping on the bed, I thought he wanted to go out to the toilet, but he jumped off the bed and then fell thankfully onto his own bed and fitted for about a minute. This is the first one he has had to our knowledge, and it scared us both badly (me and husband) because neither of us had experienced it before. My husband thought we were losing him.
During the fit he went rigid, eyes open, with his paws flailing about, and frothing a little at the mouth. He also wet on his bed. This lasted about a minute and then he gradually came round. He firstly didn't t seem to recognize us at all and sort of looked through us almost as though we were invisible and he could hear something but didn't recognize it. However, that passed and then he recognized us again and gradually got up and started walking about. He tried to be sick, but just retched. He was extremely restless for a couple of hours afterwards, but then settled down and went back to sleep.
Whilst he was coming to I called our vet. He said that epilepsy was quite common in BCs and that usually they start between 1- 3 years (he s coming up for 2). He said that this may be the only one he ever has possibly as a result of all the treatment / sedation earlier in the month, but to keep a log in
case he has another one. According to our vet he said that dogs generally recover well afterwards, to leave him alone if he has another one so that he can come to on his own (leave him in the sense of physical intervention but keep an eye on him), and that if he does start regularly fitting, we only really need be concerned if he goes from one fit to another, or if it lasts more in the region of 3-4 minutes.The only other "new" thing in his life is a red flashing strobe light which we have put on his collar over the last 10 days so that we, and others, can see him when walking out in the dark. It does tend to flash under his chin and I wondered whether that may be a contributory factor.
Is there any way to recognize whether this may happen again. How do we best deal with him if this happens, particularly the next day with walking and diet etc. Our vet said that this generally happens when the dog is relaxed, rarely when out walking. Would it cause brain damage in the long term if this kept reoccurring.
I did have a quick look in your epilepsy section and read a posting where you mentioned restlessness. Over the past 3 months there have been a couple of nights when he just wouldn't settle down at all. Because this stopped my husband and myself from sleeping I did, on those two occasions, put him in another room with access to the outside. I am not aware of him fitting on those occasions, but it would be hard to say with any certainty because we were asleep in another room. As far as we know last night's was the first one.
Any help welcome.
Reply: I saw a series of news reports on Japanese children suffering seizures due to cartoons with rapid color changes and have heard of problems with induction of seizures in people due to strobe lights but I have not seen anything about this happening in dogs, that I can remember. It is sort of intriguing that the seizure occurred after starting to use the light on his collar, though.
Border collies are one of the breeds in which inherited seizure disorders are thought to occur. I approach seizures much like your vet -- tracking them for a while to be sure they will recur and then to get an idea of how frequently they recur before attempting treatment. I still tend to be slow about starting phenobarbital even though there is some evidence to suggest that early use might be helpful
in stopping seizure progression in some patients. I just think phenobarbital causes too many problems to be used lightly.I know this wasn't much help but if you keep track of the seizures as your vet has suggested it will help a lot in determining what the best course of therapy is as time goes on.
Mike Richards, DVM
2/4/2001
Michal : I'm an Epileptic. Flickering lights, rapid changes of light in movies, anything like that can cause me to have a seizure. Light changes are is very troublesome for most of the other people I know with epilepsy. Light around you looks different just before a seizure and sometimes just after. Use of light changes is one of the ways used to try to induce seizures in testing situations for brain wave monitoring in Epilepsy diagnoses. I don't know why light wouldn't cause similar problems for a dog predisposed to epilepsy. I'd get rid of the collar and buy a reflective one.Also, seizures are a whole lot scarier for the people watching then they are to have. You are confused and unsteady and tired when you wake up. There is a great need to rest and be quiet. It's bad when the people around you are freaking out. Your dog will have an easier time if you leave him alone and try not to be scared. He'll be his old self after he sleeps it off.
Sometimes I know a seizure is coming - sometimes not. That seems to be true of all the Epileptic's I know. I avoid obvious triggers. Trial and error. I know about flickering light, stress. For your dog we can be careful with flashing or flickering light, stressful situations - things that are probably common to all epileptics though I can't prove it and it's just my belief. You and your Vet will work out any medical treatment. I'm giving you an Epileptics point of view. I can empathize with your dog - we share a common bond.
Michal
This page was last edited 04/29/08
