Thread: Dr. Lee?
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Old June 21st, 2009, 10:02 PM
Gail P's Avatar
Gail P Gail P is offline
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Dr. Lee?

Just wondering if you might have any ideas about the following situation. One of my border collies has had a previous head trauma (kick in the head by a horse). At that time his tooth punctured his cheek but he carried on as normal (not even a yelp) and other than spitting out some blood he was fine. I forget now whether that was early this past winter or the one before. Anyhow, a couple of times since then (not immediately but several months later), he's become temporarily uncoordinated or unbalanced, for a very short time (10-20 minutes later he's back to normal). The first time it happened I almost tripped over him while I was putting out hay for the horses, he was at my feet where he never usually is and I found him to have some trouble getting up and around. I didn't see him take another kick and it didn't occur to me that it could be head-related, I thought it was his back or hips. About a month ago I know he got knocked on the head (not by horses this time) and he was the same again, difficulty standing and balancing for a very short time. During these times he is completely aware of his surroundings and me, will focus his eyes on me and I haven't noticed anything unusual about his pupils. It happened again tonight and I'm not sure what brought it on. When I opened up the backyard gate to let the dogs out to the field for a run and some frisbee they all rushed out and it's possible that he got bumped by one of the other dogs or bumped into one of the gates in the mad dash out to the field. Again, a short time later he was completely back to his usual self and was running around the back yard again playing with the other dogs. He's a very energetic, active dog. He's a working sled dog and goose control dog and has no problem with any of these activities. I've spoken briefly with my vet about this situation the last time it happened but she didn't suggest running any tests, (she knows with the number of dogs I have I have to be conservative in treatments whenever possible due to finances) and seeing as he recovers so quickly and these episodes seem to be trauma related, not just random (basically if I can prevent him from getting bumped in the head I can hopefully prevent this from happening). She did say that it didn't sound like grand mal seizures. Just wondering if you have any further ideas? Thanks.
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