Puppy has Exercise Induced Collapse

[rawill1]

Anyone familar with EIC? My puppy tested positive. She collapses 1-3 times a day and cannot walk or stand until she fully recovers. The case is so severe the experts think something else is going on too. I'm taking her to Mizzou on Monday to see a neurologist and they probably will do an MRI. I hope this is just a severe case of EIC and nothing progressive. She is only 3 months old now and we've only had her for 6 weeks. I'd be interested in hearing from other people with EIC dogs and how you handle the episodes.

[Bailey's Mommy]

Originally Posted by rawill1

Anyone familar with EIC? My puppy tested positive. She collapses 1-3 times a day and cannot walk or stand until she fully recovers. The case is so severe the experts think something else is going on too. I'm taking her to Mizzou on Monday to see a neurologist and they probably will do an MRI. I hope this is just a severe case of EIC and nothing progressive. She is only 3 months old now and we've only had her for 6 weeks. I'd be interested in hearing from other people with EIC dogs and how you handle the episodes.

I'm sorry. Someone on the board has a dog with EIC. Hopefully that person will chime in. You may want to check out the RTF forum as well in regards to EIC.

[Patty/Breeder]

I am sorry you are dealing with this. I can't remember who on the board has an EIC dog but want to say Findemonium.

If you got your pup from a breeder please inform them. It takes 2 dogs to produce this in a pup.

[Fishdogs]

Agree with Patty- Please notify your breeder. Both Parents must be carriers or affected to produce this, and they should have their dogs tested, and notify the other littermate owners. Hopefully the breeder will be responsible and help you with this.

So sorry you're going through this...I didn't know EIC existed until a friend told me about it and I was very upset seeing the videos. I know one person with an EIC affected dog, who is not showing symptoms. The breeder insists that the parents are clear "by parentage" and won't test them! EIC testing is only a couple years old, so it's possible that the breeder didn't know, but they should still take responsibility...

We'll be praying for your baby, and hope that her docs can control her episodes so she can at least have a a lazy life.

[Hailey's Mom]

I have no experience with EIC but wanted to send my well wishes for a good long term prognosis. I did attend a retriever retreat with an EIC lab, but she was able to hunt in the field without any issue and never showed any symptoms the whole week. I know the cases vary in the degree on severity but hopefully the neurologist can shed some insight on what else may be taking place.

[Makwa's]

Just wanted to say I am sorry your going through this and wishing the best for your pup.

[Pondguy]

Not sure this will be of any help, but worth a try http://www.vdl.umn.edu/prod/groups/c...set_117797.pdf

It's a brochure from the University of Minnesota regarding EIC

[jazzypad1]

Hi Rawill - and welcome to the board.

I am sorry to hear about the collapses your baby is experiencing.
As she has tested as affected for EIC - the presumption is that she is collapsing from EIC?
But she does seem very young to be showing signs of EIC, and her collapses seem very frequent. Maybe there could be something else going on here as well. The EIC affected status could possibly be coincidental.
Maybe epi? maybe metabolic imbalance (eg low blood sugar etc) ? maybe some kind of neuromuscular disorder? You are doing the - right thing by taking her to Missouri - I feel sure they will get to the bottom of it all.
Do her collapses seem typical of the description and video of EIC?

I have a five yr old who has been collapsing for 3 yrs now. Neurologists (after full neuromuscular workup) have diagnosed this as paroxysmal dyskinesia - which is a movement disorder. Most of his collapses have been triggered by exercise/excitement. He goes down for anything from a couple of mins up to 25 mins. Fully conscious and responsive throughout - then he gets to his feet and runs around is if nothing had happened. Incidentally he is also exercise intolerant (though he can't be affected by EIC as he has tested as a carrier)

Maybe this could also be a possibility worth asking them about?

Meantime just be there for your little one - giving lots of cuddles and reassurance(which I am sure you do) - she probably gets quite scared when this happens to her . I am sure you will get some answers when you see the neurologist. Please let us know how things go.

Regards
June
ps - if you can possibly take along a video clip of your pup taken during one of these episodes - the neurologist would probably find it very useful.

[Chippie Dog]

I'm so sorry to hear your pup is EIC affected. I, too, urge you to contact your breeder if you can, and let them know about the health issues you are having. Since your pup is affected, I guess it is safe to say that there was no genetic testing on the sire and dam before breeding them.

I've not had an EIC affected dog, but from what I've read, the frequency of episodes can be minimized once you become aware of what the triggers are for that particular dog. The RTF forum is a good spot to find others who have EIC affected dogs.

Three months does seem very young to be showing EIC symptoms. There is another relatively common muscular disease in Labs called centronuclear myopathy or CNM. This is a genetic disorder also, and it does show its symptoms at a very young age. A very informative video discribing the disease and showing a dog with mild CNM symptoms can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NceEeiuNJCQ. This next video shows a lab with much more pronounced symptoms and is more difficult to watch, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY1DWQqoac0. More information on CNM can be found on this website: http://www.labradorcnm.com/. For comparison, here's a video from the U of MN that shows an dog experiencing an EIC episode http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/video/AHC.html.

The only way either of these diseases will be controlled is if breeders accept responsibiliity for testing their dogs and not breeding carriers to carriers. Tests for both these diseases are pretty much the norm for performance lab breeders (field bloodlines). The confirmation world seems to be much slower to accept the need to test for these. I'm not sure why.

I wish you the best in finding the answers to your pup's collapse.

[rawill1]

Thanks for the responses. I've done a ton of research over the past month. The breeder knows about this and actually refunded my money and let me keep Scout. I posted 2 videos on youtube (search on my username 1rawill) which Mizzou and Univ. of MN have both viewed. The parents are clear of CNM (plus no muscle wasting etc.) so dont think that's it. Mizzou thinks there is something going on with the brain and probably will do an MRI. I'm afraid of the muscle/nerve biopsy since there's a risk of nerve damage - even though small this pup does not need anything else working against her!!! I think it's possible that this is just severe EIC (that no one's seen before) but I also think that it's equally likely that something else is wrong too. I just wanted to get my 2 boys a puppy and this isn't what I had in mind but we will make the best of it and give her a good life for as long as her quality of life is good. I'm scared of something progressive going on - she really is a good sweet dog and I don't want this to turn out bad! Sorry for the rambling - seems as though this is all I think about these days.

[Patty/Breeder]

Prayers headed your way for upcoming tests. Hoping its just EIC that you can keep under control.

Please keep us posted when you can.

[jazzypad1]

Any news yet on Scout, following the visit to the neuro at Missouri on Monday?
Been thinking of you both

[Black Labbies]

Sorry to read that your pup is having problems .
An off and on member's dog, Ty, has EIC. You might want to PM Heather.
http://www.lab-retriever.net/board/member.php?u=3810

Does she show any signs of Wooblers Syndrome? http://petsurgery.com/wobblersyndrome.html

[Justus_momma]

I have no experience with EIC but know that there have been a few members from my lab group who's puppy had it over the years. You can check out labrador_retrievers2 (http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/l...r_retrievers2/ )

[CanyonLabradors]

I know someone with an affected dog, and they haven't collapsed ever. I also know someone who has an affected dog that's only collapsed once. Glad to hear the breeder refunded the $$ for you. Has the vet done a full evaluation to make sure that's really why the pup is collapsing? The thing is that while the test is available to see if dogs carry the mutated genes, there are still quite a few breeders out there that aren't sure if the test truly correlates to collapses and what that means in the whole scheme of breeding.