Border Collie Collapse study at U of Minnesota

[Katie Minor]

Border Collie Collapse

An exercise-induced collapse syndrome similar to the EIC syndrome in retrievers has been recognized in Border Collies and may be called Border Collie collapse (BCC). This disorder has also been called exercise induced hyperthermia, stress seizures and "the wobbles". It is most common in dogs used for working stock but has also been seen in dogs training for agility or flyball competitions and in dogs repetitively retrieving a tennis ball.

Affected dogs are normal at rest and seem healthy. They will sometimes become abnormal after five to fifteen minutes of strenuous activity, particularly in warm weather. All of the factors contributing to the tendency for an affected dog to collapse on a given day (excitement, heat, intensity of exercise) have not been determined. Some dogs seem relatively normal while they are exercising but only show symptoms about 5 minutes after exercise is halted. Affected dogs commonly develop a stiff, stilted gait with short strides in all 4 legs during an episode, often with toe dragging. Affected dogs may seem dazed and confused or may simply lose their focus. Some dogs get very wobbly with an incoordinated gait (appearing "drunk") and a few dogs actually become unable to walk. Dogs are abnormal for 5 to 30 minutes, but then recover completely with no residual lameness or muscle stiffness or discomfort.

Investigators at the the University of Minnesota (Drs. Ned Patterson and Jim Mickelson, and Katie Minor), University of Saskatchewan (Drs. Susan Taylor and Cindy Shmon), and the University of California, San Diego (Dr. Diane Shelton) are involved in a large-scale project to investigate this disorder. The objectives of the project are to (1) establish clinical, hematologic and biochemical parameters for normal Border Collies participating in a standardized exercise protocol, (2) to evaluate dogs with BCC participating in a standardized exercise protocol to determine clinical or clinicopathologic markers for BCC at rest or after exercise that will help veterinarians diagnose BCC and help us understand the cause of collapse, (3) to fully describe the clinical features of BCC to facilitate recognition by dog owners and veterinarians, (4) to evaluate the heritability of BCC, (5) to determine the genetic cause of BCC, and (6) to develop a genetic test for BCC to aid diagnosis and to allow breeding decisions to be made to avoid producing affected pups.

If your dog has had 2 or more episodes of collapse, we would like your help as we try to describe the syndrome and search for the genetic cause. Please take the time to fill out the online questionnaire and send us a blood sample and pedigree from your affected dog. If you have a video of your dog having an episode, we would like to have the opportunity to view that as well.

We are also interested in collecting blood samples and pedigrees from exercise tolerant (normal) border collies for the genetic study. Ideally, normal dogs should be a minimum of three years of age with no reports of exercise intolerance or collapse when worked hard.

For more information on BCC, including submission forms, exercise study opportunities, and video; please see our webpage:

http://www.cvm.umn.edu/vbs/faculty/Micke.../home.html


Katie Minor
University of Minnesota

[tase]

not nice

[Vicky]

I've never heard of this before, glad they are doing a study on it, doesn't sound nice for a dog to have this!.

[Katie Minor]

(01-27-2011 08:29 PM)Herding Addict Wrote:  A rescue BC pup that I placed has this. He's not even a working dog, he's a therapy dog. He didn't do well in agility classes and his instinct test on sheep just one time caused him an episode. Unfortunately, because he is a rescue, there is no pedigree to go along with this.

Very glad they are doing this study for the breed though. Would be nice if they could find a genetic marker for it.

If you are sure that the dog is a pure bred BC, we will take them without a pedigree. We are looking for dogs with a specific type of collapse. Here are links to videos of three different border collies that we feel have BCC.

BCC video 1
BCC video 2
BCC video 3

Katie

[trickytrip]

What I see in these videos, the dog is not salivating which is normal when a dog gets hot. Though that saliva soaked ball is gross, it is a normal and good thing. Also, where was the water in the dogs dish? That was cruel.

[Katie Minor]

(01-29-2011 07:37 PM)Herding Addict Wrote:  I have shared this information on my local yahoo training lists in order to encourage people to participate with their dogs. How long will they be collecting normal dog samples? I have 3 BCs, but one won't be 3 yrs until the end of April. If they are going to still be taking samples in May, I can send all 3 dogs in at the same time.

We will be collecting both normal and affected dogs for the foreseeable future, at least several more months. Please consider having a sample drawn the next time you are in for a routine appointment.

Thank you,

Katie

[sheepskin_border_collies]

It seems a lot like heat exhaustion to me, by the videos, although unless in a extreme heat a dog should be able to play longer than 8 minutes without getting that hot in normal summers. Which I can see the problem there. This is new information for me as well, never heard of it until now.

[Katie Minor]

(01-31-2011 06:33 PM)sheepskin_border_collies Wrote:  It seems a lot like heat exhaustion to me, by the videos, although unless in a extreme heat a dog should be able to play longer than 8 minutes without getting that hot in normal summers. Which I can see the problem there. This is new information for me as well, never heard of it until now.

Heat stroke is very different than what we are seeing in these dogs.

With heat stroke - induced collapse in dogs you expect to see a very slow or prolonged recovery that can take hours to days, or else progression to death. Laboratory evaluation reveals a dramatic increase in muscle enzymes (CK usually 7-11X normal). Mentation changes that are severe, progressive and persistent (for hours to days) occur in 80% of affected dogs and significant endothelial injury leads to microvascular thrombosis, DIC, thrombocytopenia and bleeding as well as acute renal failure in most patients.

In contrast, BCC dogs are abnormal for 5 to 30 minutes, but then recover completely with no residual lameness or muscle stiffness or discomfort. Body temperatures are very high during an episode (often >41.7C, >107F), but not obviously higher than those seen in unaffected dogs performing the same exercise. Affected dogs have normal blood sugar and electrolytes (sodium and potassium) before exercise and after collapse.

[trickytrip]

Like I said, I don't see any salivating. When dogs are working or playing they salivate to cool themselves as well. Perhaps it is problems with parotid, submaxillary or sublingual glands. Having problems with these glands can cause this to happen because they secrete enzymes. This article is excellent and talks about evaporative cooling.

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pat...ivary.html

[Katie Minor]

(02-01-2011 12:19 PM)trickytrip Wrote:  Like I said, I don't see any salivating. When dogs are working or playing they salivate to cool themselves as well. Perhaps it is problems with parotid, submaxillary or sublingual glands. Having problems with these glands can cause this to happen because they secrete enzymes. This article is excellent and talks about evaporative cooling.

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pat...ivary.html

I asked the veterinarian that performed exercise testing on 10 border collies with BCC if she had noted anything about a lack of salivation during the dogs' collapse events. This is her response:

These dogs produce LOTS of saliva and slimed us generously when we were taking their blood after exercise. The dogs were frequently swallowing to prevent saliva from dripping out of their mouth.

Maybe these videos are not displaying this presence of saliva very well, but this is not something owners or evaluating veterinarians have ever remarked upon in our sample population.

[trickytrip]

Odd.

[sheepskin_border_collies]

(01-31-2011 06:47 PM)Herding Addict Wrote:  

(01-31-2011 06:33 PM)sheepskin_border_collies Wrote:  It seems a lot like heat exhaustion to me, by the videos, although unless in a extreme heat a dog should be able to play longer than 8 minutes without getting that hot in normal summers. Which I can see the problem there. This is new information for me as well, never heard of it until now.

There is a BC that was training at the farm a couple summers ago and he had a collapse. My friend urged his owner to get him into the study but I don't know that this woman cares enough about the BC population on the whole to participate It's very scarey to see a dog like that. We put him in a tub of water in the shade, and my friend took his temp just prior and it was really high. After that, working him on remotely warm days was either very short, or just not an option at all. This last summer, his owner didn't bring him out at all to train.

Unfortunately, the owner of the rescue pup I placed sent a video of him in for evaluation and they said he wasn't a dog affected. Not sure the video showed the whole story though. Need to ask her.

Oh I know how it feels to see a dog do something like this, As much as me and Hannah have been threw her seizers, I still get so scared holding her while she goes threw it.



Not sure if everyone thought I was saying i thought it was heat exhaustion or not, But not what I was trying to say Just thought it looked similar starting out the same. I do agree that heat ex. does take longer than that to get better. Sadly we lost two or three during the summer here at the vets that just got to hot and it was to late One was a little pug that chased his owners car in 115 heat index....(dont get me started on the owners) Dog shouldnt be chasing the car anyways!

I agree to , very good points about the Salivating.... Hope and pray for the dogs and owners and future, that it can get figured out!

[BCFan]

Wow. I find this very interesting. Rebel has done this three times in his life. First time about 4 years ago while trail riding. I honestly thought he was dying. We actually had not been out riding that long, the day was hot, but not incredibly so, and we were in the woods on trails. We stopped to talk about which path to take and Rebel started wobbling, stumbling, rubbing his face in the dirt a lot. He'd lay down, get up try to walk, fall down...It was a nightmare. I carried him back to our campsite on horseback. By the time we got back, he was fine...I took him to the vet., ran all kinds of blood work, and came up with nothing. Chaulked it up to a possible bug sting/allergic reaction.
A year or so later, same stumbling/disoriented shuffling walk after a game of frisbee. This was in the spring, so the weather wasn't hot at all. I tried to get him to lay down, drink, but he kept stumbling around for a few minutes before he finally lie down in front of his water dish and drank. I thought maybe he was out of shape (from winter) getting older...I wouldn't let him run hard for a while.
Then about a year ago, after a game of ball with the kids - disoriented, dragging his back feet a little, panting like mad (and yeah - lots of saliva) I told the kids they had to take it easier on him and not let him over-do it. He is 9 now. I watch for trembling to start in his back legs, then game over. I make him take lots of breaks during play, trail riding, anything strenuous. Sounds and looks exactly like those dogs in the videos. It's scary, and hard to watch. And amazing when 15-20 minutes later it's like nothing EVER happened...

[Katie Minor]

We have now arranged a central shipping site for Australian Border Collie owners who would like to participate.

Submission forms and protocols are available on our webpage:

Border Collie Collapse

Katie Minor
University of Minnesota

[Prestt_man]

(02-17-2011 11:48 PM)Katie Minor Wrote:  We have now arranged a central shipping site for Australian Border Collie owners who would like to participate.

Submission forms and protocols are available on our webpage:

Border Collie Collapse

Katie Minor
University of Minnesota

I have heard of this before over here in aus... but at the same time we do have much hotter climate.... im worried about daisy as she seems to tire very quickly and spends alot of our walks laying in shade where our other dog runs alot more and she should be much more energetic.. doesnt take her long to tire out... i dont want to run her until she is fully grown so im not 100% sure if she suffers from it, i guess ill look into it some more