My dog collapses. Is it epilepsy, or could it be a heart problem?

Question

My Jack Russell is 2 years old and had episodes of collapsing 2 weeks ago and has had 3 in total. My vet has done blood and came to the conclusion of epilepsy.I have been skeptical of this diagnosis and think its a syncope. Alfie goes dizzy and falls into his side his forearms go ridged then flacid. This lasts for 20 secconds and then he come round and takes him about a minute to return to normal. I saw after ecersise he started to cough gently and it happened. Can I have your second opinion? Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Male | neutered | 2 years old | 11.023 lbs

Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA · Accepted Answer

Poor Alfie! It can be very difficult in some cases to distinguish syncope from epilepsy based on how the dog looks during a collapsing episode, because both problems can look very similar. Syncope is caused by a heart problem - occasionally we can see it with congestive heart failure, but most often it's due to a cardiac arrhythmia. Sometimes we can hear an abnormality in the heart beat during the exam, but not always - sometimes it only occurs during a fainting episode, which can make it hard to diagnose. Some tests that may be helpful at this stage would include chest x-rays and an ECG. If these are normal and the diagnosis is still uncertain, a device called an event monitor can be used to actually record an ECG during an episode - this would give a definitive answer.

My dog collapses. Is it epilepsy, or could it be a heart problem?

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