Thanks, same here.

Although it doesn't really match all of the symptoms according to this page:

http://www.vetinfo.com/dencyclopedia/dehemsarcoma.html

So out of these common symptoms:

"Visible bleeding, usually in the form of nosebleeds, and signs associated with blood loss, such as tiring easily, episodes of unexplained weakness, pale color to the mucous membranes of the mouth and eyes, increased respiratory rates, abdominal swelling and depression are the most common presenting signs for patients with hemangiosarcoma."

Ben only gets the 'tiring easily' symptom, but none of the others, so I'm hoping it's something that's easier to 'fix'.

I hope you are right. By the way, our Barkley didn't have the symptoms you mentioned until after his collapse and he never had the nosebleeds. The collapse was our first sign. In fact he was acting half his age in the days preceding it. Now that he is post-splenectomy he is back to acting younger, but we can tell he's having a little more difficulty walking uphill.

Good thoughts coming your way.

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Thanks.

Well, Ben has had his blood tested and no problems found. This is of course great, but means that we still don't know the cause of the problem. The vet thinks it's the brain at fault (due to his age) and that's it's possibly a further development of the 'hyper episodes' that he used to suffer from a year or so ago and which have now largely abated.

These 'hyper episodes' consisted of him unexpectedly becoming very hyper and animated for a few hours at a time, pawing at carpets, doors, panting a lot, wouldn't keep still, etc. He just would not settle. At its peak this happened about once every other day but we put him on Hills B/D and a supplement called Aktivait and the spells dimished. Now he only has one every 2 or 3 months, if that.

So, it MAY be related to that. He still goes into our lounge and barks at nothing at least once a day.

All most puzzling.

Is there any 'brain food'/supplements that are particularly good for brain function in elderly dogs?

You say that it happened to Holly about 5 times - was this spread over a few weeks or months, were the intervals between the collapses regular or variable? I only ask just to help understand Ben's condition a bit more.

Did the vet put Holly on any medication, change of diet, etc?

Thanks.[/QUOTE]

They were spread over 12months+ , there seemed to be no pattern to them, our vet never mentioned changing diet - but we would have been stuck if he had because Holly was already on a specific food because she suffered from very bad colitis, no meds because the episodes were so far apart. She had geriatric blood tests done and nothing shown on those apart from the week before we lost her at 14 years old. It scared us more than it ever bothered her.

Hope this helps, I will try and find my diary to see if I have forgotten anything else that may help.

Hugs to Ben

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Kelly, Ginny, Ralph & Holly - Forever in my heart

"I miss the wagging little tail,
I miss the plaintive pleading wail,
I miss the wistful loving glance,
I miss the circling welcome dance"

I know when Beau had his seizures he would be wide awake and pacing for hours after the seizure. And his seizures were always during the night so it meant for a long night. He would lay down and then 30 seconds later he would be back up walking around.
We used to give him fish oil tablets. Just the regular kind in the people section. make sure you get the ones that dont have soy. Soy can make them itchy.

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Thanks, that's very helpful.

That's very interesting - when Ben used to regularly have his 'hyper spells' there was never a sign of any kind of trigger or change in behaviour beforehand - one moment he was fine, then he would sit up and start panting and appear very animated. The pacing would commence and then once started he could go on (sometimes with a short break) for up to 6 hours or so. Must have been exhausting for him yet even when he slept afterwards he didn't sleep a lot.

I am so glad the exam came back without finding anything strange I know, but when you think of some of the things they can find, simply having an old brain is not so scary.

I had an elderly (17 yo) shepard who was on some brain food supplementation from my (then) vet; I don't recall the name of it, but in his case it really helped with his cognitive functioning - it might be worth asking your vet if he knows of anything that might help.

Ben is already on Hills B/D (Brain Diet) and Aktivair (for brain function) but I was hoping that there was something even better to get those synapses firing correctly.

there have been threads about meds to improve brain function before. Maybe if you run a search you can find them?
If not, let me know and I'll try to find them for you.

I hope Ben continues to do well. He's such a sweetheart.

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Copper's Mom (always )