Possible neurological issues????

I have a 13 month old JRT bitch and she has wobbling/balance/falling incidents when moving quickly/exercising to the point where she literally tosses over forwards.  History as follows: She is very small in size weighing 4.5kg likely the runt. We picked her up took her away and straight to the vet for treatment of fleas and worms, she was in an awful state to say the least - vet confirmed at least 8 weeks old. Fast forward 2 weeks and she has a seizure. She was asleep in her crate directly in front of me, she woke up and stood and began to have a seizure - we called the vet immediately and took her straight in - the seizure didn’t last long, probably not even a minute. She was tested for livershunt and came up anemic probably from the massive flea burden she had! She came back negative for livershunt and nobody could work out why it happened and it hasn’t happened since. She has behavioural issues, very anxious and possessive of toys and food around our other dogs but we manage by separation - other than that she adores them both. Potentially has sight issues which I am going to ask to be investigated further, too. She doesn’t seem to be in any pain in her joints when I touch them & believe me, she would let me know about it! When she is spayed, we were going to ask for hip x-rays but could this be neurological? I’ve read up a little but her symptoms don’t seem severe enough to match anything I have read online. Thanks for any help  

Just to add also; she often trembles too but I always associate this as a terrier thing as at least 2 of my previous terriers have done this. She will also have these “moments” where she will sniff the ground frantically, sometimes pacing and whining but eventually calms down and goes back to her usual self. There is no bodily eliminations during this time, as at first I thought she was in discomfort regarding elimination, however it seems not.

Hello!  The online culture likes obvious cases, with easily illustrative case examples, where as in reality illnesses are rarely so clear cut as the text book classics! Your pup sounds to be very underweight for her age and has had one (definite?) seizure, followed by a variety of vague neurological signs.  Are these signs constant, or do they tend to come and go? Small pups can be prone to hypoglycaemia which can cause vague neurological signs, particularly if their liver is struggling.  Pups tend to be starving hungry when they are hypoglycaemic. However, there are many underlying diseases that can cause a failure to thrive combined with neurological signs.  We would strongly advise going back to the vet for further investigation.  Perhaps you could call them now and make sure that they are aware of what is happening, in case they consider it to be an emergency. Best of luck and please do come back and update us on this fascinating case.

She’s not actually under weight by how small her frame is, and for her age she’s now 13 months old - she hasn’t grown and probably has stunted growth so still looks like a puppy. We have her to the vet regularly for flea & deworming etc and they’ve confirmed her weight is good for her size - I should have made that clearer, sorry. Definite seizure; I recorded the incident on my phone during the seizure so I could show the vet what happened & they also confirmed by examination that she had infact had a seizure. The neurological events; when exercising and just generally running around being a young energetic dog, she tends to fall quite easily and toss over forwards at least once when playing/chasing. The “moments” she has where she will frantically sniff the ground etc has only happened 3 times that I can count; she’s never left home alone as we’re too worried to leave her incase she ever did have another seizure. Although I will contact my vets and let them know of what’s been happening & share the notes and recordings of incidents I’ve collected.

Thankyou for clarifying but that's changed my perception a lot....

Thankyou for clarifying again. The sniffing the ground episodes could indeed just be a terrier thing, but the falling over forwards is notable.  This could be neurological but could also be skeletal (legs just not stopping the motion) and, indeed, could be a normal sign of a slightly unco-ordinated / over-the-top pup playing and stopping suddenly.  I think you can probably trust your instincts on that last; if it doesn't seem normal, it may be a good idea to let the vet palpate the leg joints and do a few neurological tests, just in case. It's brilliant that you're collecting notes;. I used to love it when owners came in with a list, able to tell me exactly what, when and where if not how and why. Best of luck with her.

Thanks for your replies. Yes I think my experience with keeping terriers of different abilities for 20 years had me automatically keeping notes and records of any odd behaviour; as well as previously having a brain damaged terrier I’m careful to watch for things! Thanks again, I’ll be in contact with my vets.

Just an update; we took our little dog to the vet today for something unrelated (just a little tummy bug) but took the opportunity to go through some of her possible neurological symptoms. The vet is concerned, he did some examinations and we saw that she instinctively regained her balance on her left side when examined but not on her right side - it was also observed that she was struggling with her balance on the exam table so we put her on the floor to see if she was just pulling toward me but she showed the same issue on the floor too, just less extreme. She has an appointment on Friday to look into the issue more.