Dog movement disorder

Any advice welcome please My 11 year old dog (12 in july) has been having episodes which we thought were seizures, multiple times a day, he collapses when walking or almost collapses but catches his fall, his legs tighten up. It can happen when he's lying down and he gets head jerky movments. It only lasts for seconds. I'm trying to capture it on video but as it happens randomly it's hard, and as it's over in seconds too late to grab my fone. On his first vet visit regarding this they thought it was vestibular disease. However as it has continued we brought him back in. They are now thinking movement disorder but did say worse case scenario it could be something like a brain tumour. He has been prescribed prednisone. So does prednisone treat movement disorder? If no improvement after 4 weeks they said we can try epilepsy medications. Thankyou in advance

Hello!  I cant tell from your description what sort of tests have been carried out or what the decision making process has been.   There used to be a very set idea of what a fit looked like, but the more vets understand about this, the harder it is to know from the outside and therefore, vets often suggest MRI tests and / or neurology referrals if they are in doubt.  Prednisalone is a steroid, a strong fast-acting anti-inflammatory, not really associated with treating fitting or movement disorders to my knowledge, but you can always ask your vet why it has been prescribed in this case.

It is difficult to see through a dogs skull, so to get to the bottom of the cause of these signs, I wonder whether a neurology referral might be the next port of call - another good question for your vet.

To answer your question about movement disorders, they are characterised as episodic involuntary movements, so this is a term to describe the signs rather than a diagnosis.   If you like, its an umbrella term for 'fit-like' activity of various kinds and usually, the vet will then perform tests or investigations in order to identify the cause of what you are seeing.  Ideally, this would often perform an MRI.  Because your vet has examined the patient and heard a full history, they are perhaps better placed than me to explain when they chose to treat with Prednisalone in this case.

Thank you so much for your reply. The vet did say the only way to see what's going on in his head would be an MRI but as its a PDSA vet they don't have any. She said that he's a perfectly healthy dog for his age otherwise and that's why she doesn't think it's seizures. I did ask her to take bloods but she said because he's healthy she didn't think anything would show in his bloods (something about toxins from the liver or kidney). I do plan to call them again as I didn't take alot of the information in after she said worse case scenario brain tumour. Would prednisone be prescribed for a brain tumour? Or inflammation in the brain? Thankyou.  

Thankyou for clarifying.  Steroids are often prescribed as an anti-inlammatory, which may be the case here.  They can help inflammation around tumours or in general, although as far as I understand (check with your vet) the actual evidence basis for this might be low.  Pdsa clinics do the very best they know with the resources available, which are often not as many as they would like.  A good question for them would be, what could be causing the signs?  Even if money were no object, what would we do next?  What proportion of cases in this age range might be helped if everything possible was to be done?  In a dog with brain signs, if it was the liver you might never find out if tests havent been done.  (And for the liver to be causing signs due to excessive ammonia, specal tests rather than liver enzyme tests might be needed to rule that one out)   If it was a bleed eg due to.clotting problems), they might never find  out if the clotting cascade couldn't be checked. If it was a tumour or bleed to the brain, you might not know if an MRI hasnt been done.  If the symptoms respond to anti-inflammatories, it might be that there was an inflammatory disease, or it might be that it was going to improve anyway.  Thus without tests, it is hard to know the cause and the vet may be left to base treatment on their experience of what has worked for previous cases.   Would it be worth getting / paying for the tests?-  only in those cases where the cause that is found can be treated, but those cases cannot be identified from the onset /  outside and it may turn out that brilliant outcomes are unusual in older patients.  To my understaning a neurologist may advise here and may be prepared to tell your vet in advance what proportion of cases presenting like this can be helped and to what extent?   Your vet will likely do the best they can with the resources at their disposal becuse, of all the vets in the world, the PDSA vets understand best that whether you afford complicated tests or not to name a condition, is usually unrelated to your love for your old dog - and they want to help.

Thankyou so much for all this information. I will definitely be asking these questions. I just want the best for my boy.