So sorry to hear this about your poor little dog. I had a very similar thing with my youngster when she was a puppy last year, she also went out into the garden and wouldn't come back in, it must have taken us an hour to get her in, and I just knew it was because she felt strange and was shaking. Just like you I rushed her to the vet at almost midnight, the vet thought it could be pancreatitis, and she too just didn't actually know, so gave her two injections, one a painkiller and one a vitamin (that one's quite a common thing to do with things like this, and I thinkit's vitamin K?). The blood tests revealed nothing (they did that immediately coz it's an animal hospital as opposed to a vet), and sent us home. Well, when I got her home, she couldn't move her back legs, and I only managed to get her into our bootroom before she collapsed, with her eyes rolling to the back of her head, she was trembling, oh it was truly awful. Her temperature wasn't that high, about 41 I think (I've had worse!), what was your dog's temperature last night or this morning?
I eventually diagnosed her myself,. and treated her for heatstroke, damped her down with cold, wet towels, phoned the vet again, she said I could bring her in if I liked, but I didn't like, she wouldn't have made it. I never expected her to be here in the morning, but there she was, bright as a button, and to this day, I will never truly know what was going on.
She did have a hernia, and her symptoms to me, were very similar to what you would expect from a strangulated hernia, and I also had her collapse out on a walk, the very same thing, she went like a rag dog on me, gums white, passed out, and I honestly feel, that my problem was that hernia, because since I've had it fixed, touch wood, I've had nothing like this again. Has your mum's dog got a hernia at all?
The reason I treated mine for heatstroke was because of the fact that it had been very hot that day, and she had been running around like a loonie that very evening at 5pm with another puppy, even though this all started at around 9pm that night, I just knew with that panting and sickness and the fact that she wanted to go outside and not come back in that it was something very serious indeed. Do you know if your little dog had been overdoing it running about last night?
Regarding the steroids, I have a dog who has lived on them all of his life, and you have to be so very careful with them when reducing the dosage, i.e. you can't just stop them, you have to reduce from 5 for 2 days, then 3 for 2 days and so on before you can stop, I'm wondering if your mum just stopped them if she ran out, but then maybe your dog was only on 1 a day, but even then, you have to miss a day for 3 days before stopping them completely, you spread them out, but then the vet must have told her that?
What about annual booster injections, has she had those lately, coz it could be a severe reaction to them?
I'm so sorry, I do hope those 2 injections saved the day like they did for my puppy and he'll pick himself up again quickly. All the best with her, it can't have been nice watching her like that, I've been there myself.