Head Tremor/seizure

[Justalyke]

Hello Hugo and Simon's Mommy....I hope this finds you well...or at least finds you it has been a while since this thread has been posted!
I am taking my Savion to the Neurologist Monday for almost the exact same symtoms. My vet seems to think that he has Progressive Axonopathy in Boxers. Have you ever heard of it? I would just LOVE to know what your final diagnosis and prognosis was. I will keep it short, but please keep me and anyone else reading this updated as there seems to be little to no information on this disease.
Thank you so much!

 

[hugomom1]

Hugo's neurologist at OSU thought it was most likely Ideopathic Head Tremors. He hasn't had any since. They actually had another Boxer there at the same time with the same thing. He told us since it was only happening once a month or so, to just keep a journal on when it happened, what happened, and for how long. He said meds would do more harm than good at this point. They said it probably would reoccur but still never be anything to worry about, unless it got more frequent. Our regular vet found out that it seems to be more common in Boxers and Bulldogs. Hugo was smacked upside the head when he was a puppy. Another dog owner was throwing a big stick for the Danes and Hugo ran up right as he reared back to throw it. (poor guy didn't come back for a month he felt so horrible) I always wondered if it ever hurt him. Of course, that may not have had anything to do with it.

I have never heard of that term in your post. Keep us up to date!! I'm hoping your baby just has something simple that goes away too!

 

[laura owner]

seizures frightening to watch but don't worry

it might help you to know that even full seizures aren't that bad..they LOOK awful and are very distressing but you can deal with them. My dog first had a seizure at 8 months old....it was a full on seizure not just a tremor and EXTREMELY frightening to watch - I thought she was dying and was in pieces - to describe the seizure (happens whilst she was asleep)- legs go out stretched and shudder violently, eyes roll back, whole body goes rigid and shakes, mouth opening and closing uncontrollably, whole body shaking as if taking last breaths... okay, that's how bad it looks. afterwards when she started to come round her muscles are so exhausted from the seizure that she can't get up to begin with - then she was very upset pacing around for hours...wanted to sit out in the rain..... BUT.... vet put my dog on Gardenal (i think that's phenol barbitol) and yes I have to give it to her everyday but she no longer has these awful seizures. She actually has had one very mild seizure since then (it sounds more than the tremor you describe)...but I can now be very calm about it as I have seen the real seizure and know it's no threat as long as she is somewhere that she won't fall/hurt herself whilst in this state. Also in my case the first time this happened to my dog she had 3 such seizures in one night, I've read up on this...what you must be careful of is if the dog is having seizures (as described) one after the other the dog can overheat and this can be fatal (i didn't know this and my dog had 3 seizures during a 12 hour period fyi before I put her on Gardenal). I just want to tell you I was so upset when this first happened (that was 3/4 months ago) but now I have a very controllable situation and everything is fine so please don't worry about yours...it might just stay as tremors nothing more and if it does progress to seizures just monitor the situation and don't worry..you will be able to deal with it ... if it does become seizures..it really isn't that bad.....

 

[Justalyke]

Hi guys, I have some good news, sort of. I went to see the nuerologist at UGA and he said the Progressive Axonopathy has not ever been seen here in the USA only in the UK, so he does not think that is what is wrong with him. He still has no real explanation for the head tremors though. He also said he has seen this before mostly in Dobermans, Boxers and Bulldogs (he actually showed us a video of an American Bulldog that was having head tremors). I was able to catch one of my Savion's on video, otherwise I think they would have possibly diagnosed him with the same thing Hugo was diagnosed with. Were you able to get Hugo's on video? It is so hard to describe these things, and no matter what, people always think that it is a seizure until they see the video. I think that is monumentaly helpful to the vets with this odd thing we are experiencing. The vet at UGA said that no one has discovered the cause of the tremors (yet). He said he has done MRI's on dogs before having the same issues and they always come back fine. I chose not to do this as they would have to totally put him out to do an MRI and that is alwasy a risk. He said most dogs will increase in frequency and the level off, and sometimes go away completely! So I think any information we can compile and offer to these vets would help out quite a bit. Sorry this is so long, I hope this is a little bit helpful. Good luck with Hugo! Keep me posted?

 

[hugomom1]

That sounds like what they told us too. It's not really seizures, it's similiar but a little different. We were never able to get one of Hugo's on video. We borrowed my brother's state of the art camcorder and he never had one again. They also told us he may never have them again, or he could go years without them and then could have one, etc... They really don't know what causes them or why only certain breeds seem to be more effected. The Neurologist called it 'Ideopathic Head Tremors', basically a name they give to local tremors with no discernable cause. They ran every bloodtest known to doggies, and Hugo's all came back normal.

We also passed on the MRI, unless he starts having them again. It may ease your mind, Hugo's went away completely. Not to say they'll never return, but I haven't seen one tremor in months! And from this great web site, I've found quite a few Boxer owners that also deal with the same issue. I'm glad your baby is ok!!!!!!