Head tremors... nutrition related?

[hugomom1]

For the past two nights Hugo has had head tremors that have lasted 60 seconds and 120 seconds. It's not anything to do with his food, he's been on Wellness and that's all he's had. But I did notice that he has a little ear infection in one of his ears. Hopefully, we can get that cleared up and they will stop. The doggie neurologist didn't think it would ever get better or worse. It's just some fluke thing that certain breeds get.

I don't know if the honey trick would work on Hugo. It's always the middle of the night when he has them, it wakes him up. And he always has his jaws clenched shut. I just always talk to him and try to get him to undilate his pupils and focus on me.

 

[Rocco's Mom]

Glad to find this thread and still open!

This morning, I noticed Rocco was looking at me and it appeared he was shaking his head "no". Confused (and scared) by this, I of coarse turned to BW. I may have noticed this one other time but it was so brief, I thought nothing of it. This morning it may have lasted about a minute or so. Now, a year ago, we had a near death experience with him that landed him in ICU for 3 days. At that time, he had a neuro and cardio consult (can't even tell you how much that cost on top of everything else) they found nothing wrong at all. I would imagine if there was something wrong with his neurological function they would have found it then. In any case, I have a call into the vet just to err on the side of caution. He probably thinks we are crazy by now but one can just never be too sure.
BYW, Rocco is on TO Ocean kibble which I will soon change to the Wild & Natural or Barking at the moon. He has been on TO for about 9 months now.

 

[SILLY6PAK]

Are these occurences on an empty stomach? It seems the common thread is more when they last ate as apposed to what they ate. With everyone the incidents happen when the dog is at rest. I feed small amounts throughout the day. There was still a head tremor two weeks ago but not since then.

 

[Rocco's Mom]

Well, I fed Rocco about 9 this morning and the tremor happened at about 10:30 or so. Just prior, he'd been chasing his cuz around squeaking like crazy. All usual behavior from Rocco this morning.

 

[furrykidmom]

First head tremor

We just experienced our first head tremor in our boy Woody. From time to time he appears to have mild seizure like activity but never a full blown seizure. I really cannot explain it.

Tonight he was sleeping and just suddenly lifted his head and it started shaking. I kept waiting for it to go into a full blown seizure. He was able to lick his lips and yawn. He had no loss of consciousness or stiffness. My husband got him off the couch and standing on the floor. His head continued to shake. Then he asked if they wanted to go outside and it stopped. We were all very frightened and confused. This thread is giving me some piece of mind. However, I really want a one time cause. Like I had just given him a piece of tangerine about a half an hour ago. He had a full dinner about three hours ago. Many people said that their dogs were finicky eaters or not eating at all. He had a lot of treats today. Could have it been the treats? We have been on the same food, Innova adult for about three months. I think it may be time to rotate. The only other thing I can come up with is that we have been painting the kitchen for two days. Maybe it was neurological from the fumes. However, we had the windows to the house open all day. Maybe there just is not an answer. I am glad to hear that it may be benign head tremors. I hope that is what it is and that they are few and far between. I just want to get thru Sable's jaw surgery before we have to confront another puzzling pet problem.

Thank you to everyone that has contributed to this thread. This is valuable information. I still may run him in for some blood work just for my own personal piece of mind.

 

[tesster]

GoCougs - To respond to your initial query (although I realize this is a very old thread), I haven't found a similar correlation in Conner's tremors as you've found in Annie's. Conner was stray when he was found, so he's always been a voracious eater. He never misses a meal, but for a while, we were having several tremors a day.

Conner saw a neurologist and she did a MRI and Spinal tap on him due to some other neurological signs she thought contributed to the suspiciousness of his case (not blinking when stimulated and not lifting his leg up quickly when she folded his paw under). He was diagnosed wigh head tremors of unknown origin when both came back clean.

The tremors have since subsided and we notice them only once a month, or so. I'm curious to learn if you ever compiled your findings.

Thanks!
Julie

 

[GoCougs]

If I collect enough information that is more that circumstantial evidence of a cause and effect, I would move forward. Obviously, we're just not there yet. There has been some testing done which would indicate that blood sugar is not a cause, but I'm still not convinced. Regardless, I am still very committed to this issue.

As an aside, Annie's head tremors are almost non-existent. In the past couple of years, we probably see have only seen a handful of episodes, 3 or 4 at the most. It's so infrequent now that when it does occur, we're almost shocked to see one.

 

[tesster]

As an aside, Annie's head tremors are almost non-existent. In the past couple of years, we probably see have only seen a handful of episodes, 3 or 4 at the most. It's so infrequent now that when it does occur, we're almost shocked to see one.

When she does have them now, has she skipped a meal? In other words, are you seeing the same correlation that you saw before? Also, did you ever speculate if perhaps anxiety played any role in triggering tremors?

Conner's are very infrequent now, as well. The were occuring many times a day for a few weeks, but almost the minute the $3500 check was cashed by the neurologist, he stopped having them with any frequency at all. Darn dog!

 

[GoCougs]

When she does have them now, has she skipped a meal? In other words, are you seeing the same correlation that you saw before? Also, did you ever speculate if perhaps anxiety played any role in triggering tremors?

It's been awhile, but as I recall all of the episodes that she has had have occurred in the evening when she would've had an empty stomach. We feed at 12 hour intervals (morning and night) and when they happen it's been in the evening before dinner. That's not to say they haven't happened at other times. Obviously we are home from work and have a closer eye on things.

As far as anxiety as the cause, I never considered it. As boxers go, Annie's not a real high strung dog. She is pretty mellow and doesn't really get worked up about much, except perhaps an occasional visitor to the house, of course.

 

[furrykidmom]

Our boy never misses a meal so I do not believe that it is related to low blood sugar either. Ours did occur when he was sleepingIt woke him up and he could be distracted out of it temporarily. He was completely distracted out of it when he was asked if he wanted to go outside. Our incident lasted about 2-3 minutes. I called our breeder and she said that she has seen this behavior in some of her dogs but none in our boy's line. She do not feel that it is "seizure disorder" As none of her dogs had a positive response to phenobarb. She strongly advised me to not start the phenobarb as our vet suggested. Based on studies and info that I found on the net it will not respond and the side effects of the med are not worth the risk. Our breeder said that her dogs can be distracted out of it also depending on the stimulation level of the distraction. Simply calling their name will stop it for a few moments but it starts again. A big distraction with something that really excites them usually stops it. I have to wonder if the peanut butter and honey are a big soothing distraction. Just a hunch.

My boy also has some of the other signs that go along with the paroxysmal dyskinesia description that I read about in Bulldogs, Dobs, Labs and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. Other signs and symptoms are fly chasing at flys that are not there and tail chasing. Our boy has been chasing his tail much more often. I thought that maybe his anal glands were full but when I checked them they were empty. I just figured he was a goofy Boxer. Go figure. I realize that these can be typical behaviours of any breed especially Boxers but it seems more pronounced lately. I just hope that it was a result of the paint fumes and that it never happens again.

Here are some interesting articles that I found on head tremors


http://www.bulldogsworld.com/headtremor.html

http://www.vetinfo.com/dheadtremor.html

http://www.dobermann.co.za/health/Genetic/Headbobbing Syndrome.html