Head tremors caused by over-stimulation

kazzy220

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Jul 31, 2010
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Grafton, OHIO
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Maggie (My Angel Baby 5/31/2012). Daddy (2 years). Linus (1year). Bella (4 years)
[MENTION=900]KMARINO[/MENTION] and [MENTION=1034]BruceP[/MENTION]

This is in response to kmarinos initial thread when vegas seemed to have some form of response to having his stinky monkey taking off him. This is Maggie .. but you have to realise that these head tremors were in response to being given a treat .. and since then it hasn't happened again.

So Vegas was responding to something much more stressful as far as he was concerned, and so his response may be different. However a head tremor in response to over-stimulation should generally look the same, and according to Maggie's neurologist that is what was happening here. Head tremors can be fairly common in dogs .... and nobody seems to really know what causes them.


YouTube - Maggie
 

BruceP

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Aug 12, 2010
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HRH Princess Gracie, aka: HRH; Princess Amelia Pond, aka: Amy
[MENTION=959]kazzy220[/MENTION] ....... Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us. At least now we may be able to recognize the problem if it ever happens. That is what is so great about this website; mutual cooperation between its members with the goal being providing the best care possible for these wonderful English Bullies that we all love :up:
 

KMARINO

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Jul 21, 2010
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Bradenton Fl.
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VEGAS and REBEL
[MENTION=959]kazzy220[/MENTION], WOW...... thank you so much! This is EXACTLY what Vegas did, plus he foamed at the mouth. It is hard to understand that over-stimulation can actually cause this. I would have never known had [MENTION=572]Libra926[/MENTION] had not explained to me.
 
OP
kazzy220

kazzy220

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Jul 31, 2010
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Grafton, OHIO
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Maggie (My Angel Baby 5/31/2012). Daddy (2 years). Linus (1year). Bella (4 years)
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[MENTION=900]KMARINO[/MENTION] I think the reason that Vegas was foaming at the mouth is because he was stressed .... whereas Maggie was just looking forward to a mouthful of baby carrots!! I don't know if you can hear us in the video but we initially thought it was the angle of her head because it seemed to happen when she looked up. However, this was just coincidence because of course she was looking up at the bag of baby carrots!!
 

Momma2Bullet

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Jan 15, 2011
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wow, thank you for sharing this. i know i would seriously freak out if i didn't have this knowledge and it happened to my boy. :whew:
 

Bella Cows Mama

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Feb 4, 2011
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Thanks for sharing. Maggie is such a cutie pie :heart:. It's a little scary seeing the tremoring though. Did her neurologist say if these are completely harmless (maybe the same as a person shaking before they get up to give a speach in front of hundreds of people) or is this a serious problem?
 

izstigspunks

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Thanks [MENTION=959]kazzy220[/MENTION] for sharing. Stiggy does the same thing maybe a couple of times a month when he's waiting for his food. His head doesn't shake as much as Maggie's but I thought the shaking was just because he was excited to get his meal. Any thoughts on how we can prevent it? It's scaring me a little now.
 
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Lucy-licious

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oh my!! that must be pretty scary when it happens I am so glad you have shared this with us. x
 

bullmama

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Thanks for sharing. Tidus does a lower jaw quiver when he sees treats, similar but without the bob. I will probably need to keep an eye out for him to do this in the future.
 
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kazzy220

kazzy220

..........
Jul 31, 2010
8,556
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Grafton, OHIO
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England
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Maggie (My Angel Baby 5/31/2012). Daddy (2 years). Linus (1year). Bella (4 years)
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Thanks [MENTION=959]kazzy220[/MENTION] for sharing. Stiggy does the same thing maybe a couple of times a month when he's waiting for his food. His head doesn't shake as much as Maggie's but I thought the shaking was just because he was excited to get his meal. Any thoughts on how we can prevent it? It's scaring me a little now.

[MENTION=1209]savemejeebus[/MENTION] It probably IS because he's excited about getting his meal. I don't know if we can really prevent it from happening ... for us we just give Maggie a treat without the "tease" before hand. We can say "Do you wanna carrot" and she will always come running from wherever she is inside the house!! We don't do that anymore!! A lot of dogs get these head tremors it doesn't mean that it will develop into anything other than that so I wouldn't get too worried!!

Thanks for sharing. Maggie is such a cutie pie :heart:. It's a little scary seeing the tremoring though. Did her neurologist say if these are completely harmless (maybe the same as a person shaking before they get up to give a speach in front of hundreds of people) or is this a serious problem?

[MENTION=1815]Bella Cows Mama[/MENTION] The neurologist says they are common and do not appear to harm the dog in any way. I'm not sure they are even 100% sure what causes it exactly, but it does seem to be linked to over-stimulation. I don't believe any vet would consider it a serious problem.
 

TessaAndSamson

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May 7, 2010
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Samson has them from time to time. I did tons of research on bulldogs before and after I got Samson but I never read anything about head tremors. September 2009 when Samson was 3.5 yrs old he had his first one. Dave was gone hunting so it was just Samson and I in our bed. At like 5am in the morning I started feeling the bed shake and at first I thought it was an earthquake, then I saw Sams head bobbing. He sat up and he was still doing it. I started freaking out, I was started crying hysterically because I had no idea what was happening. I figured it was very serious. So I called my vet, I was ready to get in the car and leave that minute. My vet is a 24 hour facility so I was able to talk to a doctor right then. He asked me a bunch of questions and told me it was probably these head tremors. He was always alert, could walk, acted pretty normal besides the head bob (from side to side like he was shaking his head no). I made an appointment for a check up, he had a full exam. Physical, parasite testing, blood work, everything. He was perfectly healthy. My vet told me only to worry if anything changes about the episodes like he collapses, if his whole body starts shaking. He has had more since, maybe once every few months and it's always been the same. Sometimes I feed him when it starts and it will snap him out of it, other times I just ignore it and let it run it's course. It is a truly terrifying experience if it happens and you aren't expecting it, have never seen it or heard of it before. For Samson it has always been just his head, no other part of his body has ever moved/switched, he is always alert, can walk, give kisses, give the paw, eat. Samson's are not brought on by any type of stimulation. This happens when he is very calm and laying down, not when he is actually sleeping though. For anyone that wasn't around when this thread (link below) was active, it has alot of information on head tremors and what other people have experienced with their bullies and head tremors. What I wrote above is pretty much what I said on the thread below as well.

http://www.englishbulldognews.com/forums/your-bulldogs-health/311-idopathic-head-tremors.html
 

cadillactaste

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Feb 28, 2011
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Tank and Sarge
Head Tremors...I spent a lot of money years ago trying to figure out what was causing them...With our dog Jake with no luck...

Flash forward to the present with the knowledge now known...Head Tremors can be brought on by a drop in sugar or so my vet stated. I keep Sunbeam Honey and Oats granola on hand for just this thing. The oats break down into sugar...and raises their sugar. Oatmeal can be added to their diet also to help if it's an on going thing.


In our case...
Our Tank's was brought on by changing his dog food and putting him on a diet dog food. It wasn't enough to keep his sugar levels where they needed to be...and brought on the tremors. Changing his food to one that wasn't diet...did help. Also making sure he is fed on a schedule twice a day...as well as having a granola bar handy if we take a walk or he seems to be wrestling more at one time than typical...helps keep these at bay.

A good way in preventing this is to make sure your bulldog is on a feeding schedule...and if they have any extra activity that may have stimulated their metabolism to work faster, give them an extra treat. In doing this you can typically prevent these from happening.


EDIT:
I wanted to add...that even though Tank was known to wake up from a nap with a tremor in the past...when he was on that diet dog food. So over stimulation didn't play into account with that tremor. But...again it was his diet...and sugar dropping. For I can't say when the last time he's had a tremor...and they were quite constant until we figured out what was going on. Now that we've changed his food and know that when he's been more energetic to treat him accordingly. We've had no tremors...this leads me to believe...that our vet touched on a fine point...since we can control them and keep them at bay.
 
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