Article: Head Tremors in English Bulldogs

[Treasure]

Our sophie started having head tremors after we had to start giving her allergy meds...I changed the kind of alergy meds but she still continued...we ordered some Nuvet Plus and after a week on it her tremors have stopped. ..its worth looking into

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[IPickedADaisy]

Yesterday Roscoe had a head tremor episode. Luckily I had read about them here or I would have freaked out. I just adopted/rescued him last week so he may have had them in the past. I couldn’t remember exactly what I was supposed to do but I did remember to remain calm. He was responsive to me but he really doesn’t know his new name yet and isn’t all that excited about toys. I soothed him, tried peanut butter, then honey, and finally frozen banana slices. IDK if the bananas did the trick or it was just a timing thing & he was done. It lasted 3-5 minutes (although it felt like forever). A couple of things just to add to the comments & mysteries—he was vaccinated (including rabies) about 10 days prior, had surgery about 5 days after that, is probably stressed from learning a new household (at least he’s inside & taken care of so that should be good stress), and he was sound asleep and woke himself up with it. I was alone so I couldn’t record it.

 

[Mia Amor]

Yesterday Roscoe had a head tremor episode. Luckily I had read about them here or I would have freaked out. I just adopted/rescued him last week so he may have had them in the past. I couldn’t remember exactly what I was supposed to do but I did remember to remain calm. He was responsive to me but he really doesn’t know his new name yet and isn’t all that excited about toys. I soothed him, tried peanut butter, then honey, and finally frozen banana slices. IDK if the bananas did the trick or it was just a timing thing & he was done. It lasted 3-5 minutes (although it felt like forever). A couple of things just to add to the comments & mysteries—he was vaccinated (including rabies) about 10 days prior, had surgery about 5 days after that, is probably stressed from learning a new household (at least he’s inside & taken care of so that should be good stress), and he was sound asleep and woke himself up with it. I was alone so I couldn’t record it.

Sorry to hear. I never knew about this till now. Wow ya I would have freaked out too. Glad to hear that he is doing a little better.

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[2BullyMama]

Yesterday Roscoe had a head tremor episode. Luckily I had read about them here or I would have freaked out. I just adopted/rescued him last week so he may have had them in the past. I couldn’t remember exactly what I was supposed to do but I did remember to remain calm. He was responsive to me but he really doesn’t know his new name yet and isn’t all that excited about toys. I soothed him, tried peanut butter, then honey, and finally frozen banana slices. IDK if the bananas did the trick or it was just a timing thing & he was done. It lasted 3-5 minutes (although it felt like forever). A couple of things just to add to the comments & mysteries—he was vaccinated (including rabies) about 10 days prior, had surgery about 5 days after that, is probably stressed from learning a new household (at least he’s inside & taken care of so that should be good stress), and he was sound asleep and woke himself up with it. I was alone so I couldn’t record it.

Great work.... Remember any type of that will do, it is just to distract the muscles and get them chewing and focused on you.

 

[Pennview79]

Today Winston began having head tremors. We have noticed it 3 times in a 12 hour period. He didn't have any type of stimulations, he was actually just sitting there. I'm hoping that it is just head tremors and nothing more serious. I was about to rush the poor guy to the vet....at 11 pm. I'm still going to call the vet tomorrow just to make sure nothing more serious is going on with him...just to be safe! I'm so glad this wonderful article was here or I would have been spending a lot of money on an emergency vet visit.

 

[bullmama]

Today Winston began having head tremors. We have noticed it 3 times in a 12 hour period. He didn't have any type of stimulations, he was actually just sitting there. I'm hoping that it is just head tremors and nothing more serious. I was about to rush the poor guy to the vet....at 11 pm. I'm still going to call the vet tomorrow just to make sure nothing more serious is going on with him...just to be safe! I'm so glad this wonderful article was here or I would have been spending a lot of money on an emergency vet visit.

So glad you found the article, please let us know how the vet appointment goes. Not all vets are familiar with this, so if you can get us a video and start a new topic we can help identify it for you.


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[Bulldozersma]

This article stopped me from completely freaking out when Bocephus had his tremor episode at the vet before his last surgery. Since then there have been absolutely zero more episodes. I really do think something can trigger them. I saw the video and he has never done it before. The vet wanted to do a $2500 MRI and put him on meds for the rest of his life. I opted to watch him and journal any further incidents.

 

[Roxy sweetie]

My Roxy was on HW treatment prednisone , antibiotics around june -july done with and then in September tore her ACL when to surgery TPLO, nostrils plus soft palate in one day, right after the third day she started in the morning with the seizures/ tremors, but my vet said seizures for taking tramadol and aceprozine. Now she is on phenoba, Im Reading what help with the brain connections for seizures or related symptoms and find out:

GABA
Acetylcholine
dopamine
lactobacillus monascus

So i give her a couple of spoons before the time she get the head tremor.

I hope her system respond

 

[2BullyMama]

My Roxy was on HW treatment prednisone , antibiotics around june -july done with and then in September tore her ACL when to surgery TPLO, nostrils plus soft palate in one day, right after the third day she started in the morning with the seizures/ tremors, but my vet said seizures for taking tramadol and aceprozine. Now she is on phenoba, Im Reading what help with the brain connections for seizures or related symptoms and find out:

GABA
Acetylcholine
dopamine
lactobacillus monascus

So i give her a couple of spoons before the time she get the head tremor.

I hope her system respond

So sorry your baby is going through all this... [MENTION=572]Libra926[/MENTION]. May be able to help with some insight

 

[Libra926]

My Roxy was on HW treatment prednisone , antibiotics around june -july done with and then in September tore her ACL when to surgery TPLO, nostrils plus soft palate in one day, right after the third day she started in the morning with the seizures/ tremors, but my vet said seizures for taking tramadol and aceprozine. Now she is on phenoba, Im Reading what help with the brain connections for seizures or related symptoms and find out:

GABA
Acetylcholine
dopamine
lactobacillus monascus

So i give her a couple of spoons before the time she get the head tremor.

I hope her system respond

What type of HW medication? Basically all the flea, tick and HW medication is poison. Some of our babies will vomit, sieze, and suffer with lethargy. I've heard head tremors are common in this breed because their head weighs SOOOO much and muscle become fatigued. That is ONE of many reasons.

As for seizures....pain can cause them. We've had a few members report that after surgery their bulldogs suffered from seizures. Try and get it on video if it happens again. BEST tool for a Dr is to see it happening.

 

[Roxy sweetie]

So far Roxy is now doing much better, stop the phenobarbitan, tremors/seizures . She is eating lots of home cook food, bone soup, low fat cottage cheese and kefir (once a day) and I am mixing pineapple juice on her food once or twice a week. Plus vitamins for her TPLO bone healing.

 

[bullmama]

So far Roxy is now doing much better, stop the phenobarbitan, tremors/seizures . She is eating lots of home cook food, bone soup, low fat cottage cheese and kefir (once a day) and I am mixing pineapple juice on her food once or twice a week. Plus vitamins for her TPLO bone healing.

Great news, thank you for the update!

 

[Deanna1489]

Oh my goodness Otis just had his first head tremor. He just turned 3. I am beside myself. It may be me that ends up at the ER. I have cried for two hours. It didn't last long and he communicated with me during the entire tremor. He is now acting fine, but I am very concerned. This morning he got up and peed all over the floor. He NEVER does that! He knew immediately that he had done something wrong before we ever said anything. We did scold him pretty bad and now I feel terrible. Did we upset him so much that it caused this? He also has started this thing of licking air and it is about to drive us crazy. Is the licking and the head tremor related? Please tell me my baby is going to be ok.

 

[bullmama]

Oh my goodness Otis just had his first head tremor. He just turned 3. I am beside myself. It may be me that ends up at the ER. I have cried for two hours. It didn't last long and he communicated with me during the entire tremor. He is now acting fine, but I am very concerned. This morning he got up and peed all over the floor. He NEVER does that! He knew immediately that he had done something wrong before we ever said anything. We did scold him pretty bad and now I feel terrible. Did we upset him so much that it caused this? He also has started this thing of licking air and it is about to drive us crazy. Is the licking and the head tremor related? Please tell me my baby is going to be ok.

Head tremors and air licking are both neurological, but also can be triggered by an underlying cause. [MENTION=572]Libra926[/MENTION] knows a lot about this. So far it seems as though stress or diet can play a huge factor in head tremors.

 

[LMichelleW]

My bully Otis is 3.5 years old and just started having head tremors out of nowhere yesterday. I had never heard of this until it happened to him and I am so thankful to have found this and other similar articles online saying it is somewhat common in bulldogs. Otis' symptoms match what is described by others here as far as it just being his head, he remains completely alert and responsive while it is happening and we can usually distract him out of it. I feel pretty confident his are the idiopathic tremors but I will be taking him to the vet for blood work, etc just to be sure. IF his blood work and routine tests come back normal, I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to whether I should pursue it further with a neurologist (I assume my vet will refer me to one). Knowing what I know now that these can be harmless tremors, I am hesitant to spend lots of money on MRIs, etc just to find out that it is harmless and the cause is unknown. I don't mean to sound like an insensitive bully mama but we spent nearly $10K on surgeries for him a year ago (bladder stone removal then a urethrostomy soon after) so I'm just hesitant to automatically throw money at a problem if I don't have to because as you bully parents know, if it's not one thing it will be another :-) If his vet tests show he appears to be healthy, I'm tempted to just let these tremors ride themselves out unless anything changes/worsens. As others describe, they don't seem to bother the dog at all. Does this seem like a fair course of action??