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Head tremor videos

JanS

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I meant to get these up a while ago, but time didn't allow.

Anyway, I've seen a few different related threads lately, so I thought I'd toss a couple of videos I was lucky enough to get of Boris the night before his visit to the vet about the issue.

I know this isn't an uncommon occurrence in some breeds (Dobe's included), but it scares the hell out of a person when it happens and you don't know what it is.

These videos were very helpful to the vet (who is specializes in the area) so he gave him a thorough exam and said everything checked out fine and gave me a couple of possibilities of what it may be (sorry I forget what they are at the moment), and none of them were serious, so nothing was needed for treatment, unless it got much worse.

From what I've heard from other Dobe owners who have experienced the same thing, they either go away with age, decrease with age, or just aren't a concern after living with them for several years.

I know this isn't the same problem everyone faces, but I wanted to toss them out (as brief as they are), so if someone sees it happen with a young dog, they have an idea to compare it with, and maybe ease their minds a little.

These were taken last summer at about 18 months of age and since then I think he's only had about 1 episode, so I'm thinking it's going away with age for Boris.


 
wow those are very interesting. He can still focus on you though, seems like. When Penny has her Grand Mals it is horrible. I am still trying to capture one on video. I FREAKED out the first time she did it and the first it happened when I was by myself, but I had to put on a game face and just talk in a very soothing voice and push a towel in her mouth to keep her from taking chunks out of her tongue.

You said that he seems to be outgrowing them, I hope so. They seem to be so nerve racking.
 
wow that brought a tear to my eye actually. poor baby, he is such a sweety :( thanks for posting it, i been wondering what exactly it meant compared to like a seizure. pretty wild. least it doesnt APPEAR to be painful or anything.
 
Wow, when he feel did you freak... It seems like you quit recording??? I dont know what I would have done... Was this the very first time???
 
Thanks all.

It was actually one of the last times he had one when I caught these clips, so I was pretty used to it at that point, and just happy I was getting it to show the vet.

I just use short bursts of footage because with this satellite internet service it takes about a half an hour just to upload that tiny bit (15 seconds or so)... Sigh I can't wait for DSL to make it's way out here....
 
I remember when you first posted those videos on another forum. Im glad to hear that was about the last time you had to go thru that.
 
I just wanted to give a little update on this since I've had a ton of people contact me after finding this in a search and they have Dobe's with the same problem.

It's been almost 2 years since I posted these videos (I really need to get them up on YouTube) and Boris has had a few minimal episodes, but all in all they've almost completely disappeared. One way I can always snap him out of it, and I don't know why, is to hold a treat over his head behind him and make him look up and behind him to get it and as soon as he eats the treat the tremors vanish. :dunno:

At any rate, those of you who are or have experienced the same thing with your dog, it's not life threatening or even considered a serious condition that needs treatment and they can live a totally normal life. I know it's scary as can be the first time you see it, and a vet check is always in order to rule out other conditions (like Wobblers), but if the vet doesn't find other underlying problems, you can rest assured that the tremors will probably go away with time and your dog will be just fine.
 
Geez I just saw these, wow does cares the heck out of you.

Schaudeh has seizures which the first one flipped me out.:help: She had all kinds of
tests and determined it was epilepsy, no brain tumor or anything. They put
her on a very very low dose of Pheno twice a day. She has been fine for 7
years now. :dance::dance: Thank God. I have her checked every year for organ function
and everything is good,:dance: but the dose of Pheno is the lowest you can get which
is fine with me as long as it works...........................I better be careful what I say and
write...........................KNOCK ON WOOD




 
Aww, I didn't know that about Schaudeh Nancy. I'm glad you have it under control though.

I had taken a new one of how to immediately stop the head tremors with Boris, but it's going to be a long, long time before I can bring myself to look at any moving videos of him....
 

This is my male Thor, he was put to sleep 1½ month ago, i found out that this Head Bobbing Syndrome is Neurologic, and i have a good vet friend in Germany who making a lot of work with this, she is colleting bloodsamples, and have found out that this is from some old dober blood lines.

You can read more here.
http://www.med.vetmed.uni-muenchen.de/forschung/stud_neuro/headbobbing/index.html

She does not recommend breeding dogs with this syndrome.
 
Thor was almost 9 years old, but it started when he was only 7 month, in the beginning it wasn't so bad, i could stop it by giving him a treat or just some toys, but as he got older he had this syndromes almost every day sometimes more than 3-6 times a day :( also the longest was about 20 minuts, i let him have it for so long, only because i wanted to see how he handled it if he was home alone or at night, but after the 20 min i stopped it.
 
This is very interesting info and I'm sure our vet would be interested in hearing it too since he's always trying to dig deeper into things to have a better understanding. I'd be very interested in hearing which of the old lines seem to carry it.

I'm sorry you had to have Thor PTS. :(
 
ugh mika had another spell of this last night. I really hate it, it freaks me out. I just hug her and hold her tight and try to get her attention off it. probably doesn't help but it makes ME feel better :-\

glad this has only happened probably 3 or 4 times since we got her in 09. she's 6 now.
 

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