Idiopathic Head Tremor

[Snoopy21]

Our 3 year old staffy x kelpie type has just been diagnosed. Apparently it happens periodically in bull breeds. It is quite disconcerting. His head just starts vibrating from side to side for no reason. It can happen even when he is sleeping.

[Snoopy21]

Thanks Snook. I haven't seen him do it for a couple of days, so it could be that it has stopped as inexplicably as it began.

[westiemum]

Idiopathic head tremors is probably an accurate clinical diagnosis. Andy, my littlest westie has what the vet eventually diagnosed as idiopathic focal epilepsy - and its exactly like Snook describes and like the dog in

Andy is so infrequent and so mild the vet has never wanted to medicate him. In fact come to think of it theist time I observed him seizing was probably 10 - 12 months ago - although as Snook points out that doesn't mean its not happening when I'm not here.

When it happens I just hold him and cuddle him until it stops - anywhere between 3 and 7 or 8 minutes (his last one was an unusually long one). He then gets pretty sleepy and is a bit quiet for 12 hours or so before he's back to his usual bouncy self. Years ago, I think it was the vet who said that this type of epilepsy is centred on the cerebellum which is the base of the brain at the back of the head - and may be caused by injury. In Andy's case as the vet surmised that as a puppy farm rescue who was very badly treated, its quite possible his is an acquired epilepsy as the result of something like a kick to the back of the head - but of course we'll never know.

Hope that helps.

ETA: keeping a diary is really important to help your vet and you decide if there are any changes to frequency or intensity or nature of the seizures over time which warrants more or different treatment. So make sure you write the date and time the seizure and describe it as accurately as possible. Also note what you did to help your dog. Its amazing how your inaccurate your recollections can be if you don't write it down.

Edited January 14, 2016 by westiemum

[Snoopy21]

Great idea, I'll start writing it down. He doesn't seem any different at all afterwards. He just continues on as normal. That's what's weird about it really. Very short in duration, he complies with requests etc while tremor is occurring and recovers in no time.

[Snoopy21]

Raff's look more like the bulldog in this video. I was able to stop the last one by calling his name.

http://www.neuropetvet.com/other-topics/idiopathic-head-tremors/

[kenDOL]

My boy Louie gets intermittent head tremors which vary from 30 seconds to two minutes. He responds well to treats - they seem to snap him out of them.

[DobieMum]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/257638751013935/

This is a group for dobermanns (its a problem in their lines), but there is a lot of helpful advice on there. Something that a lot of people are finding slows down the frequency of it is vitamin B, all of them. With my own boy, he still gets them every now and again, particually if you startle him when he's sleeping, but once i desexed him, they are now few and far between. Not gone completely, i saw one the other day, but a lot less.