Anyone experienced this before?

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Charlie007

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We have a lab bitch, 2 in July.

She has a problem and we can't seem to get to the bottom of it.

This is what she does:

Her jaw starts to chatter
She then extends her neck to the floor, tail is between legs
Then she screams

If we are walking when this happens she is back to normal in seconds. If it happens in the house she then gets on her bed and shakes. The actual episode only lasts seconds, and the shaking afterwards prob 5 -6 mins, then all back to normal.

So far we have:

Had x-ray of neck, as we belived it was cramp or a nerve in her neck. This showed nothing so we were referred for an mri scan at the cambs vet school. She has a muscle biopsy, mri scan, and fluid taken off her brain. All came back clear.

The vets have said they think she may be having a seizure. This happens at random times, after exercise, before exercise, at rest, at play. They have asked us to video it but we are struggling as it is so random!! When she has screamed I have made a fuss of her to calm her. But the last couple of times she has done it I have said 'no' and she has stopped screaming, but still chatters and extends her neck. If it were a seizure surely she wouldn't be aware she was screaming so therefore wouldn't stop when I said so??

She is a happy dog in all ways, runs, jumps plays with no problems.Vets also throughly checked her over nose to tail and nothing. The first time she did it was on a shoot with my OH. He brought her home and we rushed her to vet as she was really back, chattering, neck extended, sticking tounge out and just generally uncomfortable. Pain killers and anti inflams didn't seem to do much good.

The vet has said we could try medication for cramps and seizures but these carry side effects of their own. So for now we have decided to keep her as she is unless anything gets worse.

Sorry its long but it really is getting us down.
 
No experience of those symptoms, but my JRT has seizures and remains fully conscious throughout. When he fits, he shakes, has various ticks (his legs flick) and loses coordination, however he will try to come to me and response if I talk to him. Only mentioning as a dog (like humans), don't always become unconscious during a fit. He has 2 or 3 a year, and is not currently medicated.
 
seisures is what i would be inclined to think.
My cat had somethig similar, completely randomly and for different periods f time she would chatter her jaw, wag her tail and go 'poofy'. sometimes she would 'scream'. she was still coherant, and would run to me yowling if i called her but would try not to move at all. she never had a shaking fit or wet herself or passed out, so it took me a while to realise they were very small seisures. I eventually noticed that her pupils would dilate ever so slightly when this happened.
I hope your girl is okay and you find out the cause!
 
Thanks for your replies. I said in my post that videoing it virtually impossible as it was so random, but just as I finshed post she started so grabbed camera!! I will try to post it later. This episode didn't have any screaming so just wondering if it is a seizure, then she scares herself and screams?
 
Our old pointer had epilepsy and had seizures fairly frequently, he was on quite a heavy dose of meds as he was quite bad with it and he was conscious during fits, it does definitely sound like a seizure but don't panic it doesn't necessarily mean anything terrible !
 
Our old boxer had small fits all his life but then progressed to something the same as you are describing. It was as if he was chewing gum very quickly followed by the most awful screaming. He was diagnosed with a brain tumour and pts. If you have had brain scans it seems unlikely to be the same cause but definitely seems neurological.
I know the meds have their own side effects but might be worth a try in the short term to see if they make a difference?
 
Our schnauzers has fits, they seem to be clustered together. She rarely loses consciousness. They also seem to be stress related. Ie big change in routine, lots of excitement. She's not on any meds.
 
Might try some meds. I have just sent the video off to the vets so hopefully they will confirm it. It is strange tho as in the video it looks like a seizure, but I have just taken her for a walk and she has yelped lots of times but hasn't done the neck and jaw thing?
 
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