dogs head shaking

[hram]

We have a 10 month old short haired german pointer and she is as sweet as she can be. She doesnt have an aggressive bone in her body, she lets the girls roll around on her and jump on her. She just lays there and plays for hours with them.

A few times we have see her head shake for short periods of time. She is alert and can get up and walk to us when we call her. Her head just shakes uncontrollably. I have no idea what it coudl be or if it is serious.

I worry that the kids are playing too rough with her and coudl have possibly hurt her, although she had never cried out or tried to get away from them. We have to put her up to give the girls a rest because she wants to play all the time. I also worry about maybe her bad leash manners have hurt her in soem way. She pulls so hard, and with her being a bigger dog she just jerks us around. So I used a choke collar and it stopped her from pulling right away, she is liek a different dog. She was uncontrollable before, and beign pregnant with two kids with me already, and beign in an area where there are a lot of kids I cant risk her getting away from me. Which is what she was trying to do, not to be mean jsut to play and get people to pay attention to her.

Does anyone know what this could be or if it may be something we should have checked out.

[SquishyKitty]

You should have it checked out ASAP, it could be a neurological problem. Our frenchie had this happen but it was a one-time deal, and the vet said it was a type of seizure, and that if it happened again it could be a big problem. We've kept a close eye on him and it hasn't happened since then, thankfully.

[hram]

I was afraid of that. We are about 600miles from our vet right now. I dont know anyone here, I could just take her to a random vet I guess.

[Arduinna]

Just her head shakes?

We have GSP also, they are wonderful dogs. Is she pointing when she does it? Sometimes their nervous energy results in them shaking when they are very focused.

[Ola_]

Like flopping her ears around kind of head shake? If so it could be an ear infection. The vet should be able to take a swab inside her ear and tell you if that's it easily.

For neuro-type of behaviours it can be helpful to get a video of them if they don't happen a lot. That way you can show it to the vet. Even some cell phones take videos now.

[lonegirl]

Originally Posted by Ola_

Like flopping her ears around kind of head shake? If so it could be an ear infection. The vet should be able to take a swab inside her ear and tell you if that's it easily.

For neuro-type of behaviours it can be helpful to get a video of them if they don't happen a lot. That way you can show it to the vet. Even some cell phones take videos now.

[hram]

It has only happened maybe 3 or 4 times and it is usually when she is sleeping or laying down, but resting and will last for less than a minute. Its definately not an ear thing, its like she cant control it. Almost like a seizure but only her head. She is fully alert and can get up and walk around. Her tail wags and she will come to us when called, she just gives us love and licks like nothign is wrong.

I will keep in mind to try adn grab my phone next tiem it happens, they are so short I may not have time. But will remember to try and video it next time.

[SquishyKitty]

That sounds a lot like what my frenchie had. His was short spurts, went on and off all through the night. He mostly seemed annoyed because he was trying to sleep, but we still took him to the vet. She said it could be a neurological problem, but they wouldn't do more invasive testing unless it happened again.

[babygirlie]

Yeast, ear infection. My cat does it. Her whole head shakes and no she does not dig at her ears but I know this is the problem.