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Thread: Weird behavior

  1. #1
    Senior Dog Berna's Avatar
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    Weird behavior

    Last night, around 12 am, Cookie woke me up with a munching sound he often makes when he is sleeping. Sometimes I tell him to stop if it goes on for “too long”. I did the same last night. Then he got up (still nothing unusual) and left the room (very unusual, he never actually did that). I heard him pacing around the house (very unusual), I called him, he came back in the room, and then went on with pacing around the house.

    I realised then that something was wrong and turned the lights on. Cookie appeared to be in full panic mode, with his head low, ears held back and by the way he was walking. I thought he needed to go outside, but he continued with the same behavior outside.

    I got him back in, told him to lie down, and tried to calm him down. Then he started panting heavily (it wasn’t hot). He constantly turned his head to look at the wall where the window is.

    I talked to him and eventually he calmed down and went back to sleep and is acting completely normal now.

    I was really scared last night, I thought he was having a seizure or a weird episode of CCD. Could this be how CCD starts? He is 12. He had similar episodes 2 years ago but were due to eye drops he was getting, when we stopped the drops the behavior stopped. But he is not on any medication right now.

    Also, we are in our house in Greece right now, and although he is familiar with it and has been here on numerous occasions, he is scared of some random things he is not scared of in Belgrade. Could it be that he was just scared? Still, I didn’t hear anything apart from the people living above but they are noisy anyway. And I have never seen Cookie panic when he is scared, he just lies down in a corner and trembles.

    Should I be worried?

    Thanks...


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    July 12th, 2006. - May 25th, 2023.

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  2. #2
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    I'd consider fear, too. I've witnessed (petit mal) seizures scaring two of my dogs (the approach of the seizure) and also internal pain. The fact that he returned to normal gives the thought of seizure more weight.

    Both of my seizure dogs were yellows and both had issues with internal overheating...Honey's were exacerbated by external heat/exercise but we got them stopped with a food change (she was eating kibble, though...I think Cookie's diet of raw is not a factor); Brutus' started out as an issue from external temperature and progressed to grand mal reacting to seemingly nothing (also kibble but it wasn't until the seizures turned into grand mal that we realized what we were witnessing. Honey's came back when she was dealing with the pain/fear that went with losing control of her hind legs (despite the food change).

    We were told by our holistic vet that seizures are common at night and actually may have been going on when we weren't aware...neither dog slept with us.

    If Cookie's activities have been really energetic lately, it could be overheating from that getting things started (IF it's seizure). Honey started having more issues with exercise before we actually witnessed the first seizure (outdoors in snow in a really cold December).

    I'd keep a good eye on him especially when it's warm out or if he's being active in any way. I'd be careful about him swimming away from where I was...even if his feet can touch the bottom, he could sink below the surface with a seizure (Honey would lower herself to the ground like her legs were giving way). And see the vet when you get back home. Lots of times a regular vet won't find anything wrong....Honey was diagnosed by a holistic vet.

    If I didn't have experience with seizure, I might be more prone to thinking something external just scared him...but even my tendency toward denial doesn't allow me to think that.

    Sending all good thoughts for you and Cookie!!!

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    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    Tonight you won't be sleeping at all, you'll be watching him. Which is all you can do right now.
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    Elena ~ If he's staying scared of things where you are, that could be adding to his internal heat. (my brain is on time delay)

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    Senior Dog Jollymolly's Avatar
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    Keeping Cookie in my thoughts.

    The only experience I have had is with a puppy who had distemper when he had a seizure he was walking in circles. I really hope its nothing that serious. Is there any chance there could have been something that spooked him through the window.

    Big kisses for Cookie

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    Big hugs for Cookie.

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  12. #7
    Senior Dog janedoe's Avatar
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    You may want to look at anti-anxiety supplements on a permanent basis to help keep him on an even keel and keep his environment as consistent as possible.

    I'm sorry. I get it. This is tough.

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  14. #8
    Senior Dog Berna's Avatar
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    Thank you all for your input.

    I really doubt it he heard something that could scare him like that. Even if he gets scared, he doesn't act like that. Is it possible he dreamed of something, like little kids that wake up scared? I don't know...

    I tend to agree with Barb, that it could have been some kind of seizure. Actually, that day we walked in the pine woods and I really underestimated the temperature. It was quite cold when we left home (we are currently having a cold spell) but when we arrived there the sun got out and it was hot! When we finished the walk and got back to the car he didn't want to drink water (he gets overexcited) but when we got home he drank plenty. Interesting, the overheating theory. I'll be more careful. At least it's something manageable, I don't like to think it's a brain tumor or something.

    Barb, how old were your labs when they started having seizures?

    Last night, he slept fine, no issues at all.
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    Honey was 6. Brutus came to us at the age of three because his owner was moving to a much warmer area and Bru already was showing signs of heat intolerance. I don't know what that owner had already observed. But Bru had had heartworms and the treatment before we got him...I always thought that perhaps the worms/treatment might have had something to do with it.

    Honey's issue was purely from internal overheating. She was a bonkers hyperactive dog. We got her from people who'd bought her from the "breeder" (more on that below). We needed a puppy for our puppy Hershey because he was too much for Brutus to keep up with. Bru was 10 at that time and that's when we first started to notice that he had "something" going on. At first, we thought perhaps his arthritis was causing some instability or that the two puppies were knocking into him. Probably not.

    If you have access to a holistic vet, perhaps get Cookie evaluated there. There are Chinese herbs that are good for helping with seizures (Traditional Chinese Medicine). We had Honey on them at first but after we no longer witnessed any seizures, we just stuck with the food change. We stopped seeing the seizures immediately upon changing her food...the herbs hadn't had time to kick in yet and we figured they probably were not necessary. I do not remember what herbs were put into Honey's mix but I'd be cautious about assuming that Honey's mix would be perfect for Cookie anyhow.

    TCM assigns heat values to food....not the physical temperature but rather how much they heat up your metabolism. Lamb is considered a hot food, that one I remember really well because I'd had the pups on lamb and rice kibble. I wish I'd kept my bookmarks for sites that deal with TCM heat values. I just Googled "traditional Chinese medicine food heat values" and came up with some hits. Here's one I recognized as being one I'd bookmarked for myself but check others...for some weird reason, they can differ.

    Properties of Food from a TCM Perspective

    Perhaps Cookie is getting regular meals with hot food even if he's not getting kibble (which "fuels the fire" according to the vet we were seeing).

    Other than food....yes, just keep him from overheating. Heat can exacerbate seizures in a dog even when the primary cause isn't overheating.

    OK....the reason we weren't particular about what Honey was like: We needed a puppy...Brutus desperately needed for Hershey to have a playmate. Bru and Hershey fell in love the moment they laid eyes on each other but Bru just couldn't handle the activity. So....Hershey liked Honey...they were about a month apart in age, Honey being the older one. She had horrible habits....some we witnessed at the house of the people who had her and some we didn't. E.g., she used her bedding as her personal potty place and ate poop. She needed a home because those people (presumably after seeing her habits) didn't want her. The husband hadn't wanted a dog in the first place (wife bought her when husband was out of town). They said their kids were allergic but all four kids were playing with her when we pulled up and not a one of them was sneezing/coughing/etc. They didn't want her. After we sent for her papers, we saw where he came from a long line of dogs with Amish-type names. She was off a puppy farm. No wonder she had horrible habits. But Bru got the relief he needed. He lived another three years but his seizures (undiagnosed and we weren't doing anything different other than to keep him calmer/cooler because he was obviously having more issues with exercise/heat) progressed from petit mal to grand mal. They freaked him out and that's when we had him released from the life he was no longer enjoying (constant fear).

    Cookie's long hikes may be gone now but he can still enjoy cooler activities. I wouldn't let him swim a lot even in cooler water...wading is fine but exercise could easily overheat him despite the external temperatures.

    Obviously, I'm seeing seizures as the cause based on my experience. Everything with Cookie seems to be much too coincidental to me to be anything else. I could always be wrong but making any of these changes will certainly not hurt him. And if a vet tells you something else as a cause, you won't have done anything harmful in the meantime.

    I hate it when I hear something bad going on with Cookie...he won my heart a long time ago.

    and good thoughts for both of you!

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  17. #10
    Senior Dog JackK's Avatar
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    Sending good thoughts Cookie's way! Any chance he ate something? My prior chocolate lab had an episode of pacing and panting. I couldn't get her to lay down and finally pulled her on the couch with me. She slowly stopped panting and then fell asleep. Needless to say I got no sleep. I brought her to the vet first thing in the am. The only thing we could come up with is that maybe she ate some plant that caused her symptoms. All of her blood work came back normal. She never had another episode.

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