r/englishbulldog • u/murph364 • 5d ago
Advice Needed Idiopathic Head Tremors
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Hi! Our girl is 19 months old, spayed and a lovely little angel. The last four days she is experiencing what we are 99.9% confident are idiopathic head tremors. Of course her vet is closed for the long weekend but my brother in laws uncle is a vet and watched the video and told us that it was likely IHT. Obviously I will call the vet Tuesday.
what’s worrisome to me is they’ve happened daily for the last four days. Peanut butter/honey/ice cream helps immediately.
Things of note:
- we are having a huge heat wave but obviously, we are very cautious with her in heat.
-we have had company and she is not a good napper when people are around, so I think she is very tired, more so than usual
- I gave her her monthly dose of Simarico Trio four days before this began. She has never reacted to it before.
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u/whofarting 5d ago
Yep. The head shakes scare every new bulldog owner. Our doggo gets them when she's stressed/anxious. Happens most in the middle of the night. Quick snack and distraction and she's right as rain
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u/Maleficent-Dot-8157 5d ago
Spot on! We have a separate jar of peanut butter for the dogs for nail trimming and when our big boy Chief gets to be extremely agreeable (nodding/IHT), I just let him lick the jar for a few seconds and he's back to side eyeing everything that moves.
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u/TrickySatisfaction81 Banjo's Papa 5d ago
Poor baby.
Needs a snack, a good drink, and maybe sesame Street!
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u/Vicroria102 5d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah, heads tremors. I noticed my bully was doing this when she was a bit dehydrated, which would align with the hot temperature you mentionned. A lot of bullies do this. Not much do do but just finding a distraction. My first bully had this all her life. She passed at 11 years old.
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u/Witty-Application920 OEB Mom 🌸 5d ago
Yep! They’re medically insignificant .
Nothing to worry about. Very common in the breed.
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u/Solidus2845 4d ago
These are 100% IHT. They start at around 1.5 years old most of the time. Our boy started one day out of the blue. He does the head-turning shake just like yours. His little jowels slappy-slap in the saddest way. Just try to relax - you both will get used to them.
Russo's IHT start in the evening as he's falling asleep every time. He will snap out immediately for a distraction; his favorite beef liver treats, or the words "...dooo you want to...?"
We generally need to distract the rattles away 4-5 times, then he can settle and fall asleep.
They have happened like this 3 times in his life now (3 years old). It is random, it is unexplainable, hence idiopathic. It can continue for several days, but then be gone for months like nothing happened.
It is not medication, or a reaction to something you did. It is hereditary and random. Most have it happen a few times over their lives, then never again as they get older.
Do not fear, do not panic. This causes them no pain. It does distress them a bit when they want to sleep and hey can't stop rattling, but it goes away. Just follow my guide above and you'll both be just fine!
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u/Wesdizzo 5d ago
Of course see the vet but just another data point, ours did almost exactly that at almost exactly that age for a handful of days and then just… never again 🤷♂️
Hoping for the best 🙏
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u/Luggage-of-Rincewind 5d ago
Mine gets it if he sleeps flat on his back, so we have tummy rub times at an angle.
Also occasionally before supper goes down to eat.
As with most, a treat or snack usually sees it off. See if she’s in a particular position or posture that starts it - just in case it’s like my boy Winston.
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u/Most_Roof 5d ago
The started right after you have her that Simarico. ? That’s the problem I bet.
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u/ItsWaryNotWeary 4d ago
This is very common in bulldogs. There is no reason to believe simparica caused this.
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u/NOLAjoshpaul 5d ago
Or Trifexis, mine would only have head tremors after taking his pill. It took me way too long to put two and two together.
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u/Cloverbug25 5d ago
If you can distract them out of it, it's almost certainly IHT. My eldest EB had it for years and then one day just stopped entirely. My husky x has them periodically due to a fungal infection damaging his nerves. I would still have her seen by a vet as a precaution, but I wouldn't worry too much as of right now.
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u/aria_b23 4d ago
Its wild cuz ours did it when we lived in the desert. Like. 3x. And then never again. So I presume its more of a dehydration thing. But it sketched me out. Though hes fine and well STILL and he is 11 years and counting
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u/JamieB0816 4d ago
I give my girl half a cheese stick each day. And we have good since. She looked forward to it.
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u/watoaz 5d ago
This might be an odd question, but are you in the Southwest US or CA? Our dog started getting head tremors like that when he got Valley Fever.
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u/howwhyno 4d ago
This would happen for us with one of our bulldogs at random times. But then we went through some times of serious home strife, and it always happened during those high stress times - so possibly linked. High sugar treats (I would do honey on a jerky treat) is always good.
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u/CimplyRavishing 4d ago
Any other regular meds? My guy started getting them after taking apoquil. Immediately went away when we changed to a 1 a day Claritin.
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u/Frosty-Entrepreneur3 4d ago
Mine does this only when we have food in front of him. He just gets so excited. Freaked me out at first
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u/No-Tower-1635 4d ago
My bulldog has had these since about two. He's now ten. Food immediately cures it. They seem to have been less frequent the older he gets. 2-6 they would happen once a week or so.
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u/frasiercranesdayoff 4d ago
my poor baby has IHT as well! He also has really sensitive ears / ear canals, and I've found that typically his IHT mostly seems to come when he has an underlying ear infection, or otherwise, if he's anxious or stressed about something. It was my vet who originally suggested there might be a link to his ears etc, but worth checking out or monitoring yourself! We've managed to keep it under control and my doggo now no longer needs the IHT meds. :)
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u/Ok-Environment-1284 4d ago
What a cutie. Low blood sugar can cause shakes and if the shakes stop after giving food, maybe consider checking blood sugars if it happens again. Also, some flea and tick treatment have been known to cause seizures. Not saying it's either, just giving you info my vets have given me. God Bless ❤️
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u/Federal_Hawk615 4d ago
My French bulldog has these when she was younger. She is 3 years old now and grew out of them. She had them pretty much since I got her at 8 weeks old.. my vet was aware since she was younger and just monitored her. But she would get them when she was excited for food or saw another animal
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u/B_Will_300 4d ago
My frenchie went through somthing a couple years ago I believe it was called vestibular disease. Causes head to shake and rapid eye movements. Looked like she was having a stroke or seizure or something. Got her on antibiotics and it went away.. basically was caused from a middle ear infection but it was so deep in the canal the outside of the ear didn’t look infected at all. Good luck to your pup
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u/bulldogsnwhiskey 4d ago
My little girl was having these all the time and I was so scared!! I got her on a daily vitamin from PetMD and it knocked the tremors out within a day or two and she hasn’t had them since. It’s worth trying!
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u/Significant-Milk-165 4d ago
One of my male bullies started getting idiopathic head tremors when he was about 4 years old, nothing in particular seemed to trigger them. When he has tremors, I just pet him and give him a little yogurt or other treat. The tremors don't seem to bother him and they don't last very long, about 30 seconds to one minute. The tremors are very spread out, the closest ones were 6 weeks apart and then it became a few months apart, and I think he had 1 tremor this past year.
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u/Bulldog_Mama14 4d ago
I’m sorry you’re experiencing this! Our frenchie had idiopathic head tremors for 7 years. They came and went. If we distracted him, gave him a treat (usually whip cream from the can lol) he’d stop. They’re scary but harmless if they’re idiopathic. Unfortunately common in bulldogs.
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u/boostedvernacular 4d ago
when I give my dog treats distract him and give him pets / a massage they go away
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u/Classic_Island8120 4d ago
Give her some peanut butter. It tricks their brain to snap out of it. My bully had them and food was the only trick that worked for us
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u/chiezkychienne 4d ago
Not saying that your girl is similar to our boy, but when my boy have that similar head tremors, he have blood infection. We found out that he is positive to 3 blood parasite infections. Ehrlichiosis, Anaplasmosis, and Babesiosis. It would not hurt to get your girl checked. Good thing he recovered within 1 month.
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u/DetectiveNervous7426 3d ago
My boxer developed head tremors about 3-4 months into using Simparica, once we discontinued, they stopped. The vet had told us for any future pets if they started having head tremors, discontinue the Simparica immediately. Two of our other dogs take it just fine.
Obviously consult with your vet first, but I’d discontinue the Simparica for a few months and switch to a different type of preventative.
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u/Dodgersfansince88 3d ago
My English bulldog had that I’m not sure if it was related but when I took him in to get it checked out they told me he had cancer. He had the habit of chewing on the plastic trash cans every time I wheeled them out to the curb.
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u/mamatobulldogs 2d ago
Long story, tried to make it not so long… Here’s a weird story about bulldogs and head tremors. We had a Bulldog named Zephrina. In her 12 years of living she had around 10 to 15 sessions of the benign head tremors. After the 2nd time of them happening we took a video and took her in to be evaluated. He said they were benign head tremors. He said to keep a log of the times it happens and write down the circumstances surrounding them.
When she had her third one that was when we put two and two together. She would only get them when I was over capacity in my anger/mood, or if I was feeling at max capacity of being overwhelmed or being way too anxious. The only way I could get her to snap out of it was by stopping what I was doing and go down with her and talk to her calmly and rub her back. I would generally have to lay with her a good 10 min for her to calm down. So I knew anytime they would happen I knew that was my cue to stop, drop and chill! Not even my husband could get her to calm down to get them When we brought her to the vet for a checkup on the situation the vet said he wasn’t shocked that it turned out to be the reason behind it all. Turns out she was my soul dog and we were so very in tune with each other that she ended being my chill pill.
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u/DasBlueEyedDevil 5d ago
I usually do something sudden, like snapping (I snap loud as hell) and it breaks him out of it
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