Why is my Frenchie throwing his head to the side?

[Simba is King]

My frenchie has a habit of sitting on his butt and throwing his head to the side and upwards at the same time. He does it so much sometimes that the shift in weight when he throws his head to the side actually turns his body slightly to the side. The best way I can describe it is like if a human was to rub his or her ear on his shoulder repeadetly over and over or if they were trying to turn their head around far enough to look to the middle of their back. I am very frusturated about this. We have had his anal glands checked, checked for worms and so on thinking maybe he is tryin to reach his butt, but ak checked out fine. His ears also checked out fine. While he is doing it if you call his name or get his attention he stops and then starts again. Any suggestions on what it might be? Thanks for your help.

[Borgan]

Are you talking about the Sit 'N Spin? My Frenchie likes to twirl on her butt, maybe like once or twice a week, and I have 3 theories:

1) It's fun
2) It's mild allergies
3) Frenchies can't lick their butts, and sometimes there might be stuff stuck to it or whatever. People get itchy butts, too!

In any case, when I see it happening, I grab a baby wipe and itch it for her. I know that's gross, but what else can ya do when your little guy is uncomfortable?

-Brooke.

[Martina]

Got your message about the ears ... It was very funny looking when it happened and it really looked more like Ray Charles/Stevie Wonder with their head movements when they sing. I was also having a problem with the two shedding, shedding, shedding at that time - it's still bad, but getting under control.

When the doc looked in her ears, the middle ear was coated with wax and dog hair. So he did a really good cleaning at the office and gave us some cream that would continue to loosen up the gunk at home. Twice a day I'd massage the cream in and then she would really shake out her head. The doc explained that was probably what she would do. The cream was loosening the icky stuff, and the head shake was helping to get it out.

At the other q/a section did you see that Carolyn mentioned seizures? Your best bet is to keep the vet informed and make sure that he seems normal otherwise. He doesn't mind you touching his ear? Anyway, didn't you say the vet said his ears were normal? Other than that, I don't know what to tell you!

Martina

[Simba is King]

Are you talking about the Sit 'N Spin? My Frenchie likes to twirl on her butt, maybe like once or twice a week, and I have 3 theories:

1) It's fun
2) It's mild allergies
3) Frenchies can't lick their butts, and sometimes there might be stuff stuck to it or whatever. People get itchy butts, too!

In any case, when I see it happening, I grab a baby wipe and itch it for her. I know that's gross, but what else can ya do when your little guy is uncomfortable?

-Brooke.

I guess thats what you can call it a sit and spin LOL he just throws his head to the side where evntually he has spun all the way around on his but.

[lanakack]

[QUOTE=Simba is King]My frenchie has a habit of sitting on his butt and throwing his head to the side and upwards at the same time. He does it so much sometimes that the shift in weight when he throws his head to the side actually turns his body slightly to the side.

My frenchie puppy, JJ, does that samething. I'm new to this breed and very thankful for this site, it's a wonderful source of information. Does your Frenchie still do this? Did you ever find out what causes this behavior? I'd appreciate any feed back on this. We been to the vet and everything checks out excellent. The vet feels it's probably epilepsy. That's our next stop, to a neurologist.
Thank you Lana and JJ

[miss heather]

my Stella does this kind of motion when she has a harsh back itch that she can't reach (all the time)...
it's like she wants sooo badly to scratch her back that she's trying the get her mouth around there so she can use her teeth :eek:

I go over and give her a good scratching and she often does it when I have the spot juuuuust right.
afterwards the head throwing desists ;)

[lanakack]

I saw this information on this head movement issue that somewhat describes what some of our dogs have done from time to time. It certainly is informative and maybe a possible explanation.
"I had sent the video of Zimmer's head shakes to my vet who in turn sent it to a neurologist, Dr. Eric Glass at Red Bank Veterinary here in NJ.
Here is the reply from Dr. Glass:
Thanks for sharing the videotape with us.
The videotape is a classic; the videotape shows a great example of what is referred to as "idiopathic head bobbing syndrome"; we see this most commonly in the bulldog, doberman and boxer although I have seen it in a lab as well as in some mixed breed dogs; the head bobbing can be either up and down or side to side; usually activity, such as concentrating on food or a toy, makes it go away but not always; it can be very episodic in the sense that it may go away for months only to reappear; sometimes it seems to increase in frequency; the exact cause is not known nor is the anatomic dx; we believe strongly it has something to do with the stretch receptors in the neck
- ie the gp or maybe gsa fibers in mm bundles - although this is only a theory; we use to teach that it had something to do with basal nuclei of the brain like parkinsons but that is unlikely.
I have scanned a few dogs but have not found anything as of yet; the good news is that it absolutely does not harm the dog; in fact the dog does not seem to even be bothered at all; it bothers the owners immensely but all you need there is some good client communication; the key with this dz is NOT to treat it as a seizure with anticonvulsants as that absolutely does not work; I unfortunately had to get involved in too many of these cases that are on super high doses of anticonvulsants - one from Penn that almost died -18000K later in their ICU - they came for a second opinion - stopped all the meds and the dog was perfectly fine; we have tried lots of meds to no success but who cares as it does not affect the dog.
I usually tell vets to treat the owner not the dog in these cases as client education is the key.
Dr. DeLahunta, Dr. Kent and I have an article coming out in July compendium on involuntary mvmt disorders - we have described this syndrome in that article."
Lana and JJ