My 2+ year old sight hound will sometimes shift positions while sleeping
beside me and will "tremble" all over briefly and her eyes look
squinty/strange, as if something hurts, concerns or is upsetting her.

She was just at the vet 2 weeks ago and had a FULL tick panel run and all
the results came back negative.
[and all her Snap 3D tests have always been negative, too]

A friend who had Lyme disease and is BIG on thinking most dog health
problems are Ehrlichia keeps telling me to put her on Doxycycline anyway,
even though our vet assures us she does not have it.
I had my old beloved dog die from probable Ehrlichia/Lyme 6 years ago [which
we did not know back then...our ex-vet said she'd had a "stroke"] and this
baby is her soul-twin and the great love of my life.
That loss has given me a phobia of tick-borne disease.

The only unusual thing that's happened recently was that her half-sister
knocked her down in the yard but she immediately jumped back up and exacted
"revenge" upon her by play-attacking her.

After these "tremble" episodes, which last less than a minute, she is
running, playing and being a maniac again.
I worry she has internal injuries but the vet noticed nothing odd and she
certainly doesn't act "hurt".
Sight hounds are known to be high strung and flighty but she's never been
thus.
She's very fearless and noise-proof and not at all jumpy about things.

I have 4 others of the same breed and due to horrible living conditions
suffered as puppies, they all tremble for no good reason periodically
because they're all emotionally damaged from the breeder's abuses. [they are
rescues]
*That* I can understand but this pup had a great childhood and was only with
the above-mentioned woman for a month and a half before she came here.

She's never shown ANY signs of emotional damage [unless excessive attachment
to me counts] and this is worrying me sick.
It's here and gone so fast that I can't even video-record it to show the vet
and she doesn't normally do it during her office visits.
She likes him and actually enjoys all the petting and attention he gives
her.
The only time she ever trembled in front of him was after a particularly
thorough anal gland expression and I suppose that is understandable,
especially since that was the same visit when he drew so much blood for the
tick panel and she jerked the needle out midway through the drawing of
blood.

~Could~ she still have Ehrlichia even if multiple tests given over a 2 year
period were negative?

Has anyone else ever had a normally rock-steady dog tremble for no real
reason?

She was also having reverse-sneeze fits for a week but they have subsided
since it stopped raining here, constantly.
I had her on Amoxicillin just in case she had a respiratory tract/ear
infection and the 'sneezes' coincidentally stopped.

Part of me wants to haul her *back* to the vet but he usually says not to
bring her in because he realizes that I've developed "excessive worry and
anxiety syndrome" after the old dog died and 99% of the time, it's just me
freaking out over nothing.

I don't know if this is significant, but she's been "wary" in the back yard
after possibly seeing a snake crawling under the house.
[the neighbor killed a 6 foot black snake last week, very near my house]
Whereas she formerly ran and played with abandon, now she jumps if her nose
accidentally pokes something like a pointy piece of grass and she and her
half-sister both keep going back to where they saw the snake and
investigating it in a very nervous and jumpy manner.
[nobody was bitten but I suppose dogs have an innate dislike/fear of snakes
and they want to make sure it's gone]

I'm sorry this rambles so but I'm very worried and hope someone can tell me
I'm just being overly-anxious yet again.


Thanks for your time,

Salamander

On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:31:25 -0500, "Salamander" . wrote:

My 2+ year old sight hound will sometimes shift positions while sleeping
beside me and will "tremble" all over briefly and her eyes look
squinty/strange, as if something hurts, concerns or is upsetting her.

She was just at the vet 2 weeks ago and had a FULL tick panel run and all
the results came back negative.
[and all her Snap 3D tests have always been negative, too]

A friend who had Lyme disease and is BIG on thinking most dog health
problems are Ehrlichia keeps telling me to put her on Doxycycline anyway,
even though our vet assures us she does not have it.
I had my old beloved dog die from probable Ehrlichia/Lyme 6 years ago [which
we did not know back then...our ex-vet said she'd had a "stroke"] and this
baby is her soul-twin and the great love of my life.
That loss has given me a phobia of tick-borne disease.

The only unusual thing that's happened recently was that her half-sister
knocked her down in the yard but she immediately jumped back up and exacted
"revenge" upon her by play-attacking her.

After these "tremble" episodes, which last less than a minute, she is
running, playing and being a maniac again.
I worry she has internal injuries but the vet noticed nothing odd and she
certainly doesn't act "hurt".
Sight hounds are known to be high strung and flighty but she's never been
thus.
She's very fearless and noise-proof and not at all jumpy about things.

I have 4 others of the same breed and due to horrible living conditions
suffered as puppies, they all tremble for no good reason periodically
because they're all emotionally damaged from the breeder's abuses. [they are
rescues]
*That* I can understand but this pup had a great childhood and was only with
the above-mentioned woman for a month and a half before she came here.

She's never shown ANY signs of emotional damage [unless excessive attachment
to me counts] and this is worrying me sick.
It's here and gone so fast that I can't even video-record it to show the vet
and she doesn't normally do it during her office visits.
She likes him and actually enjoys all the petting and attention he gives
her.
The only time she ever trembled in front of him was after a particularly
thorough anal gland expression and I suppose that is understandable,
especially since that was the same visit when he drew so much blood for the
tick panel and she jerked the needle out midway through the drawing of
blood.

~Could~ she still have Ehrlichia even if multiple tests given over a 2 year
period were negative?

Has anyone else ever had a normally rock-steady dog tremble for no real
reason?

She was also having reverse-sneeze fits for a week but they have subsided
since it stopped raining here, constantly.
I had her on Amoxicillin just in case she had a respiratory tract/ear
infection and the 'sneezes' coincidentally stopped.

Part of me wants to haul her *back* to the vet but he usually says not to
bring her in because he realizes that I've developed "excessive worry and
anxiety syndrome" after the old dog died and 99% of the time, it's just me
freaking out over nothing.

I don't know if this is significant, but she's been "wary" in the back yard
after possibly seeing a snake crawling under the house.
[the neighbor killed a 6 foot black snake last week, very near my house]
Whereas she formerly ran and played with abandon, now she jumps if her nose
accidentally pokes something like a pointy piece of grass and she and her
half-sister both keep going back to where they saw the snake and
investigating it in a very nervous and jumpy manner.
[nobody was bitten but I suppose dogs have an innate dislike/fear of snakes
and they want to make sure it's gone]

I'm sorry this rambles so but I'm very worried and hope someone can tell me
I'm just being overly-anxious yet again.

"Sighthound" isn't a breed. What breed is she? And please don't tell
people that sighthounds in general are known to be high-strung and
flighty because that is completely false. Afghans are a little
different, but again, afghan does not equal sighthound.

One of my sighthounds was bitten on the nose by a garter snake and
he's behaving fine. The episode doesn't seem to have bothered my dogs
in the long term.

I doubt that your dog could have ehrlichia if multiple tests for
ehrlichia have been negative. Do you have ticks on your property, or
do your dogs regularly go somewhere that is tick-ridden?

Are her trembling episodes whole-body, or just head tremors?

If the dog is fine otherwise, I'd just keep a close eye on her and try
to record the episodes.

Mustang Sally

On Jun 12, 12:31*am, "Salamander" . wrote:
My 2+ year old sight hound will sometimes shift positions while sleeping
beside me and will "tremble" all over briefly and her eyes look
squinty/strange, as if something hurts, concerns or is upsetting her.


I am definitely no expert, but could it possibly be seizures? I've
never had a dog that has them, but this is kind of what it sounds like
to me...also, I don't really think it's a great idea to put a dog on
medicine "just in case"...sometimes these things do more harm than
good.
Good luck!

She's an Ibizan.
They can act "flighty and high strung" ~if~ you live where I do....with lots
of bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and deer prancing around right outside the
fence where they can see them but not "get" them......*very* frustrating to
these 'hunting maniacs'.....)
[perhaps I should've gone with nice, mellow Greyhounds but my first Ibizan
was a shelter rescue and the rest is hysteria...er....history]....;]

The old one that died 6 years ago couldn't have cared less if rabbits were
running through the living room and my current oldest bitch feels the same
way.
[in any case, it was the friend's theory that she was trembling from being
"high strung", not mine]

In a turn of events, she is shaking her head, scratching and will NOT let me
mess with her right ear.
I suspect she has been developing an ear infection or irritation and that
possibly, the trembling is a sign of pain.
[Ibizans are infamous for their "stoic" natures and like most primitive
breeds, will *not* show pain as it would mark them as "weak" to predators]
I have put some Animax in there [a huge struggle to do so] and started her
on Amoxicillin.
She has a vet appt. today at 3.

Yes, there are ticks here but we spray the property with Permethrin
regularly and the only ticks I generally see are the few I find walking up
my own leg because unlike the dogs, I venture outside the protected zone.
The dogs stay within the sprayed area and never go out into the woods.

The tremors are whole-body and what caused the conflict between myself and
the advising friend is that the *only* time I've ever seen one of my Ibizans
do ~this~ was my oldest female when she had full anal glands.
Her glands turned out to be *very* full and must have hurt her a lot for a
long time yet her only indication of "pain" was single act of hopping up
beside me on the sofa and "quivering" briefly.
Knowing her "usual self" behavior so well, I took her immediately to the vet
and the problem was found and relieved.

I have a feeling [intuition?] that her ear is the problem.
*But*, the friend has a dogged determination to diagnose *everything* as
Ehrlichia, in spite of many tests that state otherwise.

The fleeting trembling [3 times in an almost 2 week span] and the "pain
eyes" just don't say "Ehrlichia" to me.
My oldest Ibizan has chronic Lyme disease [acquired before I got him] and I
definitely know what those symptoms look like and these are not them...not
even close.

His titers are very low now due to aggressive and long-term treatment but he
is never going to "be quite the same" due to the damage done before we
attained the proper diagnosis.

*He* was getting the classic 'head tremors' that look like mild epilepsy so
I know what those look like all too well.


Thanks for your reply, Sally.

[what breed of sight hounds have you, if I may ask?]



"sighthounds & siberians" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:31:25 -0500, "Salamander" . wrote:

My 2+ year old sight hound will sometimes shift positions while sleeping
beside me and will "tremble" all over briefly and her eyes look
squinty/strange, as if something hurts, concerns or is upsetting her.

She was just at the vet 2 weeks ago and had a FULL tick panel run and all
the results came back negative.
[and all her Snap 3D tests have always been negative, too]

A friend who had Lyme disease and is BIG on thinking most dog health
problems are Ehrlichia keeps telling me to put her on Doxycycline anyway,
even though our vet assures us she does not have it.
I had my old beloved dog die from probable Ehrlichia/Lyme 6 years ago
[which
we did not know back then...our ex-vet said she'd had a "stroke"] and this
baby is her soul-twin and the great love of my life.
That loss has given me a phobia of tick-borne disease.

The only unusual thing that's happened recently was that her half-sister
knocked her down in the yard but she immediately jumped back up and
exacted
"revenge" upon her by play-attacking her.

After these "tremble" episodes, which last less than a minute, she is
running, playing and being a maniac again.
I worry she has internal injuries but the vet noticed nothing odd and she
certainly doesn't act "hurt".
Sight hounds are known to be high strung and flighty but she's never been
thus.
She's very fearless and noise-proof and not at all jumpy about things.

I have 4 others of the same breed and due to horrible living conditions
suffered as puppies, they all tremble for no good reason periodically
because they're all emotionally damaged from the breeder's abuses. [they
are
rescues]
*That* I can understand but this pup had a great childhood and was only
with
the above-mentioned woman for a month and a half before she came here.

She's never shown ANY signs of emotional damage [unless excessive
attachment
to me counts] and this is worrying me sick.
It's here and gone so fast that I can't even video-record it to show the
vet
and she doesn't normally do it during her office visits.
She likes him and actually enjoys all the petting and attention he gives
her.
The only time she ever trembled in front of him was after a particularly
thorough anal gland expression and I suppose that is understandable,
especially since that was the same visit when he drew so much blood for
the
tick panel and she jerked the needle out midway through the drawing of
blood.

~Could~ she still have Ehrlichia even if multiple tests given over a 2
year
period were negative?

Has anyone else ever had a normally rock-steady dog tremble for no real
reason?

She was also having reverse-sneeze fits for a week but they have subsided
since it stopped raining here, constantly.
I had her on Amoxicillin just in case she had a respiratory tract/ear
infection and the 'sneezes' coincidentally stopped.

Part of me wants to haul her *back* to the vet but he usually says not to
bring her in because he realizes that I've developed "excessive worry and
anxiety syndrome" after the old dog died and 99% of the time, it's just me
freaking out over nothing.

I don't know if this is significant, but she's been "wary" in the back
yard
after possibly seeing a snake crawling under the house.
[the neighbor killed a 6 foot black snake last week, very near my house]
Whereas she formerly ran and played with abandon, now she jumps if her
nose
accidentally pokes something like a pointy piece of grass and she and her
half-sister both keep going back to where they saw the snake and
investigating it in a very nervous and jumpy manner.
[nobody was bitten but I suppose dogs have an innate dislike/fear of
snakes
and they want to make sure it's gone]

I'm sorry this rambles so but I'm very worried and hope someone can tell
me
I'm just being overly-anxious yet again.

"Sighthound" isn't a breed. What breed is she? And please don't tell
people that sighthounds in general are known to be high-strung and
flighty because that is completely false. Afghans are a little
different, but again, afghan does not equal sighthound.

One of my sighthounds was bitten on the nose by a garter snake and
he's behaving fine. The episode doesn't seem to have bothered my dogs
in the long term.

I doubt that your dog could have ehrlichia if multiple tests for
ehrlichia have been negative. Do you have ticks on your property, or
do your dogs regularly go somewhere that is tick-ridden?

Are her trembling episodes whole-body, or just head tremors?

If the dog is fine otherwise, I'd just keep a close eye on her and try
to record the episodes.

Mustang Sally

I've seen many kinds of seizures and these don't really look like them.

She'd had "tonsillitiis" a couple of months ago and unbeknownst to me, the
emergency vet shot prednisone into her along with an antibiotic.
I do NOT like any corticosteroids used on my dogs unless it's a
life-or-death situation and she's been a little "slightly off" ever since
that shot.

In the very long post I just put up, you can examine my reasons for
believing that this an ear infection manifesting.
After her vet visit, I will post his diagnoses.

Thanks for replying, Katie.....





"Katie" wrote in message
...
On Jun 12, 12:31 am, "Salamander" . wrote:
My 2+ year old sight hound will sometimes shift positions while sleeping
beside me and will "tremble" all over briefly and her eyes look
squinty/strange, as if something hurts, concerns or is upsetting her.


I am definitely no expert, but could it possibly be seizures? I've
never had a dog that has them, but this is kind of what it sounds like
to me...also, I don't really think it's a great idea to put a dog on
medicine "just in case"...sometimes these things do more harm than
good.
Good luck!

No ear infection and nothing else "wrong" that he could find.
He thinks the head shaking is just a hair or a 'no-see-um' from the yard
tickling at her ear canal as there is no sign of anything wrong in there.
[he said they looked "great", actually]

He then mentioned petit mals [and my heart dropped into my stomach] but then
we talked about her sister knocking her flat a couple of weeks ago.
Since that happened, she walks just a *little* differently in the back end
sometimes but still plays wild and fast outside.
[sort of a tighter, "more restrained" movement with less of her usual
swagger]
She wasn't standing straight up at the half-door to the kitchen after being
flattened, for a while, more like leaning into it instead, as if her back or
legs didn't feel quite right .

He has me giving her a baby aspirin twice a day for a while to see if it
helps.

After the discussion of the dog-collision, he feels her odds of epilepsy are
"low".

As I mentioned, her tremors/shivers -always- happen exactly the same way.
She's always laying on her -right- side [the one she landed on in the yard]
she changes position, then she shivers all over a bit and her eyes look
'pained'.
Last night, when she did it, she got off the sofa in her usual melodramatic
way, by 'frogging' her legs out behind her and slithering off slowly while
stretching and 'shivered' a bit more while standing by the sofa, looking at
me.

In your opinions, could she have a bruise or sprain that acts up only when
she lays on it for long periods of time?
Would epilepsy appear *suddenly* and ~always~ consistently present in the
exact same place on the sofa/manner/position/situation?

I got a copy of her test results and a PCR full tick panel was used.
[something to do with DNA testing]

Right now, she's out barking her head off at the squirrels in the maple
trees outside the picture window.

I absolutely positively can't bear the thought of her having epilepsy.
This little dog is my heart, my soul and my life and I will do anything to
keep her disgustingly happy and healthy.

I look forward to your replies.







"Salamander" . wrote in message ...
I've seen many kinds of seizures and these don't really look like them.

She'd had "tonsillitiis" a couple of months ago and unbeknownst to me, the
emergency vet shot prednisone into her along with an antibiotic.
I do NOT like any corticosteroids used on my dogs unless it's a
life-or-death situation and she's been a little "slightly off" ever since
that shot.

In the very long post I just put up, you can examine my reasons for
believing that this an ear infection manifesting.
After her vet visit, I will post his diagnoses.

Thanks for replying, Katie.....





"Katie" wrote in message
...
On Jun 12, 12:31 am, "Salamander" . wrote:
My 2+ year old sight hound will sometimes shift positions while sleeping
beside me and will "tremble" all over briefly and her eyes look
squinty/strange, as if something hurts, concerns or is upsetting her.


I am definitely no expert, but could it possibly be seizures? I've
never had a dog that has them, but this is kind of what it sounds like
to me...also, I don't really think it's a great idea to put a dog on
medicine "just in case"...sometimes these things do more harm than
good.
Good luck!

On Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:28:34 -0500, "Salamander" . wrote:

She's an Ibizan.
They can act "flighty and high strung" ~if~ you live where I do....with lots
of bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and deer prancing around right outside the
fence where they can see them but not "get" them......*very* frustrating to
these 'hunting maniacs'.....)

Sounds like frustrated prey drive to me. I'm sure it drives them nuts
to see all those critters just out of reach.

[perhaps I should've gone with nice, mellow Greyhounds but my first Ibizan
was a shelter rescue and the rest is hysteria...er....history]....;]

Heh. Nice mellow Greyhounds are known to lose all self-control at the
sight of bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and deer prancing around
nearby! An Ibizan in shelter - - isn't that unsual?

In a turn of events, she is shaking her head, scratching and will NOT let me
mess with her right ear.
I suspect she has been developing an ear infection or irritation and that
possibly, the trembling is a sign of pain.
[Ibizans are infamous for their "stoic" natures and like most primitive
breeds, will *not* show pain as it would mark them as "weak" to predators]
I have put some Animax in there [a huge struggle to do so] and started her
on Amoxicillin.
She has a vet appt. today at 3.

An ear infection sounds like a logical explanation and, if that's what
it is, much less serious than something like ehrlichia. What did the
vet say?

I have a feeling [intuition?] that her ear is the problem.
*But*, the friend has a dogged determination to diagnose *everything* as
Ehrlichia, in spite of many tests that state otherwise.

Ehrlichia can certainly manifest as a laundry list of signs/symptoms,
but sometimes when one hears hoofbeats it's just horses, not zebras or
rare African antelopes. And there's much to be said for the intuition
of the owner who knows the animal's normal behaviors.

*He* was getting the classic 'head tremors' that look like mild epilepsy so
I know what those look like all too well.

One of my Greyhounds had head tremors, but not from Lyme disease.
They became less and less frequent as he got older.

Thanks for your reply, Sally.

[what breed of sight hounds have you, if I may ask?]

I have ex-racing Greyhounds, a pair of Whippet littermates, two
unrelated IGs, and a lone (but not lonely) Borzoi. All pretty
different from an Ibizan, I'd think, even though they're all
sighthounds.

Mustang Sally


"sighthounds & siberians" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:31:25 -0500, "Salamander" . wrote:

My 2+ year old sight hound will sometimes shift positions while sleeping
beside me and will "tremble" all over briefly and her eyes look
squinty/strange, as if something hurts, concerns or is upsetting her.

She was just at the vet 2 weeks ago and had a FULL tick panel run and all
the results came back negative.
[and all her Snap 3D tests have always been negative, too]

A friend who had Lyme disease and is BIG on thinking most dog health
problems are Ehrlichia keeps telling me to put her on Doxycycline anyway,
even though our vet assures us she does not have it.
I had my old beloved dog die from probable Ehrlichia/Lyme 6 years ago
[which
we did not know back then...our ex-vet said she'd had a "stroke"] and this
baby is her soul-twin and the great love of my life.
That loss has given me a phobia of tick-borne disease.

The only unusual thing that's happened recently was that her half-sister
knocked her down in the yard but she immediately jumped back up and
exacted
"revenge" upon her by play-attacking her.

After these "tremble" episodes, which last less than a minute, she is
running, playing and being a maniac again.
I worry she has internal injuries but the vet noticed nothing odd and she
certainly doesn't act "hurt".
Sight hounds are known to be high strung and flighty but she's never been
thus.
She's very fearless and noise-proof and not at all jumpy about things.

I have 4 others of the same breed and due to horrible living conditions
suffered as puppies, they all tremble for no good reason periodically
because they're all emotionally damaged from the breeder's abuses. [they
are
rescues]
*That* I can understand but this pup had a great childhood and was only
with
the above-mentioned woman for a month and a half before she came here.

She's never shown ANY signs of emotional damage [unless excessive
attachment
to me counts] and this is worrying me sick.
It's here and gone so fast that I can't even video-record it to show the
vet
and she doesn't normally do it during her office visits.
She likes him and actually enjoys all the petting and attention he gives
her.
The only time she ever trembled in front of him was after a particularly
thorough anal gland expression and I suppose that is understandable,
especially since that was the same visit when he drew so much blood for
the
tick panel and she jerked the needle out midway through the drawing of
blood.

~Could~ she still have Ehrlichia even if multiple tests given over a 2
year
period were negative?

Has anyone else ever had a normally rock-steady dog tremble for no real
reason?

She was also having reverse-sneeze fits for a week but they have subsided
since it stopped raining here, constantly.
I had her on Amoxicillin just in case she had a respiratory tract/ear
infection and the 'sneezes' coincidentally stopped.

Part of me wants to haul her *back* to the vet but he usually says not to
bring her in because he realizes that I've developed "excessive worry and
anxiety syndrome" after the old dog died and 99% of the time, it's just me
freaking out over nothing.

I don't know if this is significant, but she's been "wary" in the back
yard
after possibly seeing a snake crawling under the house.
[the neighbor killed a 6 foot black snake last week, very near my house]
Whereas she formerly ran and played with abandon, now she jumps if her
nose
accidentally pokes something like a pointy piece of grass and she and her
half-sister both keep going back to where they saw the snake and
investigating it in a very nervous and jumpy manner.
[nobody was bitten but I suppose dogs have an innate dislike/fear of
snakes
and they want to make sure it's gone]

I'm sorry this rambles so but I'm very worried and hope someone can tell
me
I'm just being overly-anxious yet again.

"Sighthound" isn't a breed. What breed is she? And please don't tell
people that sighthounds in general are known to be high-strung and
flighty because that is completely false. Afghans are a little
different, but again, afghan does not equal sighthound.

One of my sighthounds was bitten on the nose by a garter snake and
he's behaving fine. The episode doesn't seem to have bothered my dogs
in the long term.

I doubt that your dog could have ehrlichia if multiple tests for
ehrlichia have been negative. Do you have ticks on your property, or
do your dogs regularly go somewhere that is tick-ridden?

Are her trembling episodes whole-body, or just head tremors?

If the dog is fine otherwise, I'd just keep a close eye on her and try
to record the episodes.

Mustang Sally

"sighthounds & siberians" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:28:34 -0500, "Salamander" . wrote:

She's an Ibizan.
They can act "flighty and high strung" ~if~ you live where I do....with
lots
of bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and deer prancing around right outside
the
fence where they can see them but not "get" them......*very* frustrating
to
these 'hunting maniacs'.....)

Sounds like frustrated prey drive to me. I'm sure it drives them nuts
to see all those critters just out of reach.


Totally bonkers.
There's one particular cottontail that I'd swear loiters just outside the
window solely for the purpose of driving her berserk.
She barks and jumps and howls and the bunny just placidly sits there,
chewing its clover blossoms.
[it knows she can't get to it]
This year's squirrel babies spent a month doing nothing but running spirals
around the maple trees, pausing only to see if she was still watching...and
freaking out.
[my little 'nature kids' apparently have sadistic, warped senses of humor]


[perhaps I should've gone with nice, mellow Greyhounds but my first Ibizan
was a shelter rescue and the rest is hysteria...er....history]....;]

Heh. Nice mellow Greyhounds are known to lose all self-control at the
sight of bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and deer prancing around
nearby! An Ibizan in shelter - - isn't that unsual?

Not anymore, unfortunately.
The woman who had my dogs was both directly and indirectly responsible for
25 of them of showing up in a shelter in 2005, all at once.
In the short time I served on the Ibizan rescue commitee, several others
showed up, here and there.
They have gotten "too popular" and some people later find out that it takes
'a different kind of person' to live with sight hounds.....
Nobody at my shelter knew Minny was an Ibizan.
They listed her as a "Whippet".



In a turn of events, she is shaking her head, scratching and will NOT let
me
mess with her right ear.
I suspect she has been developing an ear infection or irritation and that
possibly, the trembling is a sign of pain.
[Ibizans are infamous for their "stoic" natures and like most primitive
breeds, will *not* show pain as it would mark them as "weak" to predators]
I have put some Animax in there [a huge struggle to do so] and started her
on Amoxicillin.
She has a vet appt. today at 3.

An ear infection sounds like a logical explanation and, if that's what
it is, much less serious than something like ehrlichia. What did the
vet say?

Check lengthy 'vet results' post I put up.
Odds are it's just residual but intermittent pain from the Great Collision.
[I hope!]
When she was knocked down, she kind of twisted in mid-air and landed hard.

I have a feeling [intuition?] that her ear is the problem.
*But*, the friend has a dogged determination to diagnose *everything* as
Ehrlichia, in spite of many tests that state otherwise.

Ehrlichia can certainly manifest as a laundry list of signs/symptoms,
but sometimes when one hears hoofbeats it's just horses, not zebras or
rare African antelopes. And there's much to be said for the intuition
of the owner who knows the animal's normal behaviors.

Amen to that.
Others have told me she does this *everyone*, not just me.
She's really a good, decent person.
This is just her particular "thing".

Why a vaccine is not top priority is beyond me.
I just do not feel that Ehrlichia is it, in this case.


*He* was getting the classic 'head tremors' that look like mild epilepsy
so
I know what those look like all too well.

One of my Greyhounds had head tremors, but not from Lyme disease.
They became less and less frequent as he got older.

Bless his heart.
I'm glad he improved.


Thanks for your reply, Sally.

[what breed of sight hounds have you, if I may ask?]

I have ex-racing Greyhounds, a pair of Whippet littermates, two
unrelated IGs, and a lone (but not lonely) Borzoi. All pretty
different from an Ibizan, I'd think, even though they're all
sighthounds.

What a wild and crazy life you must lead......;-D

Hmmm...."different" is a very polite way of describing the average Ibizan
mindset......LOL!
[I am NOT the "owner" in this house....I am but a lowly, shuffling servant]

Sometimes I really miss having obedient, duly worshipful Dobermans.....



Mustang Sally


"sighthounds & siberians" wrote in message
. ..
On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:31:25 -0500, "Salamander" . wrote:

My 2+ year old sight hound will sometimes shift positions while sleeping
beside me and will "tremble" all over briefly and her eyes look
squinty/strange, as if something hurts, concerns or is upsetting her.

She was just at the vet 2 weeks ago and had a FULL tick panel run and
all
the results came back negative.
[and all her Snap 3D tests have always been negative, too]

A friend who had Lyme disease and is BIG on thinking most dog health
problems are Ehrlichia keeps telling me to put her on Doxycycline
anyway,
even though our vet assures us she does not have it.
I had my old beloved dog die from probable Ehrlichia/Lyme 6 years ago
[which
we did not know back then...our ex-vet said she'd had a "stroke"] and
this
baby is her soul-twin and the great love of my life.
That loss has given me a phobia of tick-borne disease.

The only unusual thing that's happened recently was that her half-sister
knocked her down in the yard but she immediately jumped back up and
exacted
"revenge" upon her by play-attacking her.

After these "tremble" episodes, which last less than a minute, she is
running, playing and being a maniac again.
I worry she has internal injuries but the vet noticed nothing odd and
she
certainly doesn't act "hurt".
Sight hounds are known to be high strung and flighty but she's never
been
thus.
She's very fearless and noise-proof and not at all jumpy about things.

I have 4 others of the same breed and due to horrible living conditions
suffered as puppies, they all tremble for no good reason periodically
because they're all emotionally damaged from the breeder's abuses. [they
are
rescues]
*That* I can understand but this pup had a great childhood and was only
with
the above-mentioned woman for a month and a half before she came here.

She's never shown ANY signs of emotional damage [unless excessive
attachment
to me counts] and this is worrying me sick.
It's here and gone so fast that I can't even video-record it to show the
vet
and she doesn't normally do it during her office visits.
She likes him and actually enjoys all the petting and attention he gives
her.
The only time she ever trembled in front of him was after a particularly
thorough anal gland expression and I suppose that is understandable,
especially since that was the same visit when he drew so much blood for
the
tick panel and she jerked the needle out midway through the drawing of
blood.

~Could~ she still have Ehrlichia even if multiple tests given over a 2
year
period were negative?

Has anyone else ever had a normally rock-steady dog tremble for no real
reason?

She was also having reverse-sneeze fits for a week but they have
subsided
since it stopped raining here, constantly.
I had her on Amoxicillin just in case she had a respiratory tract/ear
infection and the 'sneezes' coincidentally stopped.

Part of me wants to haul her *back* to the vet but he usually says not
to
bring her in because he realizes that I've developed "excessive worry
and
anxiety syndrome" after the old dog died and 99% of the time, it's just
me
freaking out over nothing.

I don't know if this is significant, but she's been "wary" in the back
yard
after possibly seeing a snake crawling under the house.
[the neighbor killed a 6 foot black snake last week, very near my house]
Whereas she formerly ran and played with abandon, now she jumps if her
nose
accidentally pokes something like a pointy piece of grass and she and
her
half-sister both keep going back to where they saw the snake and
investigating it in a very nervous and jumpy manner.
[nobody was bitten but I suppose dogs have an innate dislike/fear of
snakes
and they want to make sure it's gone]

I'm sorry this rambles so but I'm very worried and hope someone can tell
me
I'm just being overly-anxious yet again.

"Sighthound" isn't a breed. What breed is she? And please don't tell
people that sighthounds in general are known to be high-strung and
flighty because that is completely false. Afghans are a little
different, but again, afghan does not equal sighthound.

One of my sighthounds was bitten on the nose by a garter snake and
he's behaving fine. The episode doesn't seem to have bothered my dogs
in the long term.

I doubt that your dog could have ehrlichia if multiple tests for
ehrlichia have been negative. Do you have ticks on your property, or
do your dogs regularly go somewhere that is tick-ridden?

Are her trembling episodes whole-body, or just head tremors?

If the dog is fine otherwise, I'd just keep a close eye on her and try
to record the episodes.

Mustang Sally

On Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:59:27 -0500, "Salamander" . wrote:


Totally bonkers.
There's one particular cottontail that I'd swear loiters just outside the
window solely for the purpose of driving her berserk.
She barks and jumps and howls and the bunny just placidly sits there,
chewing its clover blossoms.
[it knows she can't get to it]
This year's squirrel babies spent a month doing nothing but running spirals
around the maple trees, pausing only to see if she was still watching...and
freaking out.
[my little 'nature kids' apparently have sadistic, warped senses of humor]

I've never thought rabbits were particlarly bright - it hasn't
happened in several years, but once in a while one would get into the
fenced yard, and of course didn't make it back out. A cat or two has
done that too, and my dogs are all 'cat safe', but outdoors,
particularly in their yard, all bets are off. The yard smells like
many, many dogs (we've had lots of fosters over the years) and I can't
imagine what an animal is thinking when it decides to squeeze through
the fence.

Heh. Nice mellow Greyhounds are known to lose all self-control at the
sight of bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and deer prancing around
nearby! An Ibizan in shelter - - isn't that unsual?

Not anymore, unfortunately.
The woman who had my dogs was both directly and indirectly responsible for
25 of them of showing up in a shelter in 2005, all at once.
In the short time I served on the Ibizan rescue commitee, several others
showed up, here and there.
They have gotten "too popular" and some people later find out that it takes
'a different kind of person' to live with sight hounds.....

Sounds a little like Borzoi. I was surprised, when we got our first
one 8 years ago, at how many end up in rescue. Borzoi rescue doesn't
have the constant flow of dogs like some other breeds, but there are
situations where a big bunch of them will get dumped or be seized.

Nobody at my shelter knew Minny was an Ibizan.
They listed her as a "Whippet".

Not surprised the shelter workers didn't recognize her breed. Anyone
who thinks an Ibizan looks like a Whippet hasn't seen a Whippet,
either. I think shelter workers call anything with longish legs and a
deep chest a Greyhound or Greyhound mix, and if it's not quite tall
enough to be a Greyhound then it's a Whippet mix. We took a dog once
from a shelter several hours away; they swore it was a purebred
Greyhound. It was a shaved coonhound. A few days ago I got an urgent
email from a shelter in another state wanting help with a
Greyhound/pit bull mix. I doubt the dog had ever seen a Greyhound,
let alone had Greyhound blood.

Check lengthy 'vet results' post I put up.
Odds are it's just residual but intermittent pain from the Great Collision.
[I hope!]
When she was knocked down, she kind of twisted in mid-air and landed hard.

I saw that post. She didn't get bonked in the head in the collision,
did she?

Amen to that.
Others have told me she does this *everyone*, not just me.
She's really a good, decent person.
This is just her particular "thing".

Maybe it's just her way of making people aware of tick-borne diseases.
When we started doing Greyhound rescue, we had quite a battle
convincing some vets that no, TBDs do not occur only in Asia and yes,
it is worthwhile testing Greyhounds for them.

One of my Greyhounds had head tremors, but not from Lyme disease.
They became less and less frequent as he got older.

Bless his heart.
I'm glad he improved.

He's gone now, will be 3 years next month. He was my first Greyhound,
a truly great dog.

Hmmm...."different" is a very polite way of describing the average Ibizan
mindset......LOL!
[I am NOT the "owner" in this house....I am but a lowly, shuffling servant]

That definitely describes the average Borzoi's mindselt. Fortunately,
the rest don't seem to feel that way.

Sometimes I really miss having obedient, duly worshipful Dobermans.....

I want a Greyhound/Border collie cross, the original lurcher in
England. The Greyhound tones down the BC energy, the BC gives the
Greyhound a spark of life, biddability and a built-in recall...

Mustang Sally


"sighthounds & siberians" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:31:25 -0500, "Salamander" . wrote:

My 2+ year old sight hound will sometimes shift positions while sleeping
beside me and will "tremble" all over briefly and her eyes look
squinty/strange, as if something hurts, concerns or is upsetting her.

She was just at the vet 2 weeks ago and had a FULL tick panel run and
all
the results came back negative.
[and all her Snap 3D tests have always been negative, too]

A friend who had Lyme disease and is BIG on thinking most dog health
problems are Ehrlichia keeps telling me to put her on Doxycycline
anyway,
even though our vet assures us she does not have it.
I had my old beloved dog die from probable Ehrlichia/Lyme 6 years ago
[which
we did not know back then...our ex-vet said she'd had a "stroke"] and
this
baby is her soul-twin and the great love of my life.
That loss has given me a phobia of tick-borne disease.

The only unusual thing that's happened recently was that her half-sister
knocked her down in the yard but she immediately jumped back up and
exacted
"revenge" upon her by play-attacking her.

After these "tremble" episodes, which last less than a minute, she is
running, playing and being a maniac again.
I worry she has internal injuries but the vet noticed nothing odd and
she
certainly doesn't act "hurt".
Sight hounds are known to be high strung and flighty but she's never
been
thus.
She's very fearless and noise-proof and not at all jumpy about things.

I have 4 others of the same breed and due to horrible living conditions
suffered as puppies, they all tremble for no good reason periodically
because they're all emotionally damaged from the breeder's abuses. [they
are
rescues]
*That* I can understand but this pup had a great childhood and was only
with
the above-mentioned woman for a month and a half before she came here.

She's never shown ANY signs of emotional damage [unless excessive
attachment
to me counts] and this is worrying me sick.
It's here and gone so fast that I can't even video-record it to show the
vet
and she doesn't normally do it during her office visits.
She likes him and actually enjoys all the petting and attention he gives
her.
The only time she ever trembled in front of him was after a particularly
thorough anal gland expression and I suppose that is understandable,
especially since that was the same visit when he drew so much blood for
the
tick panel and she jerked the needle out midway through the drawing of
blood.

~Could~ she still have Ehrlichia even if multiple tests given over a 2
year
period were negative?

Has anyone else ever had a normally rock-steady dog tremble for no real
reason?

She was also having reverse-sneeze fits for a week but they have
subsided
since it stopped raining here, constantly.
I had her on Amoxicillin just in case she had a respiratory tract/ear
infection and the 'sneezes' coincidentally stopped.

Part of me wants to haul her *back* to the vet but he usually says not
to
bring her in because he realizes that I've developed "excessive worry
and
anxiety syndrome" after the old dog died and 99% of the time, it's just
me
freaking out over nothing.

I don't know if this is significant, but she's been "wary" in the back
yard
after possibly seeing a snake crawling under the house.
[the neighbor killed a 6 foot black snake last week, very near my house]
Whereas she formerly ran and played with abandon, now she jumps if her
nose
accidentally pokes something like a pointy piece of grass and she and
her
half-sister both keep going back to where they saw the snake and
investigating it in a very nervous and jumpy manner.
[nobody was bitten but I suppose dogs have an innate dislike/fear of
snakes
and they want to make sure it's gone]

I'm sorry this rambles so but I'm very worried and hope someone can tell
me
I'm just being overly-anxious yet again.

"Sighthound" isn't a breed. What breed is she? And please don't tell
people that sighthounds in general are known to be high-strung and
flighty because that is completely false. Afghans are a little
different, but again, afghan does not equal sighthound.

One of my sighthounds was bitten on the nose by a garter snake and
he's behaving fine. The episode doesn't seem to have bothered my dogs
in the long term.

I doubt that your dog could have ehrlichia if multiple tests for
ehrlichia have been negative. Do you have ticks on your property, or
do your dogs regularly go somewhere that is tick-ridden?

Are her trembling episodes whole-body, or just head tremors?

If the dog is fine otherwise, I'd just keep a close eye on her and try
to record the episodes.

Mustang Sally

"sighthounds & siberians" wrote in message
...
I've never thought rabbits were particlarly bright - it hasn't
happened in several years, but once in a while one would get into the
fenced yard, and of course didn't make it back out.

Last year (or was it the year before - I lose track of time) a rabbit had
her litter of babies in and under the Bird's Nest Spruce. The one we had
just planted. In the flower bed at the base of our back steps. The steps
that lead from the main dog door down to the fenced dog yard.

We located most of the dead bunnies by the trail of milk that they leaked
out when squished by schnauzer mouths.

Darwin lives but rabbits survive based on sheer reproductive numbers.

Judy