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Showing posts with label tail chasing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tail chasing. Show all posts

Monday, May 23, 2011

Tail Chasing and Spinning, A Seizure?

As I was reading an article in dogtime.com about health issues concerning Shiba inus, this excerpt caught my attention:

"Tail chasing or spinning is an unusual problem that's not well understood. It usually begins at 6 months of age. The dog is obsessed by his tail and may circle for hours. He loses interest in food and water. All attempts to get the dog to stop the behavior fail. Sometimes the dog yelps while spinning and may attempt to bite. Research suggests that spinning may be a type of seizure. Some dogs respond to treatment with phenobarbital either alone or in conjunction with other medications." 
- Dogtime.com

It didn't occur to me to blog about this topic, but minutes after reading it, Chloe just started tail chasing and spinning. It's usual for me to see her chasing her tail and I see it as one way of her playing, but then she started barking and yelping while doing it, now that's unusual. She only barks when she wants attention from me, she never even barks at strangers or other dogs. So I tried offering a toy to distract her, which didn't work. I also tried offering her my hand to play with, but she just ignored it. Determined to stop the behavior, I carried her and tried to calm her down which she did after a few seconds of struggling and biting.

So is it a seizure like what the article suggests? I honestly don't know, I'm quite knowledgeable with seizures in humans but not with a dog. I guess it's too early to tell. I'll keep on monitoring for now.


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