Involuntary Leg Spasms - Need Advice

[JohnF]

I wonder if anyone can give me some insights here because Peggy has developed a most unusual pattern of involuntary back leg spasm activity. It's just as though you have tickled a trigger spot on her shoulder and the leg gets set off twitching.

She has had a twitch there for as long as can remember since adopting her at 18months of age in March 2009, but it was only if she was about to be set off leash or she was very excited. It lasts for seconds and then she is over it like a fast focal seizure perhaps? It seems to happen when she lays a certain way and then gets up, and also when let out first thing in the morning. It's over quickly and she can un about like a normal Greyhound

Anyway, before embarking on intensive veterinary procedure looking for something that my vet says will be subtle and hard to find, he suggested taking this

and thinking about Acupuncture.

I had hoped that having a younger rescue greyhound would keep me vet-free for a number of years, but it looks like that's not the case with Peggy now.

So has anyone seen this kind of thing before and reached a definitive diagnosis? What should I be asking my vet? Does anything non-vetbased help?

 

Link to YT video;

[TheFullHouse]

It looks to me like she's trying to scratch an itch but just isn't making contact. I have a couple that if I rub their backs in certain spots their legs will do that also.

[Batmom]

That is what my dogs do when they're trying to scratch a spot on their underside/chest -- for example, if they've been lying in the grass and have a piece stuck to them.

[MP_the4pack]

She's trying to scratch an itch, but isn't quite sure where the itch is.

 

By the way I LOVE her spots!

 

Does she do it when her collar is off? Mine are notorious for not liking their collars, even the thin id/breakaway collars. (they've all been broken away and lost out in my yard. sigh.)

Edited January 6, 2012 by MP_the4pack

[KF_in_Georgia]

Yes, it looks as if it's harmless itch nearly-scratching. If the itch really bothered her, she'd lie down and roll in the grass or find some other way to scratch it. This looks more like an absent-minded itch. If she accidentally made contact with her foot, she'd really scratch and love the feeling, but the itch isn't serious enough to completely distract her from anything else.

 

All my dogs have done this at one time or another. If I go up and rub where the foot was aimed, the dog just stands there and lets me do all the work. (Although sometimes the foot will move faster, letting me know I'm not scratching hard/fast enough.) Sometimes, it's the belly, sometimes it's the head or face (top of the head has to be frustrating for them). I love it when the dog can't decide whether to walk or scratch the itch, so you get the absent-minded, half-hearted swipe in the air on every step.

[OwnedBySummer]

Same thoughts here, she's half-heartedly scratching. I think it looks adorable!

[JohnF]

Thank you all for looking. She will do it at night sometimes when sleeping on one side as well which is why I reckon it may have been a trapped nerve. I'm thinking focal seizures, neuropathy etc. too.. something in that spine reflex loop (maybe even brain issues) but it is so expensive to MRI if it isn't necessary, or even likely as the vet says, to show anything meaningful at this stage.

 

Just to make sure it wasn't fleas or whatever I put on some Frontline combo which you can probably see wicking into her coat up on top of her shoulders. I sense that stuff is a rip-off really and only what actually goes on the skin can work.... right?

[Batmom]

We use Frontline Plus here and are very happy with its efficacy in killing fleas and ticks. It distributes through the hair follicles to cover the dog -- it isn't systemic to the dog.

[KF_in_Georgia]

If she's doing this and you call her name or otherwise distract her and the leg-kicking stops, then it's not a spasm or nerve problem or seizure: it's an itch, and you've distracted her from scratching. Dogs can scratch in their sleep without waking up, just as people can. (Ever tickle a sleeping friend with a feather?) The scratching might be triggered by fleas (not terribly likely at this time of the year in your area, but she could have picked up some); it might also be triggered by dry skin or pretty much anything.

 

And I've successfully used Frontline Plus in this household (year-round in Georgia) for ten years.

[JJNg]

I agree...just looks like she's trying to scratch an itch. All dogs do this, and greyhounds seem particularly ineffective when trying to scratch from the standing position. Can't see her face in the video real well, but at one point, it looks like she's got the corner of her lip pulled back, a common facial expression I see dogs that are trying to relieve an itch.