I am new to the forum and had seen some previous discussions about movement disorders. My young yellow lab will be walking along or maybe standing out in our yard and will do a full quick kick of her back leg. It is involuntary. I have looked extensively on line at videos and cannot find anything that looks like what she does. We have seen a neurologist and she thinks it could be a focal seizure or a peripheral nerve issue. She has done this kicking from maybe 16 weeks on but it was not very often. This summer though she is doing it maybe every 3 or 4 days so it has increased a lot. The neurologist had me give her keppra and she had a lot of side effects from it so I took her off of it and my local vet had me put her on a steroid to see if that would help. The kick lasts a second, she is fully awake, she looks at me like why did my leg do that. She also will turn her head looking at the back leg like she is cramping and I will massage her leg for her. She did one kick in the house, the other kicks have all been outside. She only kicks one leg at a time but does kicks with both legs. She has shaken her front leg 2 times total. She does kick her legs when she is sleeping but I have had other dogs that have done that too and I thought that was normal. So I was wondering if any of you have a labrador that does something similar to my lab.
This is a follow up to my post. My daughter posted a video of my lab on You Tube doing the funny leg kicking. I was wondering if anyone else from this list had ever had their lab do this. This is not marking behavior. She does this about every other day. Thanks, Sandy H. https://na01.safelinks.protection.o...UGACvlgpSniD6WlCJKj4m/0hl9jUs=&reserved=0
Hello there Yes, my dog does this time to time. But I know the reason. He has had cruciate surgery, and if he sits or lies too long with his back legs tucked up tight, he will get (what looks like) cramp and do the kicking thing as you describe. It's because there is arthritis in his joints. It's not problematic apart from if he has been in the same position for too long - so we make sure he has massive spaces in the car, rarely put him in a crate (and if we do it's sized for a Great Dane) and avoid him cuddling on a human for too long where because he wants the cuddle he stays in the same position for too long. We also have a raft of vets and physios, hydrotherapist, vet prescribed supplements and endless other things. I don't know if this helps....
Hi Julie, I have brought this up to my vet and the neurologist about being an orthopedic issue but they did not think that it was. She also has shook out her front leg a couple of times too but I still would like to check for joint issues. She will at times jerk her head back like the leg is cramping and will not kick and I will massage it. She had a bad reaction to the second puppy vaccination and had a lot of lameness. We put her on tumeric and that has helped a lot. Nothing shows up on the xray but the arthritis could still be there. I am sorry you are having issues too. Thanks so much for the information. Sandy
Hi Sandy, I'm sorry your girl is having these problems, and at such a young age too. She's lucky to have a concerned intelligent human Is there some way the vet can confirm these movements are in fact seizures? Can vets do an EEG on a dog like they do in humans? Can they rule something out with nerve conduction studies? Ideally without costing a fortune. It would be helpful if you could get a definite, or more likely diagnosis because then it might make sense to trial other drugs. I don't know how many anti-convulsants are used in dogs but there are other drugs for humans besides Keppra. we had a dog who developed epilepsy after an injury and he had grand mal seizures. There weren't as many drugs at that time but we managed to balance side effects vs efficacy by trial and error. I found some drugs had unpleasant side effects that went away in a week, like sleepiness, while another was ineffective and intolerable. We had to make these choices because the seizures were severe and we were trying to prevent more damage. If your girl isn't upset by the odd kick, does the vet think she needs treatment?
Hi Athena, They can do a nerve testing and I am planning on doing that. The EEG would be better but I don't know if anyone is doing that. I am going to take her to Ohio State for a second opinion and I will ask them about the EEG. She has to be off the steroid though for at least 4 weeks to do that testing so I am weaning her off the steroid right now. The kicking does not bother her but if it increases in frequency it could and if is true epilepsy it could go into grand mal seizures. I have a 10 year old lab that is definitely epileptic and has the grand mal seizures and is on phenobarbital and denamarin and doing well. I would not want to give pheno to the puppy not without knowing the results of the nerve testing because it can effect the liver. Thanks so much for information. Sandy
Hi Sandy, Sadly you're experienced. Been there done that with phenobarb. Yuck. I'm not a physician or a vet but I work in regulated research. It's very difficult for physicians to figure out if drug X is a first line treatment because it actually *is* safer and more effective or because the drug reps are more effective sales people. I have no idea what vets do because there's less data published. Sometimes newer is not better. I don't know which AEDs are used in dogs but there are a lot of them licensed for humans. All of them have to be titrated to the best dose and this can take months. The thing to avoid is rejecting an otherwise effective drug too early, for unintended effects that might go away. With the exception of phenobarb, generally speaking, it seems like sleepiness wears off over time while nausea and lack of appetite doesn't. Most drugs are metabolized in the liver without problem. Some drugs need monitoring just in case and a few drugs need monitoring to figure out when to stop the drug. I hope OSU can give you some answers.
