OCD in Dogs

Hello everyone,
My 4 year rott has trained me well. If he has to go out he stands at the back door and shakes his head. I have learned to go to the door and open it for him. Just recently he has begun shaking his head 20-30 times within a 15 minute block of time, not at the door but at different locations. I tried to clean his ears out and checked his coat and there does not appear to be a problem. He has done this about once a day for the last week. There does not seem to be much of a pattern. Sometimes it is in the middle of the day and sometimes at 2 in the morning. Could this be the start of some obsessive-complusive behavior or is he trying to tell me something? Anybody have any similar experiences and/or suggestions?

 

welcome Zekesmom. Please take him to the vet to rule out something lodged in his ear canal you cant see. It could be something very tiny irritating it.

Honeybear

 

Zeke has an appointment for his heartworm test and I will ask the vet then. Thanks for tip, honeybears!!

 

your wlecome and please le us know the outcome

honeybear

 

My Arthur (male pyr) had the same problem and I thought it was his ear and it ended up it was a piece of wood stick he chewed and splinters in the gum.

2pyrs

 

Well, as I was at the vet looking in his ear and explaining the situation I found a lot of dried blood in his black ear!! The light in the vet's office was much more bright than at home. I felt like such a loser mom. She cleaned it pretty well and said that the ear canal looked fine. But he was still shaking his head last night after the vet. I should check his mouth as well because he is a major stick chewer. I take that back, he is a major stick eater. Thanks for all the help!!

 

Zekesmom:
Did the vet give you a solution to take home and clean his ears out with?
Last year when we got Harley she had a really bad head shake. We took her to the doctor and she had mites!! He said it comes from being in lake water lots and not being cleaned properly. Anyways, we had no idea.They were so far down her canal we almost had to do surgery on her. The vet gave us this solution with a long tip on it that can go right down to the canal and were told to spray it twice a day and swab with a q-tip to get the crap out. I will get the name tonight if you want, it worked miracles. Then you can ask the vet if it would be a good idea for your dog.

 

I called the vet and I am picking up Otimax. Hopefully that will do the trick.