Anxiety attack/Seizure-like symptoms -
 

Hi,

I am hoping someone might know the cause of some episodes my 3 year old Yorkie has had...

Symptoms:
He will completely tense up, spread out his legs, and grip the floor. Sometimes he shifts to one side, and is completely stiff as he spreads out his legs. The first and second times it happened he threw up, and one time he defecated. This third time (today) he just stiffened up, but I tried holding him, and that seemed to calm him down. I noticed he was panting slightly as I held him. I thought he had recovered, so I went to put him down, but he spread out all his legs and stiffened as he approached the floor.
He seems aware as this happening, nothing significant happens with his eyes, but he doesn't look at me if I call him. It is almost like he is paralyzed - he just stands there gripping the floor. Each episode has lasted about 5-10 minutes.

Frequency:
The first time this happened was about 4 months ago, and it has happened intermittently twice since then.

After the first episode, I rushed him to our vet for an evaluation. He checked his vitals, and said it did not sound like a stroke, and thought it might be anxiety.

Has anyone else diagnosed these symptoms in their Yorkie? I am really concerned that this might be a big issue, and would really like to get treatment for whatever the underlying cause might be.

So what was the vets diagnosis? Did the pup receive any treatment?

It sounds like a seizure to me. Next time, tape the episode on your phone so Vet can see it. May want to give phenobarbital if seizures truly suspected here.

I agree with Ann, sounds like seizures. I would want bloodwork done right away, rule out liver problems.

Yes!
 

My yorkie did something very similar minus the urinating and defecating. But she would tense up her arms and legs would stiffen sometimes even her head would go back a little bit and the whole time she would be aware and wanting our assistance. The vet said it sounded like a type of seizure but not the normal type so other than prescribing a medication he didn't know what to do. We did our own research and found out that sometimes gluten can cause seizures in Yorkies so we put our baby on a gluten-free diet and the seizures/episodes pretty much completely stopped she has had very very few since then and I can usually link an episode to her being at someone's house and given a piece of food that had gluten in it.

My Dog has the exact same issues, He has MVD and eats royal canin hepatic. Are there any test that could be performed to see if there are any allergies to gluten? I always thought it pertained to his MVD but noticed the seizures happened even without eating.

Your dog needs to be under the care of a vet.

Royal Canin hepatic is a prescription diet. He is clearly under a veterinarians care. I was inquiring in the event that there is something that my vet may not have thought of, or may not yet know about.

I think I must of missed the last part of your post some how that said you rushed him to the vet. I do not believe this is anxiety though and is possible seizures but not anxiety. You need to maybe get a second opinion.

Best bet is to ask for an MRI to start ruling out what's it's not.
Been there. Very frightening.

I agree with everyone this is not anxiety and needs to be diagnosed and treated. Never heard of gluten allergies but that will be my research topic for the day. This is why this board with everyone's experiences is so helpful. Thanks to all the members and especially the moderators for making this forum so supportive and educational.

Anxiety is much different. You'll see tucked tails, hiding behind you or under furniture. A really bad episode might include high pitched keening and drooling. In my highly anxious gal's case, it causes GI upsets. She even had what we now know was an anxiety attack and drooled for a few hours. I've never seen a seizure in a dog before, but I have seen many of them in humans, and that's exactly what a seizure looks like- from your description. I know your vet said it was a anxiety, but, definitely not any anxiety I've ever seen.