Rubbing Head
 

I thought I saw a thread about this but I can't find it...Lucy rubs her head on the carpet alot. First one side and then the other. She also does it in bed. Did anyone come up with a reason for this? She will scoot along the carpet with the side of her head...

TIA

well i think it can be many things... we'll start with the least serious and work our way up.. lol.. she might have an ear infection or allergies... i also read that can be a symptom of a liver shunt... NO idea how those two things relate but that's what i have read on here.. might want to get her checked out for an ear infection.. i hear if you let those go too long it can cost a lot of money to get them better. hope that is all it is :)

I would get it checked out just to be safe. But my dog does the same thing on a regular basis, especially after a bath or when he is let out of his crate in the morning. His ears are in great shape and he doesn't seem to have any allergies. We've just come to the conclusion that he's weird!:)

Does she have a smell coming from her ears? Maybe an ear infection, or ear mites?

Chachi rubs his head after a bath

Conner does this when his moustache is "itchy".

I too have a puppy that does this. It totally freaked me out when we brought him home and he did it the 1st time. I took him to the vet and the vet said I needed to constantly monitor it (due to my pup's small size and some lethargy) as it could be a sign of liver shunt. I was mortified and worried to death. I kept a check on it and started writing down when he would do it. (If a pup is doing it after eating that can be a sign of the protiens in the food causing the issues re: liver shunt).

For my pup, I would even pick him up and massage his little head in my hands to try to ease whatever it was that was bothering him. I have done alot of research on it and still don't have an answer for why my pup does it. (Yes, we did have a blood test done for liver shunt that came back w/ great levels so doesn't appear to be liver shunt). Now 2 1/2 months later, he still does it but it appears to be more of a scratching himself action rather than a head-pressing.

Also his breeder told me that his mom does it as well (more of a scratching type action). I am continuing to monitor it, but the frequency my pup does it has diminished and I remain convinced it is just a body scratch thing that some puppies do.

Keep us updated if you find a cause or reason.

That is called hepatic encephalopathy. It is where the toxins (that aren't being filtered by the liver) go to the brain causing strange symptoms. They include head pressing, seizures, circling... If it is just her head, she might be itchy from something (allergies?). If you are concerned I would go to the vet but it is probably something minor.

Thanks!!! i love knowledgable people :) now i know!

To the OP, it depends if your dog seems to be itching herself, or actually pressing her head against the furniture... Does she do it within an hour or two of eating? If you're worried about it, I would take her in to have a bile acid test done.

Also, a dog who has a liver problem could quite possibly only exhibit one of the symptoms of HE like the head pressing. They don't necessarily have to have seizures or do the circling thing.

My sisters new puppy is doing the same thing, I told her make a vet visit, I went there today and his ears do smell a bit, He rubs and scatches at them, hope fully its nothing serious, praying for you both.

I'm going to make an appointment just to rule out the Liver Shunt to be on the safe side. She doesn't do it at any given time but now that I know I will monitor it this week.

Thank you for all the replies!

Chance does this also. One side of his face then the other on the carpet. Its a daily thing for him. I have taken him to the vet, and he has check out fine. I think it is allergies because he also licks his feet at night before bed. He eats Chicken soup, I was considering switching him to the raw but I don't know much about it. I would not worry to much...maybe its just allergies or just a yorkie thing :p

Chris

Me too... Meka does it on a regular, and I thought its just something they do. She seems perfectly fine.

lexi does that too , but i think she just wipes her mouth off to be dry

Head pressing is much different from when they rub their face on something. Lily head presses due to her neurological problems so I'm pretty familiar with it. Head pressing is just that. They will push their head up against a hard object like a wall or furniture. Sometimes they will do it in the corner of the room. Sometimes they might also bang their head repeatedly on the hard object.

I think that rubbing their face might be due to allergies. Maybe it itches or maybe their face is wet because their eyes are watery. I think that they also sometimes do it to rub a certain scent onto themselves.

My female Malt use to do this when she was younger. She suffered from hypoglycemia and everytime her sugar went down she would rub her head on the rug. She stopped doing this once her sugar stabalized. She was LS tested and was negative.

She only does it on the carpet and she isn't just plain pressing, more she is rubbing both sides of her head. I made an appointment just to be sure but it could well be allergies. She's been on RC puppy until now and now that she is old enough to switch we are going to switch her food. So far she will not eat Canadie :(

I forgot to add that it could also be due to a problem with her teeth or gums. She would rub her face on the carpet if her gums or teeth were aching. Have your vet take a look at that as well.

I just remembered something when you mentioned the RC puppy!

Just the other day, I saw a breeder on here mention that when she put her puppies on this, they developed food allergies and were tearing up their hair from scratching. This is what I feed Dixie and lately she has been pawing at her face. I think I'm going to switch her to something else and see if that helps!

Rocky does it all the time. After shower most of the time. He acts like a big good, just stares at the ceiling, makes cute sounds, then jumps up as if the lightening hit him and grabs hist toys.
I think its his way of expressing how happy he is to be alive and in a good home.

Now if only I could learn to be so happy to be alive everyday I would be on top of the world. but nooooooooooooo....materialism is the king of lives!!!!!!!!!1

Mine do this too, and I kinda think its the "eye booger" thing.

I'll wash their face at night, and seems they don't do it much after that.

Both of mine do that a lot right after a bath too..when I'm blow drying them.

Could it be water getting on the face beard when drinking?

I put Ellie on Royal Canin Hepatic LS 14 for a liver problem. She was on it for a few days and started scratching like crazy. We pulled that food and switched. After an anti-inflammatory shot and about a week later she was okay. She is still quite itchy but that is when it started. I have head quite a few complaints about RC.

I've heard RC has some allergy issues. I'm going to just have to start trying her on different foods...

What food did you switch to? Lily is on that for MVD, I would love to switch but the options are so limited and I don't like Hill's SD.

Well, the princess gets homecooked.:rolleyes: I did not want to go with L/D either (besides it still has corn product in it and that was probably Ellie's problem iwith the RC), so the vet said we could just homecook. We started using Dr. Dodd's diet but replaced the fish with egg. Ellie did quite well with it but I wanted to get a nutritionist involved. She analyzed that recipe for me and it is too low in zinc, iodine, copper, manganese and iron. The calcium is also not quite right. I know though that severely liver compromised dogs can't have high levels of manganese, iron..., so that would explain the deficiency. Anyway, she created us a recipe that is about 24% on a dry matter basis (which is way too high for most dogs with MVD), so I really can't help you.:( Ellie doesn't have a diagnosis yet and doesn't have HE symptoms, so she can have higher protein. I would recommend using Dr. Dodds and figuring out the vitamins/minerals yourself to make sure it's balanced.