henhenROOSTER!!!
New member
Anybody have any experience or knowledge on this??? My lab has just lately started exhibiting this bizarre behavior occasionally a couple times at 6 yrs old (I had never before now seen this in any dog). He is currently having a long, crazy episode that started up almost all of last night & is still going strong this morning - 2nd time he's done this. Some friends took him to their "vet" a month or so ago when he did this for the first time while I was out of town & the quack gave him antibiotics for an "anal gland" infection & wormed him - DUH... 
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After very careful personal observation in the wee hours of dawn this morning because he had pretty much kept the wife & I from sleeping most of the night, I suspecting that some sort of "hallucinations" were going on. I did some quick internet research on a hunch & easily found multiple videos of dogs mimicking the exact same pattern of behavior, but information on the condition is kind of sketchy/contradictory from there. Some say it is a form of seizure (and indeed hallucinatory), others say it is an OCD behavior derived from boredom or trauma, & in some cases it can be due to something toxic ingested such as locoweed (which we have in profusion here in my area of CO & my dog is a notorious indiscriminate grass/weed eater when he has an upset stomach, which is quite often).
There doesn't seem to be very many concrete/reliable answers or cures at all & I'm in no rush to get him started on the heavy anti-psychotic/seizure meds suggested. I read one guy's post that said his dog usually snaps right out of it when he throws a ball, so I got out the bumpers to test things tentatively at the crack of dawn (didn't want to worsen any seizure activity if that was going on, but the dog didn't seem unresponsive or totally out of it - just plain goofy). After easing him into things carefully, he had enough wits about him to perform multiple marked & blind retrieves for me but was still somewhat distracted & jumpy during the session. The excercise slowed the behavior down for a bit, but he's right back to non-stop imaginary "fly biting/chasing" & licking again. Weirdest thing I've ever seen in a dog, just came out of the blue/nowhere...STUMPED??? If any of you can, somebody please HELP enlighten me a bit more. I'm probably headed out to my vet shortly anyway, but I don't really want any more hurried or crackpot misdiagnosis leading me further in the wrong direction like the last clueless nut. So far, as is often the case with human doctors - I have pretty much already had to track down & figure out the basic problem for myself. Now I don't know what to do about it...
(After very careful personal observation in the wee hours of dawn this morning because he had pretty much kept the wife & I from sleeping most of the night, I suspecting that some sort of "hallucinations" were going on. I did some quick internet research on a hunch & easily found multiple videos of dogs mimicking the exact same pattern of behavior, but information on the condition is kind of sketchy/contradictory from there. Some say it is a form of seizure (and indeed hallucinatory), others say it is an OCD behavior derived from boredom or trauma, & in some cases it can be due to something toxic ingested such as locoweed (which we have in profusion here in my area of CO & my dog is a notorious indiscriminate grass/weed eater when he has an upset stomach, which is quite often).
There doesn't seem to be very many concrete/reliable answers or cures at all & I'm in no rush to get him started on the heavy anti-psychotic/seizure meds suggested. I read one guy's post that said his dog usually snaps right out of it when he throws a ball, so I got out the bumpers to test things tentatively at the crack of dawn (didn't want to worsen any seizure activity if that was going on, but the dog didn't seem unresponsive or totally out of it - just plain goofy). After easing him into things carefully, he had enough wits about him to perform multiple marked & blind retrieves for me but was still somewhat distracted & jumpy during the session. The excercise slowed the behavior down for a bit, but he's right back to non-stop imaginary "fly biting/chasing" & licking again. Weirdest thing I've ever seen in a dog, just came out of the blue/nowhere...STUMPED???
If any of you can, somebody please HELP enlighten me a bit more. I'm probably headed out to my vet shortly anyway, but I don't really want any more hurried or crackpot misdiagnosis leading me further in the wrong direction like the last clueless nut. So far, as is often the case with human doctors - I have pretty much already had to track down & figure out the basic problem for myself. Now I don't know what to do about it... 
