Normal REM sleep for my dog?

9 year old Taz; Golden Retriever; has thyroid hormone deficiency; takes pills to normalize the level of it

Whenever he sleeps especially lately he twitches an awful lot, his eyes roll back and his tongue sticks slightly out of his mouth. This seems to happen everyday/night. Normal?

He is always extremely begging and extremely hungry. We have had him on a diet for a long time now and I've measured the food properly to make sure he's getting enough food, but he was so used to getting overfed. He constantly eats grass and I do mean constantly like he's addicted to it. He's on Nutro Natural Weight Management at the moment and has lost around 35 lbs so far (down to 105 now).

[Heather5]

Hmmm! Interesting. We also have hypothyroid dog (autoimmune), and although her levels are now in the normal range (with the medication), she is also ALWAYS hungry. She inhales her food, and then goes over to our other dog and hopes to get some of her food as well. She also eats some grass, but mostly dirt. Our vet says the pica (eating dirt) is probably caused by the hypothyroidism.

As for the twitching, my dogs do a little of that when they seam to dream...but with the eyes rolled back and the tongue sticking out, I'm almost wondering if it's some kind of seizure. Not really sure, though... How bad is the twitching?

If I were you, I would take a trip to the vet, or even just call them, and see what they have to say.

Good luck!

[searcherrr]

Thanks for sharing that similar info.

I was wondering about seizures too, but while the twitching may go on for a minute or 2 at the most it is very minimal twitching though its usually all his limbs, ears, and mouth muscles. He may twitch 1-2 inches back and forth and we try not to (cause I don't like disturbing his REM sleep), but sometimes when we try to wake him up he does wake up immediately. Its not like he's stuck in that state and can't be shaken out of it.

So is that just good REM sleep or seizures?

[Heather5]

I would think it's just REM, then. My dogs do that too - both of them. Sometimes, they'll even make these funny whimpering sounds while the legs and sometimes face twitch a little.

:-)

[Jaybay]

If you can wake him up immediately, then he's not having seizures.  Our dogs sometimes paddle their feet while they dream, and even bark.  I've always wondered what they were dreaming about when they do that.  :-)

The bigger concern seems to be the constant appetite and eating grass.  Most dogs eat grass occasionally - who knows why - I guess it just tastes good.  :-)  However, when any of my dogs get to grazing several times a day, I know something is wrong.  Usually it's just an upset tummy resulting in vomiting and/or diarrhea for a day and then it's over.  He may even be grazing on grass due to boredom.  Is he getting walked out of his territory every day?