leg twitch

[seahag1939]

Jude is a female mini-dachshund, 5 years old, spayed, overweight at 15 lbs, down from 17.  She is on a home diet of roast chicken breast, broccoli, carrot, brown rice and barley.  Supplements are omega 3 fish oil, flaxseed oil, bone meal, and bran.  It's always bothered me when someone would make her leg twitch (right rear) by petting her in the sensitive area.  Of late I can't hardly pet her on the right side without making it twitch, and it's gotten worse.  It looks as though she's trying to scratch but she's not.  She doesn't do it while sleeping.  Last night she was jerking all over in her sleep.  If she does this, it quits when I wake her, but she's hard to wake at these times.  Her brother has seizures, medicated by phenobarbital.  I have been using tea tree oil to try to remove a wart or skin tag on her neck as my vet said he didn't have the equipment to freeze it.  I think she's sensitive to the oil as her skin has become irritated around it.  I washed the area with water and put a medicated salve on it and will give her a bath today.  Should I worry about this twitch or not.  I confess to being a hypochondriac where she's concerned, but she has had health issues before:  pancreatitis when two, and liver concerns when she was three.  She's been doing much better since on the home diet and at her last checkup all her blood tests were within the normal range for the first time.

[Jaybay]

It sounds like you've just got a very ticklish doggy.  :-)  Most dogs like to be scratched in a spot that brings on the reaction you describe, so don't worry about it.  It's entirely normal behavior.  I've noticed that one of my dogs reacts moreso that way when she needs a bath.  It just feels good to have dirty, itchy skin scratched, and dogs show they like it with the "phantom" scratching.  

Dogs dream just like people do.  And just like people, they sometimes physically act out what they're dreaming.  They'll bark, squeak, whine, jerk, twitch, flap their paws as if they're running - all kinds of things.  Again, it's entirely normal.  It's also better not to wake the dog in this state and let the dream play out.  Most dreams that we remember occur during REM sleep, and without a full cycle or two of REM sleep, a person or animal doesn't get the full restful benefits of a night's sleep.  No worries!  :-)

[rachie204]

my dog had something similar and it was never a big deal really...didn't seem to hurt anything.