Muscle spasm

Hi My oldest Frenchie is experiencing what look like cramp/spasms around his neck/chest? He’s 6 years old and is neutered. I have another 2 frenches (female 3 spayed - male 8months intact) I went away for 1 night and when I came home Reggie was fine and normal then all of a sudden he hunched his neck in and I could see the muscle cramping and he was shaking. I picked him up and brought him on my bed with me and he soon calmed down. I gave him some of his medicine which he’d previously had for IVDD symptoms in his back (these symptoms were nothing like he’s having now IVDD were way way worse) I put him on bed rest etc like advised previously by the Vet when being treated for possible IVDD. He was totally fine for a few days then it started again, again I brought him upstairs with me away from the other dogs he went to sleep woke up fine. he’s eating normal, he acts normal everything is totally fine until these spasms happen (no more than once a day, some days none at all??!) BUT what I have been told is it could be stress/anxiety related which he is already a clingy dog to my self and is anxious anyways. I’ve noticed everytime he’s around my youngest dog (male pup) he hates it. He sits shaking, his ears go back, he just really doesn’t like being around him because he is very giddy. When we leave them alone all together I’ll come back to again Reggie shaking and turning into a spasm in his chest/neck just above his leg. Could this be because my youngest is intact still? Is it purely stress/anxiety from just being away from me or around the pup, because any other time he is soooo fine!!! It’s really stressing me out, he can still walk during these spasms, he doesn’t cry or yelp, it’s like he’s literally petrified?! I don’t know but I just really don’t know what to do right now?!

Hello - and Im so sorry to hear that your little one is (and almost inevitably, by proxy, you sound to be) having a bad time of it.  I would argue that it's unusual to suddenly become anxious for the sake of it and furthermore, when it happens, I beleive that sudden uexpected pain - or fear of more pain - is often the cause.  I would therefore, as a priority, be getting this patient assessed again for pain.  In the UK it would be illegal to give prescription pain meds to a dog without a prescription specific to the complaint, but in any case your vet may want to examine him and rule out new neuro symptoms. They can also feel the leg and get an idea of where any pain localises.  Could abdominal pain e.g. pancreatitis be involved?  They might want to image the spine, spinal cord or joints, investigate muscle problems etc.  Neuromuscular pain is one of the conditions with good evidence for the use of accupuncture behind it, but it sounds as though a diagnosis and medical treatment might be needed at the moment.

The antagoism between Reggie and his pack-mate sounds to be tough.  Emotional reactions are also pain of a kind and also need to be considered.  It is obviously realtively simplistic to assume that 'getting on' is the normal relationship status between dogs, that male hormones induce antagonism and that castration will cure it; behaviour is a whole science of its own and there are hundreds of possible reasons for what you are seeing, including one dog being unwell.  Most behaviourists will want your vet to have fully examined your dog before behavioural treatment, but keeping two dogs in a situation that isn't working can exacerbate existing problems and so this may be also worth asking to your vet about, who has more context.   Wishing you all the best with this ongoing situation - please will you let us know what comes of it?

Thank you so much for this! I will go back to his vet and ask for another opinion from them again. It’s just hard as when he’s not having these “spasms” he’s totally fine and normal which is making it hard for us to determine what’s actually going on when we took him in the vet as he wasn’t actually having a spasm at the time. I will definitely keep you updated

Did you ever figure this out? Our Frenchie is having the same thing, it happened a year ago for a week or two, now again going on a week now.