Head Tremors - Possibly linked to Simparica?

[C.K.B]

Hi all,

One of our dogs, a 2.5yr old mixed breed, has started exhibiting head tremors that only last for about 30 seconds and he snaps out of it when we call his name. He is 100% fine in himself, and doesn't seem disoriented by them, but this is the third occasion that we've caught these tremors and it's getting concerning now.

The only thing that has changed in recent months is the flea/tick prevention, as we previously used a spot on with no issues. We started using Simparica chewable tablets alongside Milpro wormer, for both of our dogs.

They were prescribed by the vets and each dog has different dosage based on their weight.

He had his most recent dose 3 days ago and we saw tremors today.

Here is a video that shows the type of tremor we're seeing as we haven't been able to catch it on camera as they are such short episodes:

I didn't even consider the flea/tick prevention until I saw the brand name Simparica in the comments of this video, and after reading the leaflet a bit closer, tremors and other neurological issues are listed as a rare side effect...

I will be taking him to the vets and ceasing the use of Simparica to see if this makes a difference, but I just wanted to find out if anyone has had a similar experience with their dogs?

Thanks in advance

 

[Tinytom]

Have you looked inside his mouth to see if he has any bad /loose teeth ...my Jack Russell sid started head tremors a few months ago and we discovered he had a loose tooth and it was tooth pain that was causing his tremors ...tooth extraction and clean up and he has not had another episode....fingers crossed you can find out what has caused them

 

[C.K.B]

Have you looked inside his mouth to see if he has any bad /loose teeth ...my Jack Russell sid started head tremors a few months ago and we discovered he had a loose tooth and it was tooth pain that was causing his tremors ...tooth extraction and clean up and he has not had another episode....fingers crossed you can find out what has caused them

No bad teeth at all, everything else has been fine.

We did take him to the vets today to get checked out and he seems to have a small amount of build up in his ears so we're going down the elimination route and treating his ears first to see if that's the issue. Vet is hoping it isn't neurological, but if the ear treatment doesn't stop the tremors, then we may have to consider it.

Good to know that it can be caused by something less severe though thank you for sharing

I'll update this post should anything else come about, as I've read a few things online regarding neurological disorders brought on by flea treatments, which can be very scary.

 

[C.K.B]

Just wanted to add an update to this thread as we've had some new developments tonight.

The tremor came back again for the second time this month and they were significantly worse. The tremor lasted for over 2mins, which is a lot longer than the others that were around 10-20s each time. He also whined and barked and stared at the ceiling for a while, which I managed to capture a video of to send to our vets, so we can hopefully get a neurologist to take a look.

Fingers crossed there will be no emergency vet visits tonight

 

[JudyN]

I hope you'll be able to get some answers very soon.

 

[C.K.B]

Thank you @JudyN

We had an appointment for him today and he had some blood tests to check blood count, thyroid, liver function etc. and they came back as completely fine so, the vet has recommended that we stop administering the Simparica flea treatment and switch back to frontline to see if this helps the tremors stop. He is also showing behaviours that could be pre-seizure related such as staring at the ceiling for a good few seconds or more, or growling/reacting to things that aren’t there, so we want to rule these out and hopefully put them down to behavioural quirks if the tremors no longer happen.

If they continue or anything new happens in the next few weeks, we will be getting a referral to a neurologist so he can have an MRI and further investigations.

I will add that these tremors are a rare side effect of Simparica, which I didn’t know about until some further research, so wanted to make other pet parents aware should anything like this happen as it can be extremely distressing when it first comes about.

 

[Hemlock]

Everything crossed for a good outcome.

 

[C.K.B]

So an update as this continues to baffle us and the vets so this could be a good documentation for anyone experiencing the same!

So it's been over 3 months since we stopped the Simparica and he had no further tremors up until this week. He's now gone from one tremor episode every three weeks back when it started, to suddenly multiple in a day, for seemingly no reason.

We've taken him back to the vets who confirmed that he has an ear infection at the moment but that the tremor doesn't make sense as most dogs don't get tremors like this with ear infections.

So, next step is a neurology referral which we are awaiting an appointment for. Video evidence, past medical history (he has a musical heart murmur as well) and all the info we can give have been passed over to the hospital for review and we will hopefully have an answer in a month or so.

Poor boy is only coming up to 3 years old, so this is all a bit much for him, but better to know now that lose him unexpectedly.

Will update again once we've had the appointment

 

[arealhuman]

Fingers crossed for you.