Reflections on the various diseases that hit the Akita
SA, panic attacks and various kinds of fits
My Akita Kari, who is no longer with us suffered from SA.
Prior to the first SA break-out, she had a few fainting fits now and then, often in combination with some kind of stress. We hade her examined several times but they did not find any cause for the fits. They actually disqualified epilepsy as a possible reason.
As she got older she also had, to us, unexplainable panic attacks (really really afraid). It appeared often to be a scent or a sound that used to be familiar to her, now scared her.
I wonder; did the SA make her ear-canals/ear-drums as well as the mucuous membrane inside her nose – dry and brittle so that she experienced scents and sounds different than before – or was it caused by something completely else?
Lately, I have a feeling of that the amount of Akitas with various types of fits (passing out) and panic attacks have increased.
Questions to you
- Are there Akitas out there who has similar reactions?
- If YES, are these Akitas also suffering from SA or any other auto immune disease?
Any kind of “Akita” is of interest to me. Please feel free to make comments.
//Marita
I think that my dog (Hilma) is a dog who is more stressful than average one. She suffers separation anxiety and in general is the kind of dog who likes routines and our home-environment. She gets stressed out from new situations. She is also sensitive to voices and fearful to thunder and new-year rockets. She mingles certain sound to those she is afraid of. For example she is afraid of the sound when snow walls down from the roof. She mingles the water dropping from eaves to this snow wall and in rainy days she does not want to go out because of that. As a puppy, she startled a fart. Not anymore, but that was when I noticed first time that she was very sensitive to voices.
Hilma has had no attacks and I don’t think that her stressful temperament has gotten worst due to SA.
I think that shyness and sensitivity to voices is a very heritable feature. Maybe these dogs are used a lot in breeding and these are accumulating during time, so there is more and more shy and voice sensitive dogs?
(Hopefully you understand what I wrote. I had to use a lot dictionary, so I don’t know if the phrases are correct…)
As an increment (now that I thought it a bit longer) Hilma has had two times conditions that could be described as a fit. First one was when she was a puppy (maybe half years old). We went to see an old man over 90 years old. In the yard she was so avoidant that we decided to leave her in there to have a cup of coffee. When I came back she was like frozen and in slow-motion movie… Other occasion was her first new-years rockets. When she saw them, she run inside, started shaking and went again in this frozen state of mind.
I think that she was in shock in both times. First one was afflicted by the unfamiliar character and the other one was the seeing of the rockets on the sky (she did not react on sounds before that so intensively).
Manuel has SA.
1) He had never had any unexplainable fits or panic attacks – YET
2) His SA-dry ears and nose has NOT caused him any “over”-reactions – YET.
He is not a generally frightened dog. On the conterary – he is very curious.
BUT he has reactions of flight/escape to uncomfortable situations, which I believe in the WILD is very smart…though in our human society that behaviour will need guidance from us – enabling him to activate his brain before the instinct takes over.
And YES he remembers everything.
This last part is TOTALLY a different topic than what Marita intended so I might bring it up another time for discussion. 😉
Hej, vi har råkat ut för samma med vår akita Chica. Hon svimmade en gång i bilen när hon var 6 månader men inte nå mera sådant. Däremot blev hon väldigt rädd och fick nästan panik ibland när vi var ute och gick. Då hon bara ville hem. Väldiga besvär med pälsen och tassarna som blev inflammerade.
My male had these kinds of attacks similar to CECS (http://www.cecs.se/) that among other Border Terriers can get. He had three attacks during his 8 years old life and started after he was 6 years old. We saw a connection when the attacks started with previous medications like painkillers but we can not be sure that was the trigger.
Känner igen Ella såväl i dessa skumma skrämsel attacker och stress anfall…
Hon är sju år gammal. Hennes faster hade SA.
Hon blir plötslig rädd för dofter eller ljud, hon kan liksom plötsligt vädra något och börja rusa iväg i panik. Det händer otroligt sällan, men det HAR hänt.
Hon kollapsade och tuggade fragma, darrade trillade runt hos veterinären till följd av att hon varit så panik/rädd/stressad/vansinnig på veterinären som skulle ta tempen på henne.
Jag upplever också att hon blir mer och mer lättskrämd med åren allteftersom minnen/erfarenheter byggs på i kroppen och sinnet på henne.
Idag blev hon skiträdd för en smällare.
Till följ av detta har hon haft okontrollerad ryckningar i höger bakben. Benet bara rycker och rycker, som om hon ska klia sig eller likt när hon trampar på något vasst och sprattlar till liksom.
Det pågick i femtio minuter innan det slutade helt. Hon låg ner och kunde inte hindra benet från att rycka och sprattla, hon flåsade och tyckte det va superjobbigt. Gömde sig – visade tydligt att hon vill vara ifred.
Jag tror det är stress och att den vänds inåt liksom. sätter sig i kroppen och i nervsystemet.
Jag upplevde också att hennes rädslor för ljud (dock inte smällare, åska eller fyrverkerier) blev värre ju äldre hon blev. Hon tyckte det blev obehagligt med helt välbekanta ljud. T ex gick hon in i ett annat rum om jag hostade. Jag tror personligen när det gäller Kari att hennes hörselupplevelser blev annorlunda pga SA eftersom hörselgångarna blev torra och att det kanske blev förvrängning av ljud. Samtidigt är jag undrande över hennes totala skräck de sista dagarna hon levde. När hon inte vågade lägga ner huvudet utan bara låg och skakade. Hon verkade inte ha ont, utan enbart ha en okontrollerad rädsla.