Expert: Wendy Grudin - 11/4/2007

Question
We have a red heeler, after a nights sleep she shakes her head the first 15 minutes or so.  We had taken her to the vets, at that time she was favoring one ear, so they checked out both ears and ended up flush only one, but she was still shaking her head, but not pawing at either?

Answer
Hi Jackie, I always recommend that when dogs are showing symptoms...and your local vet cannot find the cause....that you take the dog to a Veterinary Teaching Hospital for an additional opinion. Your instincts are telling you that something is wrong...and I would tend to agree. That is not normal behavior for a dog to shake it's head like that. There may be a foreign object deep in the ear or the dog may have some sort of inner ear infection, or it may be a neurological problem. Whatever it is...it should be evaluated by another vet...and if there is no teaching hospital convenient to you, get another opinion locally.Wendy