Involuntary head-jerking by puppy while eating, please help!

Hi I was feeding my 5.5 week old maltese puppy when she put her head down and started jerking it.

She usually eats most her food then lies for a bit before continuing, but this time she jerked her head a little and made a chewing action with her mouth but she had no food in it.

It almost seemed involuntary or like something she would do in her sleep but her eyes where wide open, when I touched her she sat up and kept eating, then she did the same thing again?

Please help!!!





Hi
I wish I could give you an answer to what is going on with your puppy, but I'm afraid I'm not a veterinarian and without actually seeing what she's doing it's impossible to say for sure what caused her to behave this way.

At only 5 1/2 weeks she's very young and puppy's of this age have immature nervous systems and tend to be more 'twitchy' than older puppies and dogs.

It could be absolutely nothing, and never happen again (or happen once or twice more then disappear, or it could be a sign of something that needs attention. Only your veterinarian can really make that call.

I'd recommend for now just keeping a close eye on her and watching to see if it happens again, either when she's eating or at other times. If it does, then I'd suggest taking her to your vet for a check up to make sure that everything is okay.

If she's eating, drinking, sleeping and playing normally then I doubt it's anything huge for you to worry about, but it's always better to be safe than sorry so if it happens again, consult your vet.

As you have such a young puppy you might find my Puppy Development page interesting and useful.

Hope this helps, best of luck with your puppy.