Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Odd Behaviour
OK, the weirdest thing just happened. Maggie asked to go outside so I let her out. As soon as she got out the door she was acting like she was very scared of something. She was staring at the ground and seemed kind of spaced out and jumpy. I brought her in the house and she was still staring down at the floor as if something there was going to jump out and get her. I checked her gums and they were very pale. I talked to her and petted her and she finally came out of her "trance". Her gums were back to normal colour. I immediately thought that she was having some sort of seizure. There is a seizure known as "Fly Snapping Syndrome" where the dog sees and bites at things that are not really there. It is relatively common in Bernese. A couple minutes later Maggie asked to go outside again, and the same thing happened. This time she avoided the "scary" thing on the deck and went down to the yard. She was still acting terrified staring at the ground. I went out to help her. I looked on the ground and saw what I thought were clumps of fur (not unusual in our backyard), but when I looked more closely I saw they were feathers - the soft downy feathers from a bird. Maggie was scared of them. I picked some up and tried to show her they were OK and after a couple of minutes she was more relaxed and was brave enough to bark at them, but not totally convinced that they were not "out to get her". Bosley came by, sniffed them and wondered what all the fuss was about. Weird!
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Don't worry Maggie, those feathers can be very intimidating. We have all been there, with one thing or another. For me it was the bird feeder.....
ReplyDeleteCookie and crew
Oh, haha! Maggie, you're sooo funny...Good thing it's NOT seizure! She must think that it's something weird. But I wonder why her gums turns pale? Very very weird...Has she been attacked by a bird before?
ReplyDeleteLove licks,
Solid Gold Dancer
oh maggie, poor girl, if you ever want to borrow some more feathers I have some here, i guess she'll never be a hunting dog :)
ReplyDeletethey do the strangest things sometimes, i'm glad she is OK, funny that such an outgoing dog can have such wierdnesses, that is usually how it seems to go!
What a funny girl!!
ReplyDeleteI think the pale gums were just from her being so scared - like when people get scared and all the blood drains from their face. That is why, at first, I thought it might be a seizure (plus I am always paranoid about stuff like that). As far as I know, she have never been attacked by a bird, but I was thinking that maybe she had been "dive bombed" earlier in the day. I guess we will find out the next time there are birds around.
ReplyDeleteKaleb was dive bombed by a Magpie: first he saw in the front yard and ran to it, it flew away - then from out of no where (behind the house), came back at him and dive bombed him!!!!
ReplyDeleteafter that he would always look at the sky in the front yard, that is what could have happened for sure!!