Does anyone's big paw have Restless Leg Syndrome?

[mtaig12]

I've seen all those ads on TV for Restless Leg Syndrome (pins and needles feeling in the legs, or creepy crawlies, etc), and it finally hit me that maybe that's what Star (Dane) has!

She's done this for as long as we've had her (a year), but she will lay down for a while, be relatively still as if she's almost asleep, then suddenly jump up (completely up) with a start. She'll look at the bed/floor/carpet/whatever accusingly  , then go lay somewhere else. Sometimes it will happen again in the "new" spot, and she'll go back to the original spot. When it happens, she jumps up so quickly she will occasionally knock something over, which startles her more and she runs a few steps before looking back at the bed.  If it happens in a quiet room, it startles everyone (Max, cats, kids, etc)  .

At first I thought it was something in the dog beds, but it happens whether they're freshly washed or old and stinky, and whether they've been shaken out recently or are all lumpy. Also it happens when the dogs themselves are freshly washed as well as old and stinky (but generally I don't shake the dogs out)  . No one is near her, so she's not being bumped or jostled as she's going to sleep.

Does anyone know if dogs can get RLS? Anyone else's dog behave similarly? I wonder if the benefits of the meds would outweigh the side effects  .

Thanks in advance!
Tracy

[schelmischekitty]

i agree with jacks mom's thinking that it might be more of a nightmare thing

[Anakalia]

Koby's done this a couple times too and I always thought it was a dream thing.  Have you ever almost been asleep and all of a sudden you feel like you're falling and you get freaked out and your whole body jumps?  That's happened to me a lot so I always thought maybe something like that is what has made Koby jumpy.

[mtaig12]

Thanks everyone. I don't think it's a dream, because she leaps up (as in, goes from laying to standing in less than a second). She usually doesn't make any noise before it happens, like I've heard her when she's dreaming (my DH says she's chasing rabbits when she's twitching and whimpering during a dream  !). Maybe it is the "falling" thing, and maybe her reflexes are just really sharp so she leaps up. (When that sort of falling thing happens to me, I jump, but I don't leap out of bed to stand upright and look accusingly at the bed!  ) Anyway, it probably happens twice a week or so, but I'll try to see if it coincides with exercise (or lack of it).

Thanks for all the ideas!

Tracy

[angelsmama]

omg i hate when that happens , feeling like im falling , like when my body jerks... but yeah sounds like dreams she might be having