My puppy randomly woke up screaming, almost spazzing, biting the air and us involuntarily...

[Accidentalglixch]

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My puppy Remi (Male, Fox Red Labrador, about 13weeks) was asleep with us on the bed and all of a sudden he sprouted up started screaming, almost spazzing, biting & scratching the air and us involuntarily - just was being aggressive. He was moving his head like freaking out side to side.

Me & my husband were calling his name, shouting and I was screaming at one point (in fear "no no , Remi ! come on baby" ) and trying to let him know we were there by trying to stroke him

He also peed his normal amount on the bed and pooed a pea size drop that was like his normal poop but there was running poop sort of drip on the carpet a little ...unsure when this happened but I'm pretty sure he did it as he snapped out of whatever this episode was.

He's now seemingly back to his 'normal' self an hour after. It scared him once he stopped as he cowered under the bed for 30 minutes, probably thinking we were shouting at him for bad behaviour.. i was talking softly to try and calm him.

But now he's out from under the bed, wagging his tail, responding to us. We've taken him downstairs in his play pen where there's room and blankets for him to go back to sleep and space if it happens again.

Bit of background - He does have a tendency to have bad nightmares where he cries/whimpers in his sleep and sometimes bolt up sniffing the air in trance. He comes around quickly when you cuddle him or talk softly with this...

 

[Tinytom]

As soon as the vets are open again i would get him checked out ...

 

[JoanneF]

As above. And if it happens in the meantime try to get it on video, that will help the vet to diagnose.

 

[Accidentalglixch]

Thank you both - Vets still aren't open until Wednesday but will take him as soon as we can.
We think it was a really bad nightmare or could be a sleep disorder ; Remi has bad REM sleep anyway.
But still . best to get him checked.

Last night we made him sleep in his pen (we did make his crate comfy) and we both slept on the sofas. We would usually sleep in the pen with him but due to the violent nature of the previous episode we didn't want to be on the end of it. He wouldn't know when to let go in that state.

Luckily, he had no episode of it but we've agreed that we won't give him plain chicken again - this was the only change.

Am buying a notebook to keep a history of stuff for him to take to vets.

 

[CoCo2014]

It could be at worst an epileptic siezure, unfortunately Labrador Retrievers are one of the breeds in which epilepsy is quite common & many siezures occur during sleep.

It is very important to keep & accurate records of what he has eaten, what he was doing etc before & after an episode. Recording it visually is also very important