great dane seizure?

Question
I have a male great dane that just turned one on June 7, 2012. A couple nights ago I was sitting on my couch watching a movie with him when I noticed his head was slightly shaking. It wasn't shaking in an up and down or side to side motion, His head was staying in one place, but shaking as if it were on a tilt. I immediately went over to him, I didn't know what to do so my boyfriend said we needed to get him up because Tank was laying down on the couch at the time. So we stood him up. He was standing ok but his head wouldn't stop shaking. It lasted about 1-2 minutes. He was completely aware of us and was responsive during this whole time. My first thought was he had a seizure, but I'm not sure. Tank has never had any kind of seizures before, I have never had any health problems with him in the past but he is only one year old. There are two things in his past that were traumatic for him. I went to pick up a puppy out of a litter and when I got there he was the one who was super skinny, he was scared to death, his tailed was broken towards the tip. He was also the runt. H was the only puppy who was in bad condition. So he is the one I chose. At about 7 months old he was hit by a car, I'm assuming from his injury it hit him as if he were standing facing the vehicle. Both his front legs towards his shoulders were missing lots of skin. He had to have stitches of course and we did almost lose him, but thankfully he made it. He has had no more of these "episodes" since that night. I did call a vet and he asked me about the type of cleaner I use, which is pin sol. He said that pin sol is the problem because it contains pine oil which is highly toxic and can cause dogs to have seizures. But is it even a seizure that my dog is experiencing? Should I take him to a different vet? Should I wait to see if he has another "episode" before taking him to see a vet? If I do take him to another a vet is there anything specific I should ask them to look for? ... Thank you

Answer
Some dogs can develop what are called "petite mal" seizures, which look like what you were seeing. They might come and go, or you might never see another one again.

Pine Sol is very toxic to all animals and should be banned from any household with animals of any kind. It would not likely cause this however, unless he had just recently been exposed to it and for long periods of time.

The fact that he was responsive rules out just a dream, but like I said, petite mal seizures look like what you described.

Most vets will tell you to just watch for recurrences or if they become more pronounced and often then bring him in.

Epilepsy usually starts in dogs from the ages of 2-7 but it's not unusual to see dogs with it younger and much older.

Mark it on your calendar the date he had this "episode" and then any other times he does this.

Make sure he is on a good quality diet, not store bought junk like Old Roy, and has clean water at all times. Hopefully he is on heartworm prevention year round as well.

You might want to put him through a worming treatment just to make sure he is cleaned out that way.

There are a lot of videos on youtube showing many kinds of petite mal seizures, so you might want to look at those. Make sure they are posted by veterinarians and not just a public one.

Otherwise, it's a wait and see situation with things like this.