Shaking

Question
I have a five year old neutered male springer spaniel. For the apst year or so, if the fire alarm goes off (usually because of food cooking) he comes running to me shaking. I always thought this was because it hurt his ears and he was scared. But lately he'll come running for no apparant reason, shaking. Today he came over to the computer desk, and shoved his nose up under my arm very forcfully. When I turned around to see what he wanted, he put his front paws up on my knee. He was shaking very violently, wobbling all over the place. I got on the floor with him and petted him and hugged him, but it took a very long time for the shaking to stop. About 5 minutes, and it progressed towards the end of his body. his front legs calmed down, his chest... when his abdomen calmed down he began panting very heavily... until only his heels were jittering. The whole time he was walking around slowly, or sitting down in my lap.

I thought maybe the cat had scratched him, but i didnt think he'd get that scared or jittery from it. Plus its happened a couple times before.

Do you think this might be a medical problem? or is he just jittery?

Answer
Hugest of apologies for the delayed response.  Many animals can be made nervous by particular sounds: thunderstorms, car horns, vacuum cleaners, etc.  Your original description of him coming to you when the smoke detector went off would make me initially think of a fear based response.  In which case desensitization training and anti-anxiety medication can help.

The most recent episode that you described with the full body shaking and loss of motor control sounds more like a nuerological problem, possibly a seizure.  I would suggest taking him in for a physical to see if you veterinarian can find a medical explanation for the shaking, however unfortunately seizures can be difficult in that no abnormalities are found on physical in between episodes.

Best of luck to you and your canine companion.