I think I posted our experience with our husky mix dog, and his possible infection with T gondii in the Iodine thread, but will post here since it may help other dog owners with dogs who are diagnosed with idiopathic head shaking syndrome.
One morning this Winter, I remember it was day of the full moon, our 2 1/2 yr old husky mix, Simon, woke up and stood in the doorway to the kitchen and his head was shaking back and forth, sort of like a tremor you note in Parkinsons. After distracting him, getting him to move, the head shaking stopped. This happened again in the afternoon after he awoke from napping, and again, after distracting him with a treat to get him to move his head, the tremor stopped. After it happened again the next morning, we realized something may be going on, and went online to see if other dog owners had experienced this and if and how they were able to resolve the issue.
So many videos of this with numerous dogs, so sad!, but one video which i came across was of an owner who recorded her husky puppy with this issue, documenting it every few months, or so, and updating the treatments her vet was trying and the results. After what I think was about a year and a half, her vet tested the young dog for T gondii, and the dog tested positive. He placed the dog on anti-biotics and the head shaking ceased by the time the course was completed. I've searched to find this site but failed to find it again.
Knowing our dog, always sniffing and sticking his nose into critter holes (we think he's part hound, too), we figured he may have ingested or inhaled something nasty. He also was REALLY into eating rabbit scat in the yard, which is hard to discourage, but something new in his behavior. Who knows whether T gondii can alter or increase a dog's drive to eat something it ordinarily wouldn't? Simon has HUSKY genes so he already has a strong prey drive, and he's shown to be quite adept at catching rodents in the tall grass. From what I researched, dogs CAN get T gondii, but from what I've read it didn't seem like many vets are willing to look for that first.
Anyway, Simon gets fed a high quality grain free kibble type food. We give him a half dose of worming medicine (Interceptor; treats/prevents heart-, round-, tape-, & whip worms) on the full moon, and the other half dose on the new moon. Also researched and found dosage information for supplementing with Lugol's iodine 12%. So we started him with one drop in a raw scrambled egg in morning, and increased it to two drops after about a week. The tremors ceased for about 2 weeks when we noticed them again a couple times and then nothing again for a few weeks. If/when they happen, they seem to occur around the full or new moon.
While this experience doesn't prove that he has/had T gondii or whether his head tremors were due to that, they haven't gotten worse or more frequent. It's been over 3 weeks since noticing any waking head tremors and even then it was a single event. I should note, that once the weather turned cold, we discontinued the worming medicine, but being such a mild Winter and all, probably should have kept him on it.
Dog owners should know that dog's CAN get T gondii. Our neighborhood has many outdoor/indoor hunting cats that ignore property lines and since our house is over 100 yrs old, apparently provides access to mice. Cats and mice are the preferred hosts for T gondii's life cycle but a dog can become an unwitting host because of their nosiness, and in Simon's case, an appetite for rodents. Just to be extra cautious we make sure his food bowl gets placed up on table at night if he doesn't finish it before bed, preventing mice from leaving their calling card in his bowl.
I would suggest that if you observe tremors or seizures of unknown origin that suddenly start up, have them tested during a full moon phase when parasites are most active and tremors are more frequent; the lab will be more likely to identify the culprit if it's due to a parasite like T gondii.
