Are you seeing tremors in your dog’s back legs or even shivers through his entire body? You might be alarmed by these outward signs, but some of the culprits behind them might amount to nothing at all, so please relax and stay calm since this information is right here to help you.
In this post, we will be covering the general causes behind the shaking of your dog’s back legs, and I’ll be covering each section in great detail so please pay careful attention through the end. Let’s cover some introductory information before we jump straight in!
What Does It Mean For a Dog With Shaking Hind Legs?
If your dog is around the age of a puppy or a young adult, you should look at the section down below called distemper. For tremors that are happening in young dogs and adults, it might mean a serious virus has infected your dog. However, if your dog is old and pretty ancient in years, he might be facing a joint problem of some sort.
What Should I Do For Dogs With Shivering Back Legs?
As I have said before, if you want to figure out the solution, you have to know the cause first! As you go through the list of causes down below, make sure to look at their particular symptoms, and if you find a match, take a look at the solution and if you can fix it at home, do so.
Causes Behind Back Leg Tremors
1. Distemper (Fatal Virus)
Any type of tremors such as the shaking of the back legs can be included as one of the distemper symptoms. If you have taken your dog to vaccination, you probably will recognize this term distemper since this is one of the viruses that should be included in your pet’s vaccination.
Canine distemper is a highly contagious disease with an even higher mortality rate since there is no cure for this type of virus. Because this virus is highly contagious, an infected dog will have to stay separated from other pets since the distemper can spread through the air droplets of its victims and also by surface contamination.
Due to its attack on the gastrointestinal and respiratory systems, dogs infected with distemper will first develop discharge from their eyes, which can turn to fever, nasal discharge, coughing, lethargy, and induced vomiting. As the virus focuses its target on the nervous system, muscle twitches such as your dog’s back leg shaking can occur.
If you suspect that the culprit behind all those tremors is a distemper, take your dog to the vet as soon as possible since dogs infected with distemper can result in death. Even if they recover from this virus, those pets will live the rest of their life with a scarred nervous system.
2. Natural & Unnatural Causes
If you see your dog’s back legs are shaking, you might be seriously alarmed, but first, relax and assess the situation that is in front of you. Some of the natural causes behind those tremors can be the cold weather and extreme hunger. Sometimes, electrolyte imbalances (salt & electrolyte deficiency) might be the culprit behind it.
I really hope that you don’t leave cleaning products or toxic substances lying around the house since ingestion of toxins can cause your dog to tremor as well. Last but not least, joint problems due to old age can cause pain for your dog when he tries to stand, which can result in tremors.
If you want to keep your dog’s body as healthy as possible, you might need to include joint supplements into your dog’s diet, so that your canine companion gets the necessary ingredients for his health boost. Make sure to keep track of your pet as he continues to age since there are many degenerative disorders to keep track of!
3. Little White Shaker Syndrome
Also known as the General Tremor Syndrome (GTS), Little White Shaker Syndrome is a condition where a pet displays generalized tremors in his head and his body. Even though the origin behind GTS is still unknown, let me still lighten up the mood by saying that this section is not as serious as the distemper portion.
Often happening in little white dogs, GTS is most commonly seen in Maltese, Poodles, and even White Highland White Terriers. Mind you, this condition can happen to any breed of dog regardless of age, but it happens the most in white dogs that stay pretty small in size for the rest of their life.
If your dog’s back legs are shaking and your vet has eliminated every other factor in this list except for GTS, he is going to assume that your pet is suffering from Shaker Syndrome. Due to its high treatment rate, your vet will assign a steroid that suppressed your pet’s immune system, and your dog will resume his normal life after a week or so.
4. Neurological Disorders
This last section is for dogs that are experiencing tremors for prolonged periods of time. Chronic tremors often indicate some problems in the nervous system since neurological disorders and movement deterioration come in pairs. If your dog is experiencing chronic tremors, go to your vet for further assistance.
He will be able to conduct tests on your pet’s nervous system, which might be the solution that you were looking for all along. If you have tried your best and your dog is still experiencing tremors or going worse, make sure to visit your nearby veterinarian for professional guidance.
Conclusion: Need Financial Backup?
As your dog continues to age, his condition will deteriorate as time continues to pass by. Even though you may not like it, his visits to the vet will definitely increase since he might be showing symptoms that you have never seen before. Are you really going to pay that expensive medical bill if your dog’s life depends on it?
The answer should be yes since you should be financially prepared for it. If you want to provide any medical assistance to your pet without concerning yourself with the bill, applying for a Petplan might be the place to start. Petplan is just another name for pet life insurance, and it has great perks!
As always, the final decision is up to you, and I hope that this information regarding tremors in dogs was helpful to you. If you did find it helpful to your research, make sure to share this post with people around you since that action helps us quite a bit! If you have any questions or comments, be sure to include that in the section below.
Now is the time to say the final goodbyes, but I hope that you will come back to our website for future updates and great content. Thanks again for reading through our post called Dog’s Back Legs Shaking, and please have a great rest of your day. Don’t forget to smile and good luck!
