Facial Myokymia With or Without Concurrent Neurological Deficits in Seven Dogs and Two Cats.

Summary: Have you ever seen a dog or cat with a twitching face? This is called facial myokymia. It means the facial nerves are too excited and firing on their own. Vets looked at 7 dogs and 2 cats with this problem. They found that it is rare and can be caused by many different things, like deep ear infections, tumors, or nerve damage. Most of the pets also had balance issues. Giving them a steroid medicine called prednisolone helped stop the twitching, but it often came back. To fix the twitching for good, vets have to find and treat the main cause.