Movement Disorders

Movement disorders (MD) are without saying in most cases dramatic neurological pres- entations for owners and very challenging disorders for veterinary neurologist (1, 2). the most well known MD in humans is without saying parkinson disease. a similar disorder is unknown in cats and dogs but various manifestations have been described in the recent years. and thanks to the invention of the smart phone with a camera function more and more movement disorders are recognized and put on media such as you tube are get known to the public before local veterinarian get aware of it. Sometimes they are just put there to ‘laugh’ but they also help us to properly investigate and diagnose and facilitate treatment. Just google on ‘head tremor’ and you will find several hits a vid- eo’s to illustrate them. But despite our growing knowledge much is still unknown and veterinary nomenclature tends to follow human medicine. not always is this possible or logical as we lack specific knowledge on localisation and type of disorder.

Movement disorders are neurological disorders that affect the central nervous system causing abnormal involuntary movements (aiM) without ictal seizure activity on EEG recordings (3). of course this is difficult to perform in practice as well as in the open air which undermines proper diagnosis in all these rare involuntary movement disorders. Most likely there are also some peripheral disorders that can cause movement disorders but even in human medicine this is still under debate and not discussed here. the goal of this manuscript is simply to introduce the term and briefly introduce a few described aiM that are seen in companion animals. this will by all means far from complete.