My dog has sudden visible muscle spasms in neck, chest area - help!?

I wish somebody would answer to this posts, as it comes up first on the search results. I am worried about my dog as well. I have seen other posts so far that dont have definite information. It dont seem to me that the dog is dreaming, I believe are the nerves. Could be a spider bite, she definitely had an infection, and I would recommend anyone in a better financial situation than me to visit the veterinary as soon as possible.

My dog has the exact same thing...in fact, I brought the first post to read the description because it was so accurate to what she has. She is 12 years old with no history of ticks or bites that I know of. My vet ran blood and urine tests...everything is normal. He doesn't have an answer either and thinks it may be age, but it's very dramatic and came on so suddenly and it's at its worse when she first gets up in the morning. Anybody get an answer???

veterinarian can help you

My mother-in-laws dog has just developed the exact same symptoms as described in the first post back in 2010. She just recently came off predesone. Neck just started twitching, looks like heart is beating right under skin. Dog acts depressed and is worse in the morning. Tests all came back normal and the Vet is stumped. Can whoever put the first post about the French Bulldog about these symptoms please let us know what happened?

Thanks

Our dog had nasal mites. I believe they treated him with a Merck drug. You could exercise this potential diagnosis with your vet

My 5 yr old dog had the same problem his neck and chest had bad spasm right after he had his anal glands expressed for the first time not that he needed it but a vet recomended it when I took him in to have his ears plucked. I came home with him and within two hours he had bad muscle spasm at the neck and his entire little body was pounding. The next day I took him to my regular vet and he had to clean his anal glands again because it was not done right he has this muscle spasms. Within an hour the dog was fine and did not have any spasms for three months. Now he is having the same spasms again I have to take him back to my vet and hope that getting his anal glands expressed works again.

My 5 yr old dog had the same problem his neck and chest had bad spasm right after he had his anal glands expressed for the first time not that he needed it but a vet recomended it when I took him in to have his ears plucked. I came home with him and within two hours he had bad muscle spasm at the neck and his entire little body was pounding. The next day I took him to my regular vet and he had to clean his anal glands again because it was not done right he has this muscle spasms. Within an hour the dog was fine and did not have any spasms for three months. Now he is having the same spasms again I have to take him back to my vet and hope that getting his anal glands expressed works again.

So, something very similar happened to my shitsu/maltese mix.
Very lethargic and spasms in chest muscle area. I was seeking the answer everywhere possible. When I gave my dog a baby chewable Advil she felt much better, most of the symptoms subsided, but I did this for more than a week and when I took the medicine off, the dog went back to its original state.
I finally went to visit a vet. After spending $350+ I was told after looking over x-rays, the dog had possibly a minute difference on one of the spinal connections indicating slippage of disc (plainly put, back ache). Even the doctor wasn't completely sure but he determined that this was the cause.
Prescribed muscle relaxant (which is used on humans) 1/4 pill 3times/day name-Methocarbanol 500ML. and pain reliever Non Steroidal medicine called Metacam.
Mainly he said the new human drugs target so many areas and are very complicated so they may harm dogs. He said that Metacam is like the pain drug of the 60's, less complicated, Advil and aspirin is not recommended for dogs, they may have liver failure or other organ complications using it.
The muscle relaxant relieves the spasms allowing the spine to heal, this is a must in the treatment.
Anyways, IMPORTANT-during the recovery do-not subject the dog to any strain like even walk in the park, just let them stay in their bed for at least 3-5 days while in treatment.
My dog felt back to normal in 2 days and I took her off drugs and started walking her and she went sick on me again, so next time I followed the protocol and she recovered fully in 5days.
The vet said, keep the medicine, because this may come back and go, you may need to medicate your dog again sometime.