# Biting at the air



## hblatchley (Mar 4, 2011)

My four year old Viszla has started biting at the air for no reason. He does this mostly at night and keeps us up from about 10pm-2am before calming down. He feels better under the covers. Vet thought it was allergies and we've tried Benadryl and Claritan that didn't work. He's been on Prednisone for three days and I've seen no improvement. Internet research is pointing towards seizures. Any insight would be appreciated.


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## Fox_Trot (Mar 15, 2010)

is he asleep when he does this ? I have no idea but it makes me sad for you.. best of luck to you two. :'(


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## hblatchley (Mar 4, 2011)

He does this when he is awake. He then tries to get under the covers or he tries to hide somewhere. When he falls asleep he seems to be okay.


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## jld640 (Sep 29, 2010)

Forgive a sort of a basic question, but are you sure there are no small 'floaties' in the air? Savannah will sometimes bite the air, but if I look very closely, she is actually biting pieces of her fur that she shed or little dust particles she sees in the sunlight. I am not sure, but she may do it more after a snow fall when she has been catching snowflakes. 

I think it would be even harder to see anything floating in the air late at night. Does he get indirect light that would allow him to see something kick-up if he shifted on his bedding?


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## hblatchley (Mar 4, 2011)

Good question about the floaties. Ollie has this behavior in the pitch black so it's very strange. It seems like he's hallucinating but don't know if he'd see that in the dark either.


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## Linescreamer (Sep 28, 2010)

I would contact Vizsla clubs and ask them. It would be interesting to see if you figure this out. I wish you well.


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

You should do a Google search on "Fly-bite Syndrome" or "Flycatcher's Syndrome." My last dog, a Vizsla mix, had this same behavior. Nobody really knows for sure what causes it. In my dog's case, I believe it was from an extreme fear of bees. She had been stung by bees on two different occasions when she was young, and I'm sorry to say she never really got over this fear. The "fly-biting" did lessen with time, but she was always terrified of bees in particular and flying insects in general. Maybe your dog's behavior stems from this kind of fear. Unfortunately, they don't forget. There are many theories about it, which you can read about just by Googling.


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## AmberH (Sep 19, 2020)

hblatchley said:


> My four year old Viszla has started biting at the air for no reason. He does this mostly at night and keeps us up from about 10pm-2am before calming down. He feels better under the covers. Vet thought it was allergies and we've tried Benadryl and Claritan that didn't work. He's been on Prednisone for three days and I've seen no improvement. Internet research is pointing towards seizures. Any insight would be appreciated.


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## AmberH (Sep 19, 2020)

Did you ever get an answer? I recently started having that with my vizsla.


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## Allisonandporter (Dec 14, 2021)

hblatchley said:


> My four year old Viszla has started biting at the air for no reason. He does this mostly at night and keeps us up from about 10pm-2am before calming down. He feels better under the covers. Vet thought it was allergies and we've tried Benadryl and Claritan that didn't work. He's been on Prednisone for three days and I've seen no improvement. Internet research is pointing towards seizures. Any insight would be appreciated.


My vizsla does this all the time! They call it mini seizures. It is when he is trying to calm down(usually at night) i think it comes from their high energy trying to get down to a low energy.


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## Allisonandporter (Dec 14, 2021)

AmberH said:


> Did you ever get an answer? I recently started having that with my vizsla.


Could be connected to GI issues. This article explains. Dogs Biting at Air Experiencing Seizures, Unless it is a Digestive Issue | Air Biting in Dogs | Fly Biting in Dogs | PetMD


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