Jittery and Paranoid?

Hey guys! Not sure if any of you remember me, its been a long time since I posted last.
I have a question about my cavie Frodo.
Lately, for about a month, he's been doing this really strange thing at random times. We will be sitting, doing nothing or just watching TV and he will jump up and run to another room in the house like he is scared to death. When we go find him he will just be sitting there. Then he will run to another room just as quickly. If we sit down and call him over he will run to us and sit right on us. The weird thing is he will sit there and look back and forth and over his shoulder like he is paranoid or scared or something.

My dad takes him for a walk every day and said he did this on the walk a couple weeks ago. He just started looking over his shoulder.

Does anyone know what this could be?? We are really baffled and the poor thing seems scared to death! Other than that he is perfectly healthy.

I would talk to your vet right away, and consider getting an appointment with a vet neurologist if the vet cannot find any other reason for him to be doing this.

There could be a range of reasons -- but if he is really looking scared, and with that kind of flipping around to look behind him, I'd be concerned this is due to some sort of pain, in particular, neurological pain. Be sure to print out the documents on syringomyelia at www.smcavalier.com for example and also the information there on PSOM, similar to glue ear in children, as it might cause this kind of behaviour too -- it could very much be due to his feeling sudden pain in his ears or head and being confused by this. Dr Clare Rusbridge noted at the recent conference in the UK on SM that flipping round to look behind is a very typical SM behaviour so you'd definitely want to have your vet aware of this condition if only to eliminate it is a possibility. It is really hard to hazard a guess as to cause though, but any time behaviour changes in a significant way it is wise to get in to your vet and get expert advice.

Lola did this continuosly one night about 6 weeks ago. We had the 3 dogs in the sitting room with us and all of a sudden Lola ran under the seat, then back out, up onto ciara's lap and then tried to get behind her etc, all the while looking petrified and glancing nervously around. I was worried because Eddia and Loki were fine and even they looked puzzleed at her behaviour! Then I noticed a bluebottle flying around and whenever it flew near Lola she was terrified and kept running away or trying to bury herself behind/under something! I couldn't believe it, she's a big chicken!

I went through this with Jake about a year ago. All of a sudden he would jump out of my lap and slink around the house with his tail tucked. Then he would burrow into my lap and just sit there panting. After the 2nd time he did it I took him to the vet to find out if there was a physical problem. There wasn't. So once we ruled out a medical condition we knew it was an emotional/behavioral issue. I worked on ignoring him when he acted up and then calming him afterwards. It did eventually stop. I did try rescue remedy when he first started up, not sure it really helped though. He went through it for about 3 weeks and then all of a sudden it just stopped. I learned that I was inadvertantly reinforcing his behavior by coddling and cooing with him when it first started.

The key here is......have a vet check first to see if there is a medical reason for the behavior.

Thank you so much guys!
I'm not sure if its comforting to know it is something with this breed or not...it breaks my heart that he is so afraid like that!

I will take him to the vet and see what she says.

Thanks again!!!