Help with dog symptoms

In My Humble Opinion
1

Dog is Sweetie, a 51-lb mixed breed (found doggie) spayed female approx. 7-8 years of age. She is the Best Girl Dog in the whole world. (My other one is the Best Boy Dog.)

CUTTING TO THE CHASE: The situation I describe below has only been going on since yesterday morning (Sunday, April 28). I took her to the emergency vet yesterday, and they gave her a pain shot, said to bring her back in the morning for a sonogram. She had the sonogram of her belly area this morning, and it was completely normal. Her blood work is also normal, except for her hematocrit being a little elevated, which they said might mean she was slightly dehydrated. I took her back to her regular vet after the sonogram to discuss the results, and we can’t figure out what is going on.

THE STORY: She sleeps with me and I have a pretty high bed. Yesterday morning, when I woke up she was sleeping on the floor with my other dog (who has a doggie bed on the floor). This was unprecedented. I observed her for a while and she was just acting oddly and like she was in distress and discomfort. She was trembling and shaking all over and whining pitifully. No vomiting, in fact, no eating or drinking. Clearly something was going on inside of her (or outside of her) that was making her very anxious. In the past she has had problems with major constipation and needed enemas, so I decided to take her to the emergency vet. She couldn’t jump up in the car, which alarmed me, as she is quite a good jumper. The vet did a superficial examination, and he said she wasn’t constipated and probably her back was hurting.

Ten years ago, I had a dog with similar symptoms, and when I took her to the vet (a different one, since retired) *he said it was probably her back and sent her home with pain pills. *Turned out it was a hemangiosarcoma and she died from it. (I have a friend who lost two dogs to this quite serious condition that doesn’t have a lot in the way of symptoms.) That dog also manifested some anxiety and strange behavior, and that was my only tipoff that something was wrong. Alas, I didn’t followup aggressively and lost her.

So, not wanting to make the same mistake with Sweetie, I took to another emergency vet that has an imaging center. [She DID jump up in my bed last night and slept all through the night, but as soon as I got up, and she got down, she just lay down in the hallway and wouldn’t move. Also totally unusual behavior.] They did an ultrasound of her belly area this morning and all of her organs were completely normal, no tumors, no bleeding, etc. I was immensely relieved that we ruled out this one life-threatening condition, but then I took her back to the regular vet and we just sat there mystified, as she couldn’t find anything else going on. This vet said probably her back *was *hurting her, gave her a pain shot, and send me home with Tramadol and Methocarbamol to administer as needed.

I brought her home a little while ago, and she is still whining, unsettled, occasionally wandering from room to room whimpering or just staring into space. She did pee and poop in the yard. I tried to give her the Methocarbamol in my usual doggie-pill-taco of a piece of cheese wrapped around the pill enclosed in peanut butter and she spit it out on the floor. When I tried to give it to her again, she flat refused to even lick it. Then I tried a piece of ham, and she would not eat that. Finally I put the pill into a small pellet of butter and smeared it on the roof of her mouth and she was pretty much forced to eat it.

She is a very sensitive doggie and is prone to anxiety (like her owner :rolleyes: ), but this much anxiety, whining, whimpering, wandering, staring at the walls, etc., over unidentifiable stuff is disturbing. She’s doing it now… standing behind me whining and whimpering in the most DISTRESSING way, and I don’t have any idea what’s wrong or what to do.

Any comments, suggestions, web references, reassurance, etc. welcome. You can tell me bad stuff, too. Warn me that it’s coming… :frowning:

Update: the Methocarbamol seems to have kicked in and she’s lying on her side on the floor.

2

One of our dogs just completed a course of treatment for Lyme Disease (Borreliosis). Nonspecific pain was her only initial treatment. Vet ran some bloodwork, test was positive, doxycycline started, and very rapidly she improved. Any tick exposure?

3

Interesting… she has always lived in the country until we moved to the city in December. I never saw ticks on either of the dogs. But, oddly, I had the mobile dog groomer come about two weeks ago, and later that day, I saw something on Sweetie’s ear that looked like a ladybug. I pulled it off and I really couldn’t tell what it was. I appeared to be animal, as opposed to vegetable or mineral, but it gave no resistance when I pulled it off. It didn’t have a clear head/tail/top/bottom. I had never seen anything like this on her, and she is short-haired and mostly white, so stuff would generally be easy to see. I might call the vet and ask to test her for this. Appreciate the suggestion.

She’s still whining and wandering around the house. I don’t feel like I can give up on this just yet…

4

My first thought was gastric torsion but that would show up on the x-rays.

My friend who used to breed huskies is at work now but I’ll try to cal her when I know she is off work and see what she comes up with.

Are you sure there is no infection of any kind?
One of her old males was showing those symptoms and I thought it was bloat and it turned out to be a mild infection.

5

It’s possible that she hurt her back jumping off the bed. Are you sure maybe that she didn’t fall off it?

It’s good that she’s peeing & pooping but worrisome that she’s refusing food. Keep an eye on her eating & drinking. If she doesn’t drink for a day or so, she’ll need to go back and probably be admitted.

My advice would be to expand the imaging beyond her belly to include her spine & brain. And her chest, if they didn’t do that. There might be a tumor pressing on something somewhere else. But that’s just a guess.

6

I’m back at the specialist, and she’s having a chest x-ray as we speak. Also more blood work. Possibly an MRI tomorrow to look at her brain.

She’s jumping up on the bed again and into the back seat of my SUV, so apparently her back isn’t a big problem.

Thanks for the replies.

7

Just saw the thread. I’m glad she’s back to jumping, that’s a good sign. I had thought maybe Lyme Disease, too, when I was reading the OP. Whatever it is, I hope it gets figure out soon!

8

She had an x-ray and everything looked okay. They took some blood for further tests and tomorrow I’m bringing her in for liver enzymes and an mri of her brain and spine. They gave her a dose of a drug called gabapentinright before we left, and she yelped and whined all the way home, but now she’s stretched out on the floor completely relaxed. I wonder if I can get some of that shit for myself…

I spoke a little prematurely… from her reclining posture, she just let out a long squealing moan… God, I hope we can figure out what this is. I hope it’s not a brain tumor.

9

Sending good thoughts your way.

It’s possible that the moaning and squealing she’s doing now is from the pain medication. Last summer my little one was given some pain medication for suspected muscle sprain and she reacted very badly. It was like she was hallucinating. She whined and cried and yipped all night long and only settled down when the medication was wearing off.

10

She was moaning and whimpering for the entire 24 hours prior to the administration of the pain meds. She has mostly stopped and is asleep on my bed, thank goodness. However, now the other dog is awake because we’re having a thunderstorm and he’s a card-carrying Thunder Puppy.

11

I’m sorry your doggy is going through this, and stressing you out so much, too. There’s not much else to suggest, as you’ve given her extraordinary care so far and have done as much as you can do. My first inclination after reading what’s been done so far isn’t back pain, but neck pain. I’ve seen neck pain keep dogs from eating and drinking - raised bowls are suggested, and they sort of just find a comfortable position whether it’s sitting or laying down at any particular moment - and stay as still as possible. It sometimes looks like staring into space.

If you normally have her on a neck lead with a collar, perhaps try a harness if you have one, or use a makeshift one by making a slip lead out of her leash, put that around her neck, and then put one front leg through it so it goes behind one elbow and doesn’t put pressure on her neck.

Keep up with the pain meds and muscle relaxers, even if it seems like she doesn’t need them. Check for lyme disesase, and if you go ahead with the MRI, sounds like a place that has a neurologist? That sounds like the specialist you might need.

She’s ridiculously cute, btw.

12

Hehe. She is cute.

The specialty clinic does have a neurologist on board.

My new thread “did my cat turn on the gas stove?” supports the theory of the house being haunted and that being the cause of her anxious whimpering.

I appreciate the results muchly.

13

Question: how would the vet have determined if she had a muscle or tendon injury? Some kind of muscle testing, looking for soreness, tenderness, etc.?

14

Start keeping a written journal if you haven’t already. Note when you administer any medications, her symptoms/any unusual behavior, tests done, etc. Hopefully she will be better soon, but if not, the data may help with a diagnosis, especially since you are seeing different vets, but even one vet has many patients and can easily lose track of exactly what is going on with your dog. Keep it brief and readable, so a vet can quickly scan it.
I didn’t see any mention of fever, a frequent Lyme symptom. Has her temperature been normal?

15

Temperature normal throughout. So is blood pressure.

16

Any environmental changes? New things/people in the house? Construction crew started using a piledriver next door?

17

Neighbors using fertilizer? Plants she might have eaten? Do her eating habits differ from Boy Dog? (in general I mean. Not just now that she’s sick.)

18

Nothing like that. I moved, but it was mid-December. It’s a very quiet neighborhood. This all started suddenly Sunday morning, and after a sonogram, x-rays, vitals, and blood work over a 36-hour period, the doc and I have concluded that she must have injured herself jumping on or off the bed or some other way.

The pain med they gave her yesterday, gabapentin, stopped all of the worrisome symptoms/behavior, i.e., whining, yelping, wandering from room to room, staring into space, refusing to come when I called. The fact that the pain med stopped the symptoms leads us to conclude that she was in pain, although something not seen on a sonogram, x-ray, or in blood work. So I’m getting a prescription for the gabapentin and she’ll be on it for a few days. This morning she whined a little and also when I got home just now, but a little bit of “vocalizing” is normal from her. What was going on from Sunday morning through yesterday evening was not normal: whining, yelping, moaning, and earlier, shaking all over to where you could see her shaking from across the room.

The mystery may never be completely solved. Thanks for the interest. :slight_smile:

19

Ask the vet if he/she checked the blood panel for Addison’s Disease. Sounds like your dog is a probable candidate. Our dog showed the same symptoms that you describe and was diagnosed as such.

Good Luck and Good Health in the Future!

20

I emailed the vet with your question. Thanks.