I have had VERY similar incidents with my female pug. She’s also older - 13 - and over the summer there were 2-3 incidents where she’s acted EXACTLY like you describe. Usually at night, and I do the same things you do - take her outside, give her a drink of water, give her food, etc etc. Nothing helped. I even tried the Benedryl thing, and I think it calmed her a little but didn’t bring her back to her normal self.
Each time, by morning, she’d be fine.
I mentioned it to my vet the next time she was in for an unrelated thing. His only suggestion was that it might be colic; he said that he’s seen dogs act similarly when their belly is hurting them. He said if it keeps happening to let them know, but he wouldn’t worry too much about it.
For what it’s worth, she’s up to date with bloodwork and such (she’s had enough health issues that I get base bloodwork done once or twice a year) and she seems to be in the vet every month or two for ear infections or anal gland issues or heartworm or any one of a myriad of other things that old dogs go through. So I’m sure part of the “don’t worry” was knowing that overall she’s been pretty healthy. If you haven’t had blood work done, maybe now’s the time? Or any other tests/thingies the vet might think would be useful.
Also - it hasn’t happened again for the past couple of months. So maybe it was just a bellyache?
ThelmaLou try the Thundershirt. It worked for my mom’s anxious dog for some things. The dog even seems to like it.
Also, ask about Benadryl for emergencies, but, since Sweetie has a history of doing this, if they can’t find a physical cause, ask for a doggie tranquilizer you can keep in the house. (Benadryl only if you don’t have anything else, in other words.) My mom’s dog actually takes Xanax for 4th of July. :eek:
My first guess is that it may be a physical issue (hip or leg pain), so be sure to discuss that specifically with the vet.
My mom’s dog ended up doing what Sweetie is doing for weeks recently. She lost 25% of her body weight. She wouldn’t go into one part of the house at all. It turns out a new house had gone in straight behind the fence on that side. The new owner works from home and is using some sort of broadcasting equipment. The dog could hear it and it rocked her world. She also takes a daily anti-anxiety med too now (not a tranquilizer) and seems much calmer. Some dogs are just very environmentally sensitive.
Oh no, not since 2012.
My now ex-husband and I got two kitten brothers in 2007 and now that he’s gotten his own place I took the cats to live w/ him this past January. All three dudes are very happy together!
Not to worry you unduly, but this could also be dementia. Your dog is perhaps a little young for this. Any other possible signs like “getting lost” in the house, accidents because she couldn’t find her way out?
My older dog Buddy does have dementia. He gets lost in corners and stuff like that.
Sweetie spent all day at the vet, as they were very busy and squeezed her in. I talked to the vet several times on the phone so didn’t get comprehensive and conclusive details. Doc says she has disc problems in her lower back, and probably a pinched nerve (is that a real thing? I’ve always thought that was something like the mythical “toxins” that plague us).
At the office they gave Sweetie an Adequan shot (glucosamine, which Buddy also gets regularly), and something called a “cold laser”* treatment (shades of James Bond).
When I got her home, she was just exactly as agitated as she was last night, jumping up on me, whining, panting, squealing. The vet closes at 6 and I called at 5:55 and they said bring her back in. She got a steroid shot and they sent me home with Torbutrol, a powerful sedative and pain reliever. Just four doses, one per day, enough to get us through the weekend.
FINALLY she is asleep in her doggy bed. I plan to sleep in my people bed very shortly.
They did take blood, and the doc is waiting on a consult from a radiologist on the x-rays. When shit happens on Friday afternoon, it takes a while to get answers. Better than happening on the usual Saturday night-- that’s when most of my animals (and people) have their emergencies.
The vet wants her to lose weight to take some of the strain off her back. She had in mind Hill’s Metabolic Diet (dry food). I have had some bad experiences with Hill’s cat food and won’t use any of their products. I prefer the Royal Canin brand if it has to be a prescription diet. Any thoughts on specific weight loss food for dogs?
Didn’t see your post until now. My first thought, reading your first posts, was that she was sick. Hip pain can certainly, IME, cause this kind of twitchy bouncy behavior. Whether she’s looking to you as pack leader to fix this thing or something else, I dunno. When my Weim had bad hips, generic Rimadyl, glucosamine/chondrotin (sp?), and lots of water work seemed to help things. A therapy foam dog bed helped too. Something firm, but giving—heated seems to please too—worked wonders for the Weim. Gave us, I estimate, about four more years with her.
Just some things to try. I don’t think the dog is keying off your stress from the election (but if you’re very stressed, the dog might). If you are that stressed, I’d be happy to talk with you about it; I don’t think this is quite the apocalypse that many at the SDMB and elsewhere seem to think it is, but reasonable minds may differ.
Best wishes.
EDIT: Didn’t see your last post. While they make weight loss diets, the best way to do it, IME is portion control. If your dog is a free-feeder, this will come with some stress. Weight loss will help matters. Going from 90 to 82 lbs—she was big for a Weim—helped out a lot. Probably will for your pooch too.
For weight loss, instead of changing her food, could you instead feed her less? If she needs extra bulk, lots of dogs like canned pumpkin, easy to find in stores this time of year.
Just flashing back to my mom’s horrible hound that would bark and snap at people, and my mom’s response was to pick her up and cuddle her, saying, “Its alright sweetheart”. So that is what it did, always. It was trained to do so. Mom never could understand that.
Miserable dog was a constant nuisance till the day it thankfully died.
Her “new” dog is at least friendly, and just pesters the shit out of you for attention. :rolleyes: Mom encourages that shit, also.
At the office they gave Sweetie an Adequan shot (glucosamine, which Buddy also gets regularly), and something called a “cold laser”* treatment (shades of James Bond).
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A vet could speak to this better, but neither of these treatments sounds appropriate for acute pain in a dog. Cold laser therapy has a questionable reputation, whether in dogs or humans.
“The research into cold laser in dogs and cats is sparse and generally low quality. Most studies are small and have minimal or uncertain controls for bias and error. Some show promising results, others do not. At this stage, as I concluded in my initial discussion of this topic, there is enough evidence to warrant further study but not enough to support routine clinical use of cold laser. If vets want to try this therapy, they have an obligation to be clear with client that the risks and benefits have not been established and that the treatment is essentially experimental. There is nothing wrong with using such a treatment given appropriate informed consent, but the aggressive marketing of laser equipment to vets as a profitable treatment is ethically questionable given the lack of good evidence that it is a truly safe and effective treatment for any condition.”
Even good veterinary practices can fall short when it comes to promoting woo. I recently got sent home with a pain reliever (for my Lab with terminal lymphoma), that I found out was marketed as a “homeopathic” herbal mixture (I put quotes around homeopathic because while it was dilute, the mix was not virtually pure water like typical homeopathic products). It was (unsurprisingly) ineffective, and we were able to get a decent pharmacologic pain med for her.
In veterinary medicine as well as in human medicine, it’s difficult to know exactly the right thing to do every single time. When the patient can’t talk, it’s even harder. One can find many pro and con articles on the infini-net. I don’t know if this treatment is right for Sweetie, but Buddy has been getting acupuncture treatments monthly for a year, and I see a huge difference (for the better) in his mobility that day and for a few days after.
I don’t know if this will help Sweetie, but right now I have faith in this doctor. I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool skeptic but I do know that some things work even though we can’t produce empirical evidence and clinical trials to show that or why they do or even should. When strict clinical evidence is lacking, I’m willing to go with the doc’s anecdotal experience in something like this. This doc is pretty conservative when it comes to drugs. She has only 10 years of experience, but her partner has 30, so between the two of them, they’ve seen a lot of dogs. (I take my cats to a feline specialist.)
ThelmaLou, I’m sorry I’m late to post here and I hope by now everything is ok. We have a Shih tzu , he’s about 6 years old, usually a very mellow little guy, but every once in awhile he seems to get so scared or anxious for no reason we can tell so I’ve seen this behavior. Usually, he will relax after I hold him and soothe him. I hope your pup is well, it’s hard when we think they are scared or hurt.
I wish I could say the sitch is better, but it’s not, not consistently better anyway. She’s okay for a while and then (like right now) she’s whining, jumping up on me, crawling into corners, panting. I think it’s pain, not anxiety. I gave her the pain med last night about 8:30 and she settled down for a while, but eventually (about 1:00 am) I had to put all the animals out of the bedroom so I could get some sleep.
…Okay… she just went and lay down in the living room. Maybe we’ll have some moments of peace…
I’m concerned that something serious might be going on. Either that, or you may have an upcoming earthquake - not kidding about that. Maybe more tests need to be run?