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Hello,
On tuesday my dog suddenly fell -- he was all right in the morning, went on a walk and ate plenty. He suddenly fell and didn't move at all. Me and my parents took him to a vet which ran full blood tests etc., so he excluded toxins and so on. What he said is that its most likely a pancreatis. Thing is that my dog never vomitted nor had any diarrhea -- actually the poo was really good.
He took some antibiotic and some other things -- mild painkiller etc., He felt better the next day and he started running a bit, he was conscious of what is happening to him. He still I believe had STOMACH PAIN - he couldn't find a good place to lie down, he constantly moved around and lied on his stomach and was crying. He slept maybe like 4-5 hours past 3 days despite some drugs to sleep the vet has prescribed.*
On thursday morning he was a bit better too, but worse than on Wednesday in my opinon - more crying, more lying on the stomach, less motivated, but he could walk and ate a bit -- of course after we were treating him for pancreatis we only gave him very small amount of cooked chicken and water. But, once he went to the veterianry again for his antibiotic and some extra injections, and he suddenly FELT VERY BAD. He was barely conscious, he was walking like mad literally, he was like on high. He was also feeling like this after injection on Tuesday (the first day when he fell to the ground). Maybe just weakened, maybe food - as we have given him some food today morning because we went to OTHER VET, which said that it's probably circulatory system, which actually makes sense as he doesn't vomit and his poop is OK. But starting today he really did fart terribly.
At the moment - thursday afternoon Europe time he looks very bad. He doesn't have any strength, but is conscious and knows whats going on - in opposite to yesterday, when he was probably on some high from the injections. But, he is powerless. He is just lying, he is barely even crying now in the afternoon in opposite to morning when he did cry a lot and moved a lot. He looks again like on Tuesday and I'm scared. We have a vist with a VET with 30 years experience in an hour, we will try and take him there despite it's so sad to carry a dog that barely moves.
I will also add that it feels like eating cooked chicken with zero fat he felt worse again. But on Wednesday after eating same chicken he didn't feel as bad. I feel that painkillers the vet gave him did worsen the state of thing. This was a different vet than at the first time. Maybe they misdosed or something or wrong drug. I don't know. I'm going to the experienced vet in one hour, gonna get a list of everything he took and we will try to rediagnose.
I also noticed, today and well before after the Tuesday "attack", that he is limping a bit with front paws, which is typical for heart attacks. I don't know what to do. I noticed that for last month or so he was limping a bit with his back paws - one in particular, and I felt like he is less "athletic" than before, but he ate plenty and he had plenty of energy. *He is a 13 years old dog, schnauzer mini.*
If you have any ideas what could happen, please tell me -- anything would be good, anything that I can propose to a doc so he can consider it and maybe start a treatmeant. I don't know what to do. I'm literally writing this with tears in my eyes and I'm sorry for inconsitent text and any mistakes. I'm not a native English speaker and I think time is of essence here.
If anyone can know anything, please suggest it.
It does not sound good, considering dog's advanced age - 13 years. But, then again, may be it has a couple of years left in him? Your vet should be able to tell you. Did they do X-ray (stomach pain)?
We lost our 2 twelve year old dogs since February. The first one, chocolate lab, who was sick for a long time with pancreatitis went in February.
The second one (Border Collie/Akita mix) and his buddy of 12 years lost his will to live after that. The tips of his ears became white overnight, he stopped eating, barking. We took him to the vet, did blood work in April - it was perfect. He ate only deer meat and was hiding in a dark corners.
It became hard for him to walk. In September, one day he could not stand up and was crying, then, became lethargic. We rushed him to the vet. His heart and lung sounds were good and we agreed for a full work up - blood work, x-rays. Liver and kidneys enzymes were elevated, red blood cells count was down, white blood cells up. And, there was a huge abdominal tumor, that was probably spread to the brain, per vet. Even if we did surgery, it could extend his life for two months, maximum. I could not bear a thought of him suffering any longer. So, he was put to sleep too.
Dogs hide their pain - mine did. If you hear them wining - they are really hurting.
Getting up and walking was harder and harder for them towards the end.
I think it is good that you are seeing multiple vets. This could be many things, but given your dog's advanced age - 13 years old is getting up there - I think cancer is also a strong possibility. The white blood cell count being up often indicates infection, but the infection could be opportunistic.
It may be very difficult for the vet to diagnose tumors or the like.Typically tumors are easily found by manipulation. The vet can find them by palpating and feeling for hard lumps with his fingers. Sometimes, though, the cancerous parts are small and widely distributed. You might not find them by using your sense of touch.
I would think at least one of the vets you have seen would think that an ultrasound would be the next appropriate step. They give you a better view of internal organs than x-rays. MRI would be even better, but they are hugely expensive, at least here in the US. I would have to pay over $10,000 for an MRI for my dog. Ultrasounds, in my area, are more like $3,000 - which is still expensive - but not quite so bad.
To be honest, what you describe does not sound good. I think it is entirely possible that your dog is in his last days, but I hope that you find otherwise, and that your dog recovers.
Firstly I just want to say I'm sorry for not providing any anwers. My dog did recover in 100% after this situation and we all went back to normal, but the situation from this week has been significantly worse. For the first time I was actually crying not only because of my dog, but also because of my own ignorance. We just assumed it was because of the fact he had a meal full of fat and that's why he recovered so quickly for the next 3 months. That wasn't the case and I should carefully examine him right away. His blood work was perfect though. He had an X-Ray done for the liver area and nothing was found. And he came back to being a cheerful dog once again. I think one of the biggest issues was giving him too many sedatives and painkillers. After he finally went to sleep in December last year, he has woken up full of energy and normal again. I never was more happier. But this time, this week this has gotten much worse.
Cutting to the chase:
I found him lying on the floor at 5pm and he couldn't move. It's his back paws that gave up. I tried teasing him etc – no reaction. It passed itself after an hour or so and when we went outside he was walking normally again.
After that, the very next day at 7:30 am he had his first seizure. Not a long one, but surely looked scary. From this point on he had 1 very short seizure and 4 scary seizures (one of them for like 2 minutes – I had to catch him because he was blindly running around and could smash his head at a wall; post seizure for a minute or two he was like blinded and he didn't even see where he is going – again I had to protect him from smashing his head at a wall). This was the strongest, 4th seizure – he received Luminal quickly after that at a dose of 25mg and he is on it from then. He then had one last seizure at night and no more later. So 5 seizures in 24 hours. Although, I do believe he had more after that but Luminal has prevented them from happening. I do think so because he had periods of being overly reactive and extremely hungry and thirsty to the point of lethargy later on – without seizures, but it looked exactly like he did behave after them.
Today, Friday – he does seem very tired. Could be because of medications. He drinks a lot, but doesn't eat as much as before. He wants to be around people and he is quite energetic first thing in the morning, but the later it is the more tired he is. He couldn't walk again today – I started pulling his back paws and they were like 'flaccid'. He didn't have this typical natural movement of pulling them back in as he had with his front paws. I do understand he may be tired, but temporary, sudden loss of feeling in the back paws to the point of not being able to stand up from a lying position to recovery and being able to walk in a matter of... an hour – I just cannot connect any dots at all. I will try going to different vets and discuss this matter, but what I have learnt so far that there is nobody I can actually rely on this matter. And we have to find a solution of these seizures as cluster seizures at older dogs are almost exclusively triggered by something.
What I'm the most interested at is what may be the cause of him suddenly losing feeling in his back paws and then regaining it quite quickly. What I'm looking at now is not seizures alone -- as they can really be caused by many reasons, but his inability to walk and then suddenly starting to walk again. His front paws are OK though, never noticed any problems with them, but back -- especially the left one, seems like he is losing feeling in it quite more often.
Also, I really can't feel like I can get much of vets. They blow me off. One clinic treated him for pancreatis and it was clear that they were doing anything to get more cash from desperate owners. The other just said it's okay -- it's mostly a back. Third said to check it for worms. I don't know, but I have learnt much more from the internet and you guys above have provided me with tons of more useful information than the vets in Poland. I do feel like despite everything, older people in Poland -- and vets are usually older, are of really 'village kind of mentality'. They assume that if the dog is old, then I shouldn't really pursue it anymore. I feel like they hardly have any love for dogs or animals in general. They are there just to do their job, like an 9-5 am office job. This is broken to be honest, but I hardly received any useful information from them. They don't really even want to discuss the matter more. I have a phone number to one of the vets that operated his left front paw when it was broken when he was 2 years old. I will set a meeting with him, but apart from that I will try and figure out the reason myself. So please, if you have anything more to add I will be very grateful. I feel ashamed that I ignored it back then and after he got back to normal I didn't do a thorough check up. 3 months is a long time and it was surely the best time ever to check his all his health markers. If anything happens, this is on me -- especially as I did receive a lot of useful information here.
Thank you and I'm sorry for not answering earlier.
Have you tried a larger hospital like ones with various specialists? I only took my dog to 2 vet clinics and I regretted a lot not taking him to a bigger place to see a specialist directly. They were not able to diagnose him and at the end it was already too late.
Continue trying to do your best for him but whatever happens please don't blame yourself, it sounds like you are doing a lot for him and dogs get old and sick, it's part of nature.
Could he have a pinched nerve or herniated disc in his lower back causing him to not have control of his back legs?
I had an ill dog last year and we went to the best vets possible and they still missed a tumor, we found it 4 months later when it got bigger. Don't blame yourself, diagnosing a pet is hard sometimes, you are doing your best.
Firstly I just want to say I'm sorry for not providing any anwers. My dog did recover in 100% after this situation and we all went back to normal, but the situation from this week has been significantly worse. For the first time I was actually crying not only because of my dog, but also because of my own ignorance. We just assumed it was because of the fact he had a meal full of fat and that's why he recovered so quickly for the next 3 months. That wasn't the case and I should carefully examine him right away. His blood work was perfect though. He had an X-Ray done for the liver area and nothing was found. And he came back to being a cheerful dog once again. I think one of the biggest issues was giving him too many sedatives and painkillers. After he finally went to sleep in December last year, he has woken up full of energy and normal again. I never was more happier. But this time, this week this has gotten much worse.
Cutting to the chase:
I found him lying on the floor at 5pm and he couldn't move. It's his back paws that gave up. I tried teasing him etc – no reaction. It passed itself after an hour or so and when we went outside he was walking normally again.
After that, the very next day at 7:30 am he had his first seizure. Not a long one, but surely looked scary. From this point on he had 1 very short seizure and 4 scary seizures (one of them for like 2 minutes – I had to catch him because he was blindly running around and could smash his head at a wall; post seizure for a minute or two he was like blinded and he didn't even see where he is going – again I had to protect him from smashing his head at a wall). This was the strongest, 4th seizure – he received Luminal quickly after that at a dose of 25mg and he is on it from then. He then had one last seizure at night and no more later. So 5 seizures in 24 hours. Although, I do believe he had more after that but Luminal has prevented them from happening. I do think so because he had periods of being overly reactive and extremely hungry and thirsty to the point of lethargy later on – without seizures, but it looked exactly like he did behave after them.
Today, Friday – he does seem very tired. Could be because of medications. He drinks a lot, but doesn't eat as much as before. He wants to be around people and he is quite energetic first thing in the morning, but the later it is the more tired he is. He couldn't walk again today – I started pulling his back paws and they were like 'flaccid'. He didn't have this typical natural movement of pulling them back in as he had with his front paws. I do understand he may be tired, but temporary, sudden loss of feeling in the back paws to the point of not being able to stand up from a lying position to recovery and being able to walk in a matter of... an hour – I just cannot connect any dots at all. I will try going to different vets and discuss this matter, but what I have learnt so far that there is nobody I can actually rely on this matter. And we have to find a solution of these seizures as cluster seizures at older dogs are almost exclusively triggered by something.
What I'm the most interested at is what may be the cause of him suddenly losing feeling in his back paws and then regaining it quite quickly. What I'm looking at now is not seizures alone -- as they can really be caused by many reasons, but his inability to walk and then suddenly starting to walk again. His front paws are OK though, never noticed any problems with them, but back -- especially the left one, seems like he is losing feeling in it quite more often.
Also, I really can't feel like I can get much of vets. They blow me off. One clinic treated him for pancreatis and it was clear that they were doing anything to get more cash from desperate owners. The other just said it's okay -- it's mostly a back. Third said to check it for worms. I don't know, but I have learnt much more from the internet and you guys above have provided me with tons of more useful information than the vets in Poland. I do feel like despite everything, older people in Poland -- and vets are usually older, are of really 'village kind of mentality'. They assume that if the dog is old, then I shouldn't really pursue it anymore. I feel like they hardly have any love for dogs or animals in general. They are there just to do their job, like an 9-5 am office job. This is broken to be honest, but I hardly received any useful information from them. They don't really even want to discuss the matter more. I have a phone number to one of the vets that operated his left front paw when it was broken when he was 2 years old. I will set a meeting with him, but apart from that I will try and figure out the reason myself. So please, if you have anything more to add I will be very grateful. I feel ashamed that I ignored it back then and after he got back to normal I didn't do a thorough check up. 3 months is a long time and it was surely the best time ever to check his all his health markers. If anything happens, this is on me -- especially as I did receive a lot of useful information here.
Thank you and I'm sorry for not answering earlier.
Many of these symptoms are very similar to what my beloved Pomeranian experienced. At 12.5 years we had to put her down 8 days ago.
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