(I can’t take credit for that witty headline. My brilliant cousin said it ages ago about her two boys.)
We had a rough night.
Lucas’s foot – where the dewclaw was removed – seems to be healing fairly well after his ripping-the-stitches-out incident. They couldn’t restitch it, so instead we have this wound care system that we do at home for 10 minutes twice a day, and he goes in for checkups with the vet.
Our big concern was infection since a piece of bone was removed. Getting an infection in his bone is NOT something I wanted, obviously.
Well, yesterday he started limping. But my parents had been here for a week with their dog Otto, who is one of Lukey’s besties, and the five dogs ran like crazy. So I thought maybe he was just sore. It happens. He has bad hips and joints.
After dinner, he started pacing. He couldn’t settle. He was drooling.
Our first thought was bloat, but his stomach was normal.
We tried taking him out to see if he just needed to “go” and we tried getting him to settle with us on the floor. No dice.
He paced and drooled for five hours straight. At that five-hour mark, it was time to change his bandage, but he refused to sit or lie down, and he was shaking so badly from the exhaustion of pacing and drooling for five hours. We opted not to re-bandage his foot and just taped a sock on.
Afterwards, we lured him to a blanket with some cheese. John sat with him for a long while. He finally put his head down, so we went to bed. He started pacing again around 2 in the morning and kept at it until about 3:30 before going back to bed.
As for this morning… he still hasn’t gotten up for the day after all that exertion.
I don’t know what caused it. I have no idea what happened. But for those of you with fearful dogs, you’ll understand: It was a harrowing glimpse at the “old” Lucas, the Lucas from seven years ago who panicked over plastic bags.
His eyes were dilated. His tail was tucked. His ears were pasted to the sides of his head, and he was frantically looking around the room as he paced, panted, and drooled. He couldn’t/wouldn’t respond to simple requests like sit.
I’m at a loss. I was afraid of infection from his foot, soreness from his joints, a stomach issue, something else entirely… and I have no indication one way or the other.
He goes to the vet Monday morning, but if he gets up this morning and doesn’t seem even a smidge better, I’m going to call over there.
Always something…
Here’s hoping you have a very happy Friday and a lovely weekend!
Mom Kim here- Shiloh has problems with his spine/disks and that is what he does when it flares;’ you especially caught my attention when you mentioned “tail tucked” -since my Shiloh is a Beagle and I love seeing that white-tipped tail waving in the air that Beagles are noted for (their “flag”) when I see it so tucked that I doubt I could pull it out from between his legs (not that I would) then I know what is wrong. Shiloh has Degenerative Disk Disease and the tail tucked is a tell-tail (pardon the pun) sign. Usually a vet visit is in order for anti-inflammatory and pain meds. There is also a condition called “frozen” or limp tail – not sure how this is related. But also not being able to settle, not able to relax and the pacing are also signs of some kind of disk or back problems – you mite also google back problems of dogs and degenerative disk disease.
Hope this helps and hope Lucas feels better.
Our Hobie (14) has a herniated disk in his back and the night it was discovered, he “paced” like that for 5 hours as well. I brought him to the 24-hour vet at about 6 am after being up with him all night. He was literally unable to lie down, he would try and he’d get into a crouching position and then just say “nope!” and stand back up and pace and pace. It’s heartbreaking to watch. He’s deteriorating more now. He lives in what I call the five-foot world — living room, kitchen, bedroom, deck. He uses the deck as his bathroom. I have to carry him down the stairs to go outdoors. I bought a ramp yesterday. He was always a fearful dog as well. Hope sharing our experience helps with Lucas in some way. He is so adorable, by the way. Good luck, hope he feels better soon!
P.S. Hobie was on steroids at first, and they helped a lot. Now he is on big-time pain meds (Tramadol).
Sounds somewhat familiar. In our case, our dog Mango started to drool and walk in a daze after having been given human product Liquid Glucosamine (http://www.jamiesonvitamins.com/2725) from Jamieson. Well apparently, it had a sugar substitute ingredient called Maltitol. The bottle was NOT marked sugar free. Claims are often made that maltitol has little impact on blood sugar, but from our experience it turned out not to be totally true, causing a drop to blood sugar resulting in loss of coordination & depression. The effect lasted several days and Mango drooled & wandered around zombie like. It was very scary stuff and we did go to the vet. We learned a big lesson from this. The vet didn’t think it was life threatening, but we did. NEVER to trust ANY chemical synthetics. Maybe Lucas got into something somewhat sugar free? (also: http://www.justanswer.com/dog-health/5k81h-maltitol-harmful-dogs.html)
Sounds like he ate something in the backyard and may have gotten a bellyache…I hope he feels better.
You guys must be exhausted, what a horrible night! I don’t have any suggestions about what might have caused his discomfort all night, but I hope Lucas is feeling better today. I’m sure not being able to clean his surgery area just added stress to the whole situation, the possibility of a bone infection was what our vet warned us about with Diggs. Hopefully the vet will have some answers for you though, either today or Monday? Keep us posted, we’ll be thinking of you all.
Poor Lucas and of course Maggie an john. I’m a bit of a panic freak with the pets. Sandy hurt his back chasing one of our neighbours (6) cats out of our yard one day. He could barely stand, I loaded him into the back of my jeep and rushed him to the vet, bawling the whole way thinking this is the end, we can’t have a big dog that can’t stand. D isn’t going to let me spend hundreds of dollars on him at his age ( that’s the panic and freak out) I got him to the vet but he couldn’t stand up again an I couldn’t help him up he was in too much pain. It was the one time he snapped at me, the vets came out, examined him in the back of my jeep, did a quick blood test, I think they gave him something for pain right there and sent me home with some more meds to give him as soon as the blood results were in and looked good. The pain pills worked miracles, which we had to watch, he could injure himself because he couldn’t feel pain. I had to help him on and off our deck to go to the bathroom and had to keep him mellow for a few weeks, not really an issue cause he was 13. He made a full recovery, but he was not allowed to chase the neighbours damn cats anymore. Hope Lukey feels better today and you guys have a relaxing weekend.
Oh Maggie, ugh. You all must be exhausted. Poor Lucas. And well I know that pacing, panting, something’s freaking me out but I can’t tell you what routine. 🙁
If there is any chance it was just something that spooked him (we see this still with Bella), do you have a relaxation protocol? A thundershirt, a special safe space, something that you use when he spooks?
For us, Bella tends to have these freak-out sessions still in the master bedroom at night before we turn the lights out. (This much I have figured out – WHY still leaves me baffled.) Anyway, when she has these little freak out sessions, I take her to her safe space – either in the basement or, more recently, my office. If she still won’t settle there, I know it’s not just something spooked her.
I’m just wondering if that could help you can identify whether it’s physical or psychological?
Here’s hoping he’s feeling better already (and that you were able to finally get some sleep.) Hang in there.
You describe perfectly exactly what Delilah went through. She had this happen about four times before the Holistic Vet said this is a dog in pain. We put her on a supplemental regimen, adjusted her exercise routine and helped her lose weight and it all helped.
The first time it happened we rushed her to the vet who said she had bad hips (not our vet, we were on vacation) Our vet said she thought it was her back, but the x-rays showed nothing.
Holistic vet seemed to think it was a pinched nerve that was irritated (we never figured out what set it off) and she was too heavy.
I feel for you, I sure hope Lucas is feeling better and you can figure out what is making him so uncomfortable.
Happy, healing thoughts and prayers for you all.
Oh I am so sorry; what a scary night. Our puppies had their dewclaws removed when they had their spay/neuter surgery and I was thinking that it’s a routine surgery. Maybe it is, but this post is such a great reminder that it is surgery and it should be taken seriously, because we never know what can happen. Thank you so much for that reminder and I will be thinking of you all. I hope as I’m typing this that Lucas is doing well.