really worried one of my dogs is sick

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Finlib

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Any thoughts anyone
My 9 month old dog was full of beans on friday ate super bouncing around with our other pup who is 4 months old.
On saturday morning was subdued lacking appetite depressed standing with an arched back temperature 104.5 rang vet took him in .
Vet agreed fever and felt an infection but found no direct cause heart and chest fine could find a little discomfort but nothing specific given metacam and anti biotics.
Sunday no better temerature still very high very lethagic no appetite ec rang vet and went back in. Another check over and abdominal scan done still high temperature though nothing specific found more metacam carry on with anti biotics.
Monday still no appetite but temperature down. Tuesday showing muscle pain in back end and back squeaking when jumping onto his bed seems unable to get comfortable.
Back to the vet first thing agreed lethagy and abdominal /muscle pain .
Left at the vets with urine sample doing bloods x rays and I have said do full checks.
Really worried up to now fit healthy bouncing around like 'tigger' from Winnie the Pooh What could it be? a little sick on tuesday morning after anti biotic no diarrhea apart from hurting his front leg digging in July he has always been a bouncy happy healthy dog
Just waiting and worrying.
 
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ditto ek....I would suspect abdominal blockage somewhere, if they cant find it on xrays then give them consent to go in and find it. Hope hes better soon x
 
Sounds very much like my friends Springer, the symptoms sound the same, turns out he had eaten a towel which was wrapped around his bowel. He had an op. and returned to his normal self until he ate his bed filling and had to have another op. He has made a full recovery from that and he is very carefully watched now.:eek:
 
With fever that high and arched back stance if they don't find anything in abdomen then make sure your vet does thorough check for spinal and joint pain - your dog is the right kind of age and fever that high to suggest things like an immune mediated polyarthritis or steroid responsive meningitis as possible causes.

Ask for referral if necessary to somewhere they can do full work-up with join/spinal fluid sampling.

Let us know how he gets on...
 
I was going to post, then decided not and after what karen_c says changed my mind again...your vet is the best person to listen to:)
My Setter got menigitis as a 2 yo and was a ticking clock (bloody useless vet!!!) got referred. In your case, my 1st thought is this ISNT meningitis - mainly she wasnt in pain as such, she just didnt move, eat, drink and was basically dead with a heartbeat had a HUGE temperature. One test, stand her up and move her head side to side, if it is uncomfortable/painful, that could be a sign. Also stand her up and lift her paws up - like you would pick a horses foot up - if she puts it back down normally - GOOD, if she puts it down but doesnt stand on it - ie it flops - again another sign. 1st off id get a scan/Xray to see if there is any blockage as she has pain here. If vet cant find whats wrong get her referred immediately. My useless vet at the time didnt and Twig ended up with about 12hours to live - pleased to say she's 6 now and back to being bonkers but it took 4 years to get her there:(
 
Over the weekend/early this week my beagle Bella was very similar to this. Her head was down near the floor but she refused to move it, arched back, walking very very slowly, if at all, and not eating or drinking or going to the bathroom. No temperature though and she kept crying/screaming out in pain quite randomly although I could not get her to do it if I touched her anywhere. Our vet suspected/wanted to rule out a few things: 1) Lyme Disease (very bad ticks here right now) but we treat well for it and they are also vaccinated against it so that wasn't very likely; 2) Ruptured disc (beagles are prone); 3) Steroid Responsive Meningitis (aka Beagle Pain Syndrome :rolleyes: although plenty of other breeds are prone too); or 4) a trapped nerve in her neck. After a very thorough exam, the vet took blood and gave me muscle relaxants for her to start straight away. The Lyme test came back negative there in the office and they sent the rest of her blood out to be tested extensively. The muscle relaxants helped a little - she stopped crying out so much and slept a lot. When the tests (white blood cell count, liver, etc.) came back normal except for slight dehydration she was started on Prednisone and the diagnosis was a probable trapped nerve and treating the inflammation would do the trick. That was yesterday morning. Yesterday evening she took herself down into the garden (impossible the day before), went to the toilet and came in and ate a full meal. Today she tried to get out the door to come on a walk with our other dogs and did a little jig for her breakfast. I still worry it is meningitis, although take heart in that it is rare, because it is early days yet and there is a reason it's called steroid responsive meningitis but for now it looks promising. If she takes a turn for the worse once she's weaned off the steroids next week then they will look more closely at her for the meningitis again (spinal tap and x-ray to rule out the disc issue) and I believe long-term steroids would be the answer then. If the x-rays and tests don't show anything on your boy, I would definitely ask your vet about the possibility of the same kinds of things they looked for in Bella.

Keep your chin up xx
 
My GSD Buffy had a couple of attacks of immune mediated polyarthritis, a lot of very similar symptoms to those you describe. She was older though, 5 years, when it first happened. If the vets can't find what is causing the problem with their tests today might be worth asking them to test for this.
Galupy, sorry to hear Bella isn't well, hope she is soon back to normal.
 
MurphysMinder said:
My GSD Buffy had a couple of attacks of immune mediated polyarthritis, a lot of very similar symptoms to those you describe. She was older though, 5 years, when it first happened. If the vets can't find what is causing the problem with their tests today might be worth asking them to test for this.
Galupy, sorry to hear Bella isn't well, hope she is soon back to normal.
Click to expand...

Thanks MM. I didn't want to hijack OP's post but it sounded very similar so I wanted to mention it. I will also ask about immune mediated polyarthritis for Bella too if she does have a back slide once she gets off the steroids, especially as I just read beagles are prone to that too.
 
Best of luck getting your pup better again, it is awful seeing them miserable. All good suggestions above, one of my dogs at work went down like this a few weeks ago and it tutned out to be a disc problem. Vet originally suspected a blockage as they can present similarly, poor Tara would not eat/ walk/ toilet, had a high temp and generally looked incredibly depressed,
 
got back from the vet at 6:30pm
Blood test urine test all revealed nothing kidney and liver function normal white blood cell count normal xrays of spine neck hips abdomen all normal. No evidence of any blockage he passed normal faeces while there.
They spoke to a referral hospital and consulted with their specialist they advised treatment with metacam and anti biotics for 5 days .
More bloods and urine taken for further tests .Temperature now staying normal .
I am to take temperature am and pm and report in every day any change for thew worse and he will be immediately refered for specialists tests.
They are thinking a virus
He seems much better and more relaxed sleeping peacefully.
Will offer small amount of chicken and rice later.
Will take each day at a time.
Thanks everyone at least I knew what questions to ask with your help.
 
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