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Mystery Ailment. Any Suggestions Please?


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Miniature Pinscher dog, 4years and 5 months. In the 4 years and 3 months I've had him, he's been the typical Min Pin. Hyper, allways on the go, known as Motor Mouth to his friends. Last Monday he was a bit quiet, Tuesday really down. Appeared 'tied up' moving, back a bit hunched. Just wanted to sit on my knee or in my bed. Eating, drinking, pooping, weeing all fine. Assuming it could be muscular, he has a problem front elbow, I took him to the Vet/Chiro, she found a couple of tight spots but not enough to explain his behaviour. No improvement so took him to the Vet Clinic on Friday. He had everything checked and all possible bloods done - not a thing showed up. The Vet consulted with other Vets there, ran some bloods through again, everything perfect, liver, kidneys, cell counts, electrolytes, they're the only ones I remember but all were good. Vet is totally puzzled and has given me her afterhours number if there's any change. He's still eating well, drinking normally, weeing and pooping (poop is good, smells ok (ok so I'm desperate). Goes out in the morning, wanders around for a short time then wants to go back to bed and stays there all day.

Any thoughts???

Edited by pebbles
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Woops forgot to mention that I always have Metacam on hand for his elbow problem as this can get quite sore. I generally just have to give him this twice a day for about 2/3 days and the elbow is OK (it's not his elbow this time but thought the pain relief may help) so I gave him that on Wednesday and Thursday and made no difference. Two Vets prodded his tummy (and everywhere else) and there was no reaction anywhere. Temp was also normal. Damn he's got me worried :laugh: He's still sleeping in my bed. Vet. also does herbal treatments and suggested that maybe try those but as she said 'don't know what to treat him for'.

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Miniature Pinscher dog, 4years and 5 months. In the 4 years and 3 months I've had him, he's been the typical Min Pin. Hyper, allways on the go, known as Motor Mouth to his friends. Last Monday he was a bit quiet, Tuesday really down. Appeared 'tied up' moving, back a bit hunched. Just wanted to sit on my knee or in my bed. Eating, drinking, pooping, weeing all fine. Assuming it could be muscular, he has a problem front elbow, I took him to the Vet/Chiro, she found a couple of tight spots but not enough to explain his behaviour. No improvement so took him to the Vet Clinic on Friday. He had everything checked and all possible bloods done - not a thing showed up. The Vet consulted with other Vets there, ran some bloods through again, everything perfect, liver, kidneys, cell counts, electrolytes, they're the only ones I remember but all were good. Vet is totally puzzled and has given me her afterhours number if there's any change. He's still eating well, drinking normally, weeing and pooping (poop is good, smells ok (ok so I'm desperate). Goes out in the morning, wanders around for a short time then wants to go back to bed and stays there all day.

Any thoughts???

Years ago my Papillon boy use to go through some days where he was overly clingly, seemed depressed and moved abit hunched also seemed to have occasional incontenence, wasn't till he was about 7 that I found out he had a hole in his heart and I'm guessing that this had something to do with his previous behaviour. These days he is so much better, doesn't seem to have the bad days and for an almost 14 year old is full of beans. He was on heart medication for a short time but it was stopped as he was becoming afraid of me but I also changed his diet to RMB and gave him suplements as well and he continues to do really well on the new diet(6+ years).

Vet had told me he would be on heart meds for life or he would be dead within a year, but then I had also got some wrong prognosis from other vets before too regarding his heart which was completly opposite in terms of what was going on with his heart. One said his heart ran slow, which was after I commented on how fast I thought his heart was beating, the other said the heart was beating fast, working overtime to compensate for the hole(also put him on an ECG). :rolleyes:

Hope you find the answer for your little dog and can find a solution. Just a thought have you tried a Chiropractor, my Aussie girl occassionally has her back go out and suddenly doesn't want to do anything (she does Agility), a trip to the Chiro puts her right pretty quickly.

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Thanks for your post, Ozjen. My first call was to the Chiro. as I thought it was just muscular but that was mainly ok. It's nearly a week now since he first showed any signs and he's just the same, eating Ok, elimating Ok. just doesn't want to do anything except sleep. Going to phone the Vet tomorrow as I'm getting an awful suspicion that we may be looking at something dreadful. I had a Gordon Setter that I lost to cancer about 18 years ago and the more I think about it, the more these symptoms seem too much the same.

Edited by pebbles
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Pebbles - did anyone flex his neck? What about spinal pain? I've seen many dogs go quiet and behave like that who have hurt their necks or spine. Sometimes you don't always see anything on xrays either, but it can be worth it in case.

If he had abdominal pain you would think it unlikely he'd want to eat, which makes me think its more in the spine somewhere.

Hope you get some answers soon!

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Stormie, thanks - the Chiro. went over every inch and only found a sore spot in one back leg and the Vet also went over him and flexed his neck every which way - (thought she was going to twist it off,) and no reaction. The Vet was very thorough and even got another Vet to see if they had an answer. First time I've had a dog to a Vet. and no diagnoses!

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a couple of years back I took my GSD to the vet because she had stopped eating with enthusism and did appear to be herself. no outward signs of anything wrong. The vet felt her over and touched a spot somewhere near her diagphram(sp) and she nearly tok her head off. The vet gave her acupuncture and when I asked when to expect her to be well she said Tonight. Took her home, gave her her food and she was back to her normal self. Vet suspected she had somhow "twisted or hurt" her diagphram and the accupuncture fixed it.

One of my pugs came down sick and she would hunch and have a high temp. Never could figure that out but seemed to resolve itself after about 2 months.

Older GSD kept coming down sick. Eat, poop everything else normal except for temp slightly high. Ended up she had pneumonia and her lung collapsed. Took 3 months before the answer to that was found and only because he lung collapsed and she had a very blue tinge. The vet's could never figure out how she got it, but I traced the start of her illness back to her yearly vacc booster. After we stopped having vaccinations the dog never got sick again.

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During last night Mick started throwing up bile, this am he just didn't want to move so off to the Vet again. More bloods done, CPL test done, prodded and squeezed all over, no reaction and all tests perfect, no temp. On duty Vet. consulted with the head man who also couldn't add anything. I have a mild anti-bio to give him for 5 days in case something is brewing and trying steamed chicken and rice meals. He ate tea with his usual good appetite and is sleeping on the couch, still not wanting to move much. So we will have to wait and see. Next will be X-rays but as the Vets said, 'what are they looking for?' Three 300k round trips in 6 days and, of course, today's a public holiday so another Big dent in the finances - dogs - who'd 'ave 'em? lol.

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During last night Mick started throwing up bile, this am he just didn't want to move so off to the Vet again. More bloods done, CPL test done, prodded and squeezed all over, no reaction and all tests perfect, no temp. On duty Vet. consulted with the head man who also couldn't add anything. I have a mild anti-bio to give him for 5 days in case something is brewing and trying steamed chicken and rice meals. He ate tea with his usual good appetite and is sleeping on the couch, still not wanting to move much. So we will have to wait and see. Next will be X-rays but as the Vets said, 'what are they looking for?' Three 300k round trips in 6 days and, of course, today's a public holiday so another Big dent in the finances - dogs - who'd 'ave 'em? lol.

Geez Pebbles you must be so stressed out not knowing what is going on with your little one, I hope you find out soon what the problem is and that it turns out to be something which is easily fixed. Your little dog is so lucky to have an owner who cares so much.

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Still having big problems with Mick. Going back a step or two, he was having Metacam daily on Vet instructions from the first visit. When he had the throwing up episode I stopped it. Then on the Vet. visit last Monday I forgot to say that along with the anti-bios she also gave him a shot of Metacam and told me to start it again. He had a dose on Tuesday am and about 2pm he had a quick seizure then another one a bit longer about 6pm. Phoned the Vet. who didn't have any suggestions (getting a bit fed up!). I stopped the Metacam and he hasn't had any since. Now the worry is that he hasn't had a poop since Tuesday am. Yesterday he seemed a bit brighter, sat in the lounge and went for a short walk on the lead, I hoped this might get the bowels working but no luck. He's back in my bed now, tried a short walk this am but he just wanted to go home, don't blame him, it's blowing a gale and cold today. I'm hoping the dry steamed chicken and rice may be the culprit as he's showing no distress nor trying to use his bowels. Never had any experience with blockagers, anyone give me any idea of symptoms? Still giving the anti-bios but they don't seem to be doing anything. They finish on Saturday (naturally a week-end) so if there's no vast improvement I will have to decide whether to have another Vet visit.

It's just so frustrating when they keep saying they have no idea! They have about six Vets there with some having higher qualifications who have also been consulted and still no idea.

Showdog - thanks for that suggestion. Enquiries seem that I'd have an 800k round trip which I'd do if I could get a definite answer from the Vets. Suggestions so far have included - gut bug, neurology (sp?) arthritis, pancreas, all ruled out by tests.

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Can't help wondering if it's a virus. At least that's what I'd think if it was a human like that.

And virus can be really hard to diagnose even with blood tests. And won't be fixed with antibiotic.

Or maybe a tick, but he's in the wrong area for bad (paralysis) ticks.

The other thing I thought was maybe it's cos it's really cold, though obviously he was ok last winter.

I'd be sending an email to the nearest Vet Science school university mob. I think there are ones that specialise in difficult diagnoses. But it depends how far you want to travel and how much you want to spend and how urgent you think it is.

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Your OP sounds similar to how my boy was acting but his problem was that he had been eating bits of polar fleece toys, he went off his food though.

I hope you get some answers soon Pebbles :thumbsup: and that little Mick improves!

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