Snowdrops and Skye

Well actually Skye first - she has not been a happy dog all week - here is the saga to date:

It all started a week ago on Friday in the evening – up until then she had been her normal self. She had been to Buchan Country park with Sue during the day and had been swimming in the pond (where she has been before and where dogs are allowed to swim).  In the evening after going up the garden she became quite clingy and began to pant and shake. It took over an hour to calm her. She went to bed normally but Sue heard her pacing about at 2:30 in the morning. She was walking around very fast, panting and shaking. Sue took her up the garden where she did wee but would not settle. Eventually Sue called emergency vet who said give her some Metacam (which we had from some time ago). She eventually settled after a couple of hours.

In the morning she was still very clingy and obviously not happy so we took her to vet. Vet examined her and thought she may have a pinched nerve at base of spine/top of tail which was also causing her to sit slightly to one side. She said she would have given her a steroid injection but because she had had the Metacam she couldn't. Instead she prescribed Rimadyl tablets and said lead walk only for few days. She seemed to improve a bit but was still clingy.

Then Monday evening whilst Sue and I  were  in front room sat watching TV she suddenly started panting and shaking again. This started about 7:30. After a while we gave her some Metacam but this seemed to have no effect. After one and half  hours of continuous panting we called vet who suggested taking her out for walk around the block. I took her out for 20 mins. She just walked – non of the usual stopping to sniff. just before we got back she did stop to poo and wee. Once back the panting started again so we called vet again and she suggested we bring her in.  Redhill 10pm vet did complete examination – couldn’t find anything obviously wrong, she had calmed down a bit but was excited (as she always is at Vet) so it was difficult to see what ie what was due to vet visit and what was unusual. Vet gave two injections, (one a slight tranquilliser) and kept her overnight. She evidently calmed down and slept. Vet took bloods which showed nothing unusual. Sue picked her up Tuesday morning and all seemed Ok, she was hungry and ate food ok (Arden Grange chicken and rice) albeit she was still clingy.

Wednesday morning Skye was fine and Sue gave her a biscuit and went to work. When she got home at mid-day Skye was agitated and started panting again. carried on all  afternoon, following Sue everywhere. Back to vets. Different vet checked her anal glands and thought they were partly blocked so cleaned them out. more anti anti-inflammatories were given.

Thursday morning Sue went to work, Marie was working from home. Skye started panting and shaking again – Marie  called vet who heard panting down phone and said bring Skye in straight away. Vet did Lipase test (pancreas function) – all clear. She seemed to calm down and Sue took her out for walk on Park Hill in Reigate – seemed ok. In evening went to sleep in her own bed (up until know she has stayed in front room at night.)

Friday morning fed her at 6am and Sue took her for 40min road work at 7am before work. Again seemed ok but when Sue got home at lunchtime she was panting again. The panting started very suddenly, Sue was at sink when Skye who was close by, seemed to give a little jump then start panting and shaking. For the first time also she did not want to eat all her tea (She has two thirds food at breakfast, one third at tea – 4:30).  Very clingy all evening. Would not go into her own bed to sleep.

This morning I got up at 7:30 – she was pacing about – I tried to get her up the garden but she would not go (this is not unusual – she quite often wants part of breakfast before going out). So gave her half breakfast, then went up garden with her (she would not go on her own), back for second half of breakfast but very unusually for her she did not finish it – went back after 15mins and finally eat it all. Still clingy.

General comments – When she sits or sleeps she often wants to be leaning against something (See photo below). We thought at first she may have been ‘spooked’ by something up the garden but she actually seems quite happy in the garden and will stay there on her own for a while. In the house she will sometimes stand still and stare for quite a while – not something she has done before. When she is panting, only prolonged close contact seems to calm her.

Later this morning I took her for a walk  on Reigate Heath and she seemed fine. Since then she has been up the garden with us and that is where the snowdrops come in. Seen in the garden - it may have been wet but it has been very mild.

We were up the garden to (very belatedly) take the net off the pond - as you can see it has done its job keeping leaves out of the pond.

Skye was better and actually showed an interest in the net when I was folding it up.

Pond minus net - not very inspiring this time of the year.

Latest on Skye, she is lying on the floor of the kitchen, dozing - lets hope she is on the mend.

We have had all sorts of suggestions as to what may be wrong:

'Sounds a bit like some combination of anxiety & dementia. Possibly also she might be going deaf which can make sounds scary'

'A reaction to something new in the house'

' poisonous vegetation which had been stirred up by the floods. It might not have been that blue-green algae and wrong time of the year for algae related stuff really'

' I think some sort of seizure or stroke, but I would def go for a second opinion if your own vet cant find anything'

'Have they checked for epilepsy. Dogs become very clingy and restless, you often only see that part as the seizures often happen at night'

' My spaniel behaves in exactly the same way and he is 9. He becomes very stressed if the storms start or fireworks go off. He can hear it way before I hear anything. Some times he can start about an hour before any storm or firework can be heard. He settles as long as he can touch us. He panting gets so bad I think he is going to have a heart attack. He very often just sits and stares into space, I call it looking at the dead people as he always looks at all my pictures of deceased family. I have had the vets check him out and nothing showed up in the tests. He goes through stages but is especially bad when the weather is loud. When he has a spell I close the curtains and turn up the volume loud and play with him which really helps. He has got better and it happens less often now. I am not sure if this is helpful or not but I hope your dog recovers soon.'

All of the above has come from posts on Thia Mills Facebook page after she kindly reproduced my notes above. We are very grateful.