The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #142671   Message #3290786
Posted By: Crowhugger
15-Jan-12 - 12:51 AM
Thread Name: BS: My dog is unwell
Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
My little pack sends all their best woofs to your sick pooch! I sure hope you can divert all your worry energy into calm love and support for him.   

To all the dog lovers reading this thread: I don't often put forward advice, but I'll go out on a limb here ... If your dog is behaving at all unusually, there is SOMETHING wrong. Social animals like dogs (maybe others too, but our vet was talking about dogs when she explained this) will expend a lot of energy to hide illness because it is a sign of weakness, which quickly invites rank ordering challenges. Our vet said it's pretty common to have a dog measure as normal (temperature, BP, labs, behaviour) while something icky or dangerous develops, and that's why emergency clinics say "bring it in" when people call about their pet acting peculiar. Normal appetite, water intake, behaviour and energy often do exist in dogs who are quite ill, and the animal only slows down or behaves uncharacteristically when their situation becomes grave. Been there. It cost us a small fortune for a week of overnight care including 2 days in ICU, plus a couple of months of follow-up, but that's another story, and one that ended well if not cheaply.

Get well soon, Bandit! Here's hoping a good run of antibiotics takes care of things for you.