mystery injury? worried.

this evening after i arrived home (about 8:45) indy came into the hallway towards my husband and i, gave a little yip and stopped. since then, he's wanted to do nothing but lie down, and when he is standing, his posture tells us that something is wrong. i've gently touched all over his bones and legs, and he hasn't reacted to anything in particular. his gums are pink and he ate a piece of cheese a few minutes ago. what worries me is this sudden change and he won't even respond to his very favorite toy---a cat toy with bells and feathers that we let him chase for about 3 minutes and then put away. normally he flies across the house at the slightest movement of those bells. he had a great day and even visited the dog park so we haven't seen any evidence of illness or injury until now.

we didn't hear or see anything happening to him. we are wondering if he hurt himself jumping off our bed---he came from the bedroom. he jumps from the bed to his little dog bed and then to the floor, but maybe he slipped or fell off the bed or something?? anyway, no warning, just the little yip in the hallway and another yip when my husband put him down after examining him. we are debating whether to call the emergency vet or to watch him and take him in the morning if he's not better.

any ideas or suggestions? i'm so worried about my normally bouncy little 2-year old! thanks!

kim

mystery illness

Kim,
I don't own a cavlaier yet, so please feel free to disregard my novice dog advice. But I have lived with two indoor cats for 14 years and I have a great vet here who's a part of a 24 hour emergency clinic. This behavior sounds exactly like what I came home to with my 3 year old cat recently. She just wasn't "right" -- laid around, didn't want to interact, etc. I immediately called my vet (around 8:30pm) and told her what was going on. She told me to bring the cat in IMMEDIATELY, because this is often an animals way of communicating they need some help. To make a long story short, I took the cat in and it turned out she had an extremely high fever (lethargy is a symptom of this), and had a very small wound that my vet found underneath all her fur (she is a persian). My cat is strictly indoors, but it seemed that perhaps she had cut herself on something in the house (or possibly the garage as she sometimes slips out when I'm coming in) and that was probably causing an infection. She was given an injection for pain, an initial injection of antibiotics, and I was sent home to continue both medications. The cat was back to herself in 12 hours and the vet said it was good I acted quickly because the wound could have absessed. Is is possible your dog has a really small wound or other "ouchy" somewhere? I hope your dog is better soon!!!! And thank you for letting a cat owner give advice!
Tara

Just heard almost this exact story from a friend today. Her Cavalier suddenly let out a small yip and would do it every once in a while over a 24 hour period. She brought her in to the vet and it turned out she had strained her neck, probably playing ball. She's on metacam and 48 hours later doing wonderful.

even visited the dog park so we haven't seen any evidence of illness or injury until now

Click to expand...

They think she strained her neck playing ball at the dog park.

I'm not comfortable offering advice because I would feel horrible if it was something serious and you didn't take him to the er clinic. In my situation, if they are pooping, peeing, eating and drinking normally I would take them to the vet in the a.m. assuming mine were still showing signs of discomfort.

If anyone feels he needs to go the vet tonight....by all means, chime in!!

If he cannot get up and walk around by himself, I would probably take him in tonight.

But if he can walk, and he has been otherwise normal (breathing normally, eating, drinking, eliminating, etc.) and has no wounds or swelling, it might not hurt to wait. Are his anal glands ok? If he has swelling around the anal glands I would take him in tonight, as it could be an abcess.

The same type of thing happened to Scout just a few weeks ago. Although she didn't make any type of noise.

We had been outside playing ball. Everything seemed fine. She is very clumsy and sometimes stumbles when chasing the ball. After we came in she had a strange look on her face and all she wanted to do was lie down. She never just lies down in the middle of the floor. I picked her up and felt all over her body, she didn't make a sound. She just wanted to lay down.

By this time it was 630p on a Saturday. I thought about taking her to the Emergency Vet, but thought I would wait until morning to see how she was and take her to my regular vet. Well, by morning she was fine, completely over whatever it was and acting normal.

I think she must have pulled a muscle or twisted something the wrong way, and with the rest that night everything was fine.

UPDATE---mystery injury? worried.

Thank you all for your stories and advice! Scouty girl it was just how you described...he went from fine, to that strange look and wanting to lie down. we did end up keeping an eye on him over night. i couldn't get a sub today (i'm a teacher) so we took him to the vet as soon as i finished work. my husband stayed home from work with him and he was listless all day, refusing to eat. the minute we got to the vets, indy became very interested in the other dogs and when we got to the examination room, he practically lept out of his crate and wiggled and wagged his way around the table licking the vet and vet nurse and happily ate pieces of the treat they offered himb*n*n* to be honest, i was just extremely relieved to see my old indy again! the vet examined every inch of him and couldn't find a problem. she said that yes, it was probably some sort of muscle strain (we still think he jumped off the bed, missing his step) and that often the adrenaline that dogs get from a vet visit dulls the pain enough for them to jump around like that. she recommended 2 weeks of rest (poor indy!) to recover and then gave us some pain pills for when the adrenaline wears off. <phew!>

then we came home and indy, who had refused to go out except for once this morning when my husband carried him outside, promptly marched into the dining room and.....pooped out an intact disposable face washing cloth. lord help us....

thanks again for your support!
kim

OMGoodness, your poor baby! Glad everything came out ok!

OMGoodness is right! It really is scarey what these little dudes will eat. I hope she will be fine now.

oh gosh that's really scary - and it's frightening what they will eat.

Thank goodness he is ok now.

Sounds like little Indy is on the mend and ready to go again. A disposable face cloth, that's funny, poor little thing. They eat everything, don't they?

omg! poor Indy. I am glad he's okay and that you were finally able to identify the cause of his discomfort.