Gatsbys Dad
Member
Hi everyone: so for about five days now my little Gatsby has been having the most bizarre and scary problem.
It all started when we came home late from a Halloween party on Friday night. I took Gatsby out to do his last business for the night. Then I told him he was going to get a cookie, and he excitedly raced back into the kitchen, where my wife proceeded to get him said cookie. However, right at that moment, as we were both standing over him in the kitchen, he suddenly freaked out, started mewling/howling as if in pain or terrified, and raced away towards his little safe area by the window, where he proceeded to sit and continue barking/howling while my wife tried to soothe him. It lasted about 30 seconds.
We figured that night he must have heard a racoon or something (we live out in rural Maine) and been spooked. However, the next day it happened AGAIN three times: twice while in the kitchen, once while out walking. Two of these times the howling was accompanied by urinating himself...and Gatsby NEVER has accidents.
We thought he might be having seizures, so we raced him to the animal hospital after the third attack. The vet did a full checkup and he seemed fine: good vitals, decent bloodwork (on the slight borderline of anemic), no fever, no sign of pain or distress in joints, etc. The doc said it sounded like it might be seizures, and said if they continue it might call for an MRI or CT Scan. She gave us some liquid diazepam in case he had a long attack, but as we were leaving, walking Gatsby out on his leash, he suddenly had ANOTHER attack, he bolted away from us, into the back room of the vets office, where he proceeded to cower and howl while my wife soothed him. I'm glad the Vet got to see this, because she said then it DiD NOT look like a seizure. The nurse said it looked like he was feeling sharp sudden pain and trying to get away from it, as though it were a pinched nerve or perhaps a back injury.
They did another exam right there: however, they could not produce any pain reaction no matter how much they poked and prodded. We walked him around on the leash to try to recreate it (he's a puller, and I thought maybe his neck when he strains on the leash...?), but nothing. She said it was possible it was a pinched nerve or back injury, and she sent us home with antiinflammatories and told us to observe him, restrict his exercise, and take him for a recheck with our regular vet.
Home that night, we started him on the anti-inflammatories. We set up the air mattress in the living room so we could all camp out together and so he wouldn't want to come jump up in the big bed to sleep with us. For the next two days, we kept a close eye on him, kept walks to a minimum, and tried to keep him from getting excited. We had two days with no attacks, and began to think maybe the AI drugs and limited exercise were working.
Then, this morning, after his morning walk in which he was getting a bit excitable (trying to coax me to run with him, etc.), I brought him in, gave him his breakfast, and he began happily muching. I noticed he kept looking back while he was eating, and thought maybe noise from the baseboard heat was distracting him. I left him in the kitchen and a minute or so later I heard him RUNNING toward the living room! He bolted in, started barking and howling, and knocked over everything in his path on his way to get to his safe spot by the window, where he proceeded to do his barking/howling routine again. This one was shorter, and he didn't wet himself. But still, very scary!
He's snoozing/snoring away right now on the air-mattress, and for the life of me I have NO IDEA what's going on. If it's a pinched nerve or back injury causing him pain, why is there no rhyme or reason to the attacks? Why can't we recreate/locate the pain? If it's some kind of fear response, what in the world could be causing it? Or could it be some kind of seizure?
Any thoughts, advice, similar experience?
Scared, worried, and confused...
-Dan in Maine
It all started when we came home late from a Halloween party on Friday night. I took Gatsby out to do his last business for the night. Then I told him he was going to get a cookie, and he excitedly raced back into the kitchen, where my wife proceeded to get him said cookie. However, right at that moment, as we were both standing over him in the kitchen, he suddenly freaked out, started mewling/howling as if in pain or terrified, and raced away towards his little safe area by the window, where he proceeded to sit and continue barking/howling while my wife tried to soothe him. It lasted about 30 seconds.
We figured that night he must have heard a racoon or something (we live out in rural Maine) and been spooked. However, the next day it happened AGAIN three times: twice while in the kitchen, once while out walking. Two of these times the howling was accompanied by urinating himself...and Gatsby NEVER has accidents.
We thought he might be having seizures, so we raced him to the animal hospital after the third attack. The vet did a full checkup and he seemed fine: good vitals, decent bloodwork (on the slight borderline of anemic), no fever, no sign of pain or distress in joints, etc. The doc said it sounded like it might be seizures, and said if they continue it might call for an MRI or CT Scan. She gave us some liquid diazepam in case he had a long attack, but as we were leaving, walking Gatsby out on his leash, he suddenly had ANOTHER attack, he bolted away from us, into the back room of the vets office, where he proceeded to cower and howl while my wife soothed him. I'm glad the Vet got to see this, because she said then it DiD NOT look like a seizure. The nurse said it looked like he was feeling sharp sudden pain and trying to get away from it, as though it were a pinched nerve or perhaps a back injury.
They did another exam right there: however, they could not produce any pain reaction no matter how much they poked and prodded. We walked him around on the leash to try to recreate it (he's a puller, and I thought maybe his neck when he strains on the leash...?), but nothing. She said it was possible it was a pinched nerve or back injury, and she sent us home with antiinflammatories and told us to observe him, restrict his exercise, and take him for a recheck with our regular vet.
Home that night, we started him on the anti-inflammatories. We set up the air mattress in the living room so we could all camp out together and so he wouldn't want to come jump up in the big bed to sleep with us. For the next two days, we kept a close eye on him, kept walks to a minimum, and tried to keep him from getting excited. We had two days with no attacks, and began to think maybe the AI drugs and limited exercise were working.
Then, this morning, after his morning walk in which he was getting a bit excitable (trying to coax me to run with him, etc.), I brought him in, gave him his breakfast, and he began happily muching. I noticed he kept looking back while he was eating, and thought maybe noise from the baseboard heat was distracting him. I left him in the kitchen and a minute or so later I heard him RUNNING toward the living room! He bolted in, started barking and howling, and knocked over everything in his path on his way to get to his safe spot by the window, where he proceeded to do his barking/howling routine again. This one was shorter, and he didn't wet himself. But still, very scary!
He's snoozing/snoring away right now on the air-mattress, and for the life of me I have NO IDEA what's going on. If it's a pinched nerve or back injury causing him pain, why is there no rhyme or reason to the attacks? Why can't we recreate/locate the pain? If it's some kind of fear response, what in the world could be causing it? Or could it be some kind of seizure?
Any thoughts, advice, similar experience?
Scared, worried, and confused...
-Dan in Maine