I have a twelve and a half year old belgian shepherd cross border collie. She's a sweetie, still thinks she's a pup and is very healthy, despite having severe malassezia which vet after vet haven't been able to resolve.
She has one problem, which is she climbs our greengauge tree, picks the fruit off and eats it. 
We normally fence it off before it fruits, but it caught us unawares this week, as its the other end of our long garden and we only realised it was fruiting when we saw her climbing it.
Since then she has once thrown up a small pile of greengauge stones. She seems fine in herself, no tenderness to her abdomen or throat, normal behaviour eating and passing stools ok.
BUT, she is behaving really strangely around her water bowl. We have one of those non-spill bowls and she usually lets us know its empty by grabbing it with her paw and kicking around the kitchen. Heard her do this last night, went it and she'd tipped the entire bowl upside down and it was full of water - so the floor was swamped. Since then she keeps on doing it. She looks like she wants to drink, looks at her bowl, then puts her foot in it and tips it up. (She looks anxious when she does this.)
I did try giving her a different (open topped) bowl with some water in and she took a couple of laps, but then went back and tipped up her own bowl again. I tried holding it up for her, just in case her throat was sore - but still no joy.
I put water in one of her stainless steel food bowls this evening after she ate and she did the same thing with that, only this time she actually put her foot in the middle of the bowlful of water. 
Initially I was concerned she might have either scratched her throat with one of the stones, or worse had one lodged - but this is contradicted by her eating two full meals perfectly happily. I don't think she can have eaten enough greengauges to cause an impaction and anyway she's still passing normal stools.
I am stumped. Bearing in mind the absence of any physcial symptoms, I'm now thinking it must be behavioural - but why? The only think I can think of is that we had a slug in the kitchen yesterday and I'm wondering whether it might have gone in the water bowl at some point and that's what's bothering her - but I assume if that were the case she'd be happy to drink from a different water bowl. (Her bowl has been washed up and refereshed several times since we evicted the slug infiltrator, so its not like its contaminated or anything.) She does look like she's peering at or into the water each time she does it, but she's by no means a fussy dog and has happily guzzled the water many times in the past, only for me to discover a piece of one the dc's dinner in there afterwards.
Has anyone seen anything like this before? I am at a loss to know what to do, but will try the vets in the morning if the behaviour doesn't settle down.
If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.
The doghouse
Odd behaviour - can't fathom it out. Any ideas?
moosemama · 18/07/2011 21:45
I wondered about that at first, by the way she was peering in the bowl and then tipping it with her paw, but even once she knows the water's there she's only taking a couple of tiny laps then backing off. She is on prednisolone for her malassezia at the moment, and she managed to catch a tiny pill mid air when I gave it to her this evening as well (daft dog thinks they're sweeties). If there was a problem with her sight I would have thought she'd have missed that.
She's now taken to lying on the quarry tiles instead of her bed, which isn't like her, so its definite a trip to the vets for her in the morning.
I feel awful for her. She keeps looking at me with this sort of anxious, pleading expression and I don't know what to do to help. She definitely wants to drink, she just can't seem to actually do it. 
I put the bowl between her front paws when she was lying down earlier and she had a reasonable amount then, and we soaked her food in plenty of water as well this evening, just in case we couldn't get her to drink, so at least she's not getting dehydrated.
She is a real character - full of life and fun, always ready to play and always thinking of her stomach! 
Thank you for your replies.
Chickchickchicken, I will mention to the vet that the only time she drank anything was when she was lying down. She only took the drink from lying down this evening because I called our other dog over and offered him a drink. Thing is, she usually empties the water bowl after her evening meal but she's only had a few laps this evening and I haven't seen her take any all day.
If she won't take any more I'll get dh to nip out and get a sports-style bottle of something that we can offer her water from. She does this out on long walks, so it might work.
I'm trying not to make too much of a deal of it with her though - don't want to reinforce the odd behaviour in case its behavioural rather than physical, iyswim.
Poor little lass, her nose is really dry.
Off to bed now - have set my alarm to get up and offer her some water in the night - am paranoid she's going to get dehydrated and end up on a drip. Its all a bit backwards really - she should be more thirsty on prednisolone - not struggling to drink.
Mind you, it doesn't help that I lost my 13 year old SCWT two days before Christmas and still haven't got over that. I don't usually worry excessively about my dogs health - I've done a course in canine health and first aid and know them well enough to know if something's up, but my gut feeling is that something's not right - just wish I knew what it was.
I'll report back tomorrow when we've seen the vet.
Thanks again for your replies - I really appreciate the support.
Well, she's back to normal this morning. Has eaten and drunk normally and no more weird behaviour. All very odd.
I'm thinking it must have been behavioural now. She drank lying down three times in all and took more each time, so maybe getting her to drink in a different way got her past her worry that there was something scary in the water bowl.
Anyway, thanks for your support last night. I am just really relieved it wasn't anything serious and she's happy again.
thanks for the update 
she is lucky to have such a caring owner. glad she is drinking now
Well it turns out she was ill - or rather injured.
She has been quieter than usual this week, but still eating, drinking and passing uring and stools normally. Then this morning we came downstairs and she has a huge swelling under her jaw, can't open her mouth and is drooling.
We have an emergency appointment at the vets this afternoon, but I would bet its something lodged, probably a stick. We never throw sticks for her, but she has a habit of picking them up herself, running off with them and then chewing at them like bones. Dh took her for a walk in the dark the other night - its pitch dark in our park and I reckon she must have done it then.
I feel awful for not realising sooner, but she started drinking normally and seemed fine , if a little quiet, after her odd behaviour on Monday. Dh was worried the behavioural change was down to the prenisolone, so reduced her dosage and I now think it was that that was masking the symptoms by reducing the swelling/inflammation.
She ate some fruit this morning (dh gave it to her, she hasn't been allowed back near the greengauge tree), but seems completely unable to drink unless I fill the bowl to the brim and hold it up to her mouth when she's lying down. She's had a good long drink a couple of times with my help though, which is good.
I tried to get a look in her mouth/throat but she screamed in pain, so I thought it best to leave it to the vet.
Poor girl!
Vet couldn't see anything - despite her letting her have a good look down her throa - but, there is a huge abcess under her jaw/on her neck (difficult to see as she has a huge ruff.
They are assuming some sort of throat injury from something she's chewed then swallowed and have given 48 hours of mega antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. If the abcess hasn't gone down significantly by Saturday morning, they are going to have her in in the afternoon and operate, but they want to avoid this if possible as the location of the abcess will make it a very tricky op. The good news is that none of her other glands are up, so the infection does seem localised at the moment, which means we stand a better chance of the antibiotics knocking it on the head.
The odd thing is, the vet said she'd had another dog in with the exact same symptoms, but no obvious sign of injury last week, had given that dog the same treatment and it worked - so fingers crossed.
She's eaten some soaked kibble with her pills and then had a drink with me holding the bowl for her again and is now sleeping. She's very clingy and when I took dd up for her nap she started pacing the kitchen panting and fretting, which isn't like her at all - she's usually very loving but pretty independent.
At least they didn't need to admit her.
No improvement at all, so it looks like she's going in for the op tomorrow afternoon. The vet said that at least they'll have a better idea of what they're dealing with once they can get in and have a proper look.
We've had to remove her collar this evening as its now too tight. I've never seen her this poorly before, she usually just carries on as normal - even when she's had bad ear infections caused by her malassezia. It breaks my heart to see her like this.
We are going on holiday next weekend though and I'm really worried about whether she'll be well enough. The vet said it will be a tricky op because of the location of the abcess and I assume any neck wound will run the risk of opening up with too much head movement, and she'd be unlikely to be able to wear an elizabethan collar either.
Its a bit of a problem really, as ds1 has ASD and is obsessive about our holidays (same place, same things every year) he wouldn't cope well at all if we had to cancel.
Poor girl, she really loves the beach as well and usually romps on the beach all day while we're away, but I can't take her near sand if she's had an op.
Dh pointed out that she will have to have her beautiful ruff shaved off as well.
Not good news I'm afraid.
Dh took her in first thing this morning and saw the senior vet. He immediately said he felt it wasn't an abcess, more likely a big tumour with associated infection and she needed operating on there and then. At the time we were told to expect the worst, that if it was as big as they thought, it would be inoperable and we would have to make a tough decision for her.
Spoke to them a while ago and she has several things going on:
- A massive infection, with an enormous amount of gunk that had to be drained.
- A large hole in her throat, which may be the source of infection, although no foreign body was found.
- A huge amount of abnormal fibrous tissue, which may be cancerous and has been biopsied.
- A number of adhesions which have effectively tongue tied her - hence the difficulty drinking, as she can't move her tongue forwards to lap.
She has a big open drain in her neck, which has to be covered by a bandana (made from sheets) and will have to be changed hourly.
She is going back on Wednesday for a post op check and they should have the biopsy results then.
According to the vet, she is still ok to go away with us, can have her stitches removed by the local vet (my Dad's old dog's vet) and can go on the beach, as long as she stays out of the water and we make sure we dress the wound properly before and after she goes. I'm qualified in canine first-aid, so this isn't a problem, just need to buy some more cohesive bandage sand sterile dressings.
Dh has just gone to pick her up and I am still a bit shaky but trying to be optimistic. This morning I was sure we were going to lose her and at least now there might be a chance, although I don't have a clue what her treatment will consist of - if any.
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Thank you bumpybecky, she was very stressed when she came home, but shot up to me and curled up on my feet for some love and that helped calm her down. I sat by/half in her crate with her for the first 3/4 hour and she slept after that.
She's now decided she doesn't want the crate, she wants her normal bed - usually she can't wait to get in the crate. So now lurcher boy is in the crate, blissed out and she's curled up under the kitchen table in her basket with a load of extra vet bedding. We put dd's baby monitor in the kitchen last night and got up to her if she sounded like she was getting stressed or moving around a lot, but we only needed to come downstairs twice.
She's drinking better now, already managing without us holding the bowl up for her and is delighted to be getting fresh chicken and fish instead of James Wellbeloved to eat.
She's amazingly calm considering and still wagging her tail every time she sees me - dogs' resilience never ceases to amaze me.
Have made her some big bandanas out of some old sheets, like the vet suggested and she looks quite cool in them actually. Dh says he's going to tie dye some for her to wear on holiday so she just looks like a 'cool dog', rather than one with a sheet around her neck.
Moosemama... sorry for the hijack and I am pleased to hear that things are being thoroughly investigated.
However, I wanted to ask about your remedy for fireworks night. By this fireworks night I will have probably moved from the arse end of nowhere (surrounded by horses, sheep, cows and llamas, which rarely let off fireworks) to the arse end of somewhere (with cows, reindeer and hens at the back, but with more neighbours who are likely to let off fireworks).
I'm not a fan of ACP, which is frequently prescribed via the vet. Can you tell me about your Valerian treatment, please? (DDog is already inhaling full DAP diffuser as she is a bit paranoid about life in general)
Thanks
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