To be really worried about my dog?

[PoorlyPup]

I have a 20 month old yorkiepoo, and she means the world to me.

She was in season in December, and she has been a bit sleepier than usual since then and just not herself, but no major concerns. Still active and happy and training/competing in the sport we do together. Then this week she seems to have taken a turn for the worse, she’s hardly been eating, and just seemed completely listless and lethargic. Tried taking her for walks but she’s just wanted to be carried. Yesterday she only ate a tiny bit of food, and this morning she vomited yellow bile.

I took her to the vets today and he’s ruled out a phantom pregnancy, couldn’t feel anything worrying when he examined her, heart and temp normal. He said to cook her some chicken and rice and try to get her to eat. He gave her an anti nausea injection. She still hasn’t eaten anything at all, or had a drink since yesterday. I’ve tried tempting her with every kind of food I can but she’s not interested. For the last 12 hours since she got back from the vets she’s just been curled up in a little ball and not moved at all, apart from when I carried her outside a couple of times for a wee.

The vet said to take her back tomorrow if she doesn’t eat, so of course I will, but in the meantime I’m too worried to be able to sleep 😞.

The vet - you know the qualified practitioner - advised chicken and rice.

Most vets know very, very little about canine nutrition. Chicken and rice is a popular "go to" for sick dogs but the benefits are debatable as many find rice hard to tolerate and chicken is a common allergen.

Our vet always recommends small portions of their regular food so their stomach isn't irritated even more.

Hopefully not Pyometra, I’ve googled and she doesn’t have many of the symptoms other than decreased appetite and lethargy. She’s not at all distended and her temperature was 38 yesterday, so no fever. She did have a big drink of water at about 2am and ate 3 little chewy bones, which stayed down. But no other food all day, in the evening she went and sniffed around her food bowls a few times like she was hungry but didn’t actually eat anything on offer.

re the chicken, she does often eat chicken so although she didn’t eat any yesterday I don’t think it would have been a problem if she had, she often has cooked chicken so for her that is a normal food. She’s incredibly fussy and always has a bowl of kibble down, she nibbles at that but I cook her meat too most days which she eats. But no interest in either the last few days.

The vet said to bring her back today if she didn’t eat at all. I don’t know if the chewy bones she had counts as eating? It’s not much but she’s very small and doesn’t eat masses on a normal day. He said if she hadn’t eaten at all then she’d need blood tests, or if she had eaten but then thrown up again she’d need an x ray.

Ask for probiotic paste

My dog has just recovered from exactly these symptoms! Although he had a fever as well. Took him about 2 days to recover, I did give him probiotics which did help.
He vomited, went off his food, was totally lethargic, had diarrhoea. Vet gave him anti nausea shot plus doggy paracetamol.
He's back to normal now, but it was so sad to see him so miserable. He probably got a virus or ate something dubious in the park, he recovered before blood tests were deemed necessary.
Hope DPup is better soon x

What was she doing before getting unwell OP?
Did she play with another dog or jump awkwardly, do her activity you mentioned?
Just that sometimes it's physical and a small strain makes them very sorry for themselves. The fact that her obs were all in order should give you some reassurance.
The dog I have here was collected by his owner one day. He hopped into the rear passenger footwell, then jumped sideways onto the seat to be fixed in. Twisted his back and was lethargic like yours for three days.
Hope your dog is better soon.

I think this sounds like this could be Addison's Disease.

My ten month old pup nearly died this week so please take this suggestion seriously.

My pup had very similar symptoms all of the sudden and refused food, slightly abnormal poo and very lethargic (sleeping most of the time).

Please push the vets to consider this, as it's not a very common condition. If left untreated, deterioration is fast and it is fatal.

Medication will allow your pup to live a normal life.

Let us know how he is.

Agree. Our pup went off food and was lethargic for weeks after her first season. Also very subdued but no other symptoms. Only discovered pyometra after finding her in a pool of blood. Fortunately it was the open sort that let the infection out but if the uterus is closed you might not know until it's too late. Definitely worth getting her checked again if you haven't already.

I have a tiny Yorkie who can be just like this. She has been diagnosed with colitis but has other side effects. My vet just suggests giving her open access to food. Chicken and rice is good. If she's feeling a bit poorly, she will not always eat a lot but is eating something. Is she drinking and going to the toilet?

Of course she won't have been spayed yet so please listen to other's suggestions.

Yes, mine can't process animal proteins any more. Wasn't an issue until she was about 8.

So the chicken and rice recommend by the vet wasn't helping the vomiting!

She’s not been quite herself since she came into season at the beginning of December (it was only her second season and she was the same after her first one, it took a while for her hormones to settle). But the not eating and lethargy escalated I’d say after Monday. That day she came to work with me (I have various jobs but that day I was dog grooming), so it was quite a long day for her, she has her bed there but just being around other dogs all day and not being able to switch off is quite tiring for her. Then we came home, snoozed for a couple of hours and then went to agility training, where she was fine and didn’t see her do anything obvious that could have caused her pain. But it is possible that she could have tweaked something there I suppose.

Pleased to report that she is a bit brighter today, still sleeping more than usual and didn’t eat much but she was brighter than yesterday, happy to go for a little walk, came out and about in the car to town and enjoyed wandering around the pet shop, and has been nibbling on food, so a definite improvement. So didn’t take her back to the vets today as she seems to be on the up, I’ll see how she is tomorrow as they’re open Saturdays. We were meant to be competing tomorrow but I think that might be pushing it so I’ve withdrawn my entry.

Funnily enough I saw someone else post on fb yesterday that their dog had just been diagnosed with this, so I looked it up then. She doesn’t match many of the symptoms but it is a possibility as she’s definitely got some of them. I’ll see how she goes and take her back to the vets if she stops improving or goes downhill, she’s insured so I can get whatever tests need doing done.

Assuming not the pyrometria (spelling?) others have mentioned -

My female collie had appalling first couple of seasons, so bad the vet wanted to spay her ASAP - she got depressed, wouldn't eat, bloated, lactated, it went on for ages. I can't remember the details at the time but not having her spayed increased her risk of a particular cancer.

Even now she has symptoms of her seasons (if there is the tiniest piece of womb left it can happen), probably wouldn't be that noticeable were it not for her behaviour & the fact we have two male dogs as well.

Back to the vets about the pyrothingy & book her in to be spayed. Glad she's a bit brighter today.

Having only ever had male dogs, I had no idea how the females suffered due to their seasons.

She might have picked up a doggy virus. Especially being young. Definitely take her back tomorrow because she could become dehydrated quickly if she isn’t drinking. They might need to give her some iv fluids or send you away with some hydration salts to keep her going until she gets her appetite back.
I hope she gets better soon, OP ❤️ 🐾

I hope she gets well soon but it’s quite irresponsible taking a sick dog into shops where other dogs could be or will be , you have no idea whether what she has is contagious .

My young cat was sick repeatedly with V and D. She'd rally and then relapse and she was losing weight and she's a tiny thing to begin with.. She had anti nausea shots, pills, rehydrating fluid, blood tests and many vet visits as this went on for weeks. I googled and decided to worm her. She staged a miraculous recovery within 2 days. I am going to change vets. No, I realise I can't prove it was always worms but she wasn't getting better, she was getting worse. I also think it was one of the things the vet should have suggested initially long before the huge vet bills got racked up. By the stage I suspected worms because I thought it was cheaper to worm her rather than paying for more tests - there was no external sign of worms or fleas.

I understand your concern for your little dog and encourage you to seek vet advice but please also don’t stress over something that might not be a big issue. My dog sometimes does this, usually in winter. He’s uninterested in food (he’s a lab!), doesn’t have much to drink and curls up in his bed. It usually coincides with wet, cold horrible weather. I think he’s doing some form of hibernation. It lasts for a few days, sometimes he might also have yellow bile. We give him chicken and rice if he doesn’t eat more than 2 of his normal meals. Then he gets over it and is fine again.

I know all dogs are different but just wanted to give you a different perspective from some of the comments above.

It’s been an eye opener for me too, my last dog was male and we only ever had male family dogs when I was growing up.

Thankfully she’s been drinking plenty of water today so I’m not worried about dehydration.

When I saw the vet yesterday at no point did he suggest that it may be anything contagious that means she needs to be kept away from other dogs, and he knows I work with dogs! I doubt me carrying her around the pet store for 10 minutes had a massive effect on any other dogs, particularly as we were the only ones in the shop.

Definitely get her spayed- Especially after a couple of seasons- it frees them up from phantom pregnancy and Pyometra- and finding top class homes for puppies is not easy. (I’ve never bred any animals)

My Whippet had a sickness/diahorrea bug at about a year old- I was advised to gently syringe water into her mouth (no needle obviously) she just lay on my bed trembling slightly oblivious to any treats.

Thankfully she recovered after 4 days ( chicken breast , poached , and the water it was poached in to drink- It is of course very worrying when they aren’t “right “.

Hopefully just a short acting bug. ( we went to vets obviously) anti nausea injection helped, as did yudigest (?) on her food.

Oh blimey, poor you! Mine has only been sick once and her poos are normal (not that she’s been doing many this week as not really been eating). But I do need to worm her, I cannot get any form of tablets down her at all so she’s not had a wormer for a while. I asked the vet and spot on wormers for dogs don’t exist apparently, like they do for cats. I’ve tried literally everything but she’s so fussy at the best of times with food she’s just not motivated by it at all, and I think she can smell a worming tablet a mile off. Most types of worms are covered by her flea spot on but I do need to find a way of getting a worming tablet into her.

How do her gums look, normal colour or pale?

I’m really hoping that it is something nondescript like this. She really hates the cold and it’s obviously been Baltic lately, but that doesn’t explain the not eating. She’s a very sensitive little thing so it could be something really minor. I think I’m a bit paranoid as my last dog who was 14 seemed a bit off one day, just not himself, nothing majorly worrying but just seemed a bit mopey and didn’t want to go for a walk. I took him into the vets and I thought maybe he was just a bit off colour and would need some tablets or something. Turned out he was bleeding internally from a tumour I didn’t know he had, and half an hour after arriving there I was being given 10 minutes to say my goodbyes to him.