How do you react when your dog is ill or injured?

[Doggity]

I am the worst. I am a rational, sane, vaguely intelligent and responsible human being but when the dog is ill or injured, I lose all capability of rational thought. I try not to take him to the vet for every sniffle but boy, do I want to!

Ddog is middle aged now and he has arthritis which makes me worry. Every time he's quiet, I think he's in agony and if he whinges, I automatically assume he's injured. Whereas, he's usually whinging because he saw the postman and wants to play ball.

It's like having a baby but worse because they don't grow up to be able to tell you what's wrong. My dog is particularly good at hiding pain and illness, so I find it really hard. Obviously I consult Dr Google which fuels my anxiety. Please tell me it's not just me and other people are this deranged about their pet's health.

Yep. Another deranged dog owner here.

I can't bear it if she seems unhappy or not quite on top of everything. I've been watching her like a hawk all day because several times she seemed reluctant to jump in and out of the back door with her usual enthusiasm last night, so I was worrying that her legs hurt in some way. If they did it didn't stop her leaping into the air to catch her ball this evening in the park.

One stupid thing I do that's nothing to do with illness is with her food. She's not that interested in food and will often not want to eat until quite late in the evening but if she's looking a bit lean and hungry I'll give her food a bit earlier, just in case. The food will be ignore so eventually I'll pick it up. A few hours later I'll feed her again and obviously put out fresh food - she's fed on dry food to which I add warm water so obviously it's no good if not eaten immediately.

I know I'm being silly, and wasteful, but I can't bear to think she might feel hungry and unhappy. I suspect she knows this and is laughing at me behind my back.

I recently spent £90 at the vet because DDog1 was a bit 'off'. Very quiet and refused her dinner.

The vet said her temperature was 1 degree higher than 'normal' and gave her a couple of jabs. Metacam and an anti-sickness...

I swear DDog1 just wanted a fuss at the vets. She ate the vets treats, bounded out through reception, licked all the staff, jumped in the car, and was her normal batshit crazy energetic self immediately. The metacam wouldn't have worked in 30 seconds I am clearly just a neurotic owner.

I've also carried her for 45 minutes home on a walk wrapped up in my coat, whilst I got soaked in the pouring rain because she was looking tired and kept lying down...I thought I saw a tiny limp too...

Then she saw another doggy friend, struggled to get out of my arms and ran off to play. I am a mug. DDog1 does not like the rain, and has got me well trained

My DDog hates the vets so I only take her when absolutely necessary. Last time was because she'd split her tail two days before and was repeatedly reopening it. Just checked it didn't need stitches and put a tail guard on.

I trust my instincts with the dc so don't worry about them. I feel totally clueless with Eric plus he is the most pitiful dog if he's under the weather so I worry myself stupid. We've had at least one unnecessary vet trip purely because he squealed like a baby when running about so I immediately thought he'd broken something, in fact he had nothing at all wrong with him i discovered £45 later