Staffy gone from being very needy to spending most if her time in her bed.

[Maggiesgirl]

DDog is now 10, she has always been a very needy dog ( she thinks she is a lap dog), but over the last couple of months she has bern spending more and more time in her crate. Its open with a big quilt in it so comfy.
She had a terrible time last year with loud gunfire ( we live on Salisbury Plain behind the tank firing range). She was born and raised here, so was always used to it. I think when it all went quiet in lockdown then restarted it terrified her.

After various things from the vets, she now has valium when we know its going to happen - the firing is listed in the local paper - but is not on it all the time.

She also had to have it last week when we had a huge thunderstorm.

She has been off her food as well, she has always been fussy but now even worse.

She has just seemed to have left her ummmff. She us still excited to go for a walk. But used to love to play ball in the garden with DGD. But just stood and watched the ball today and then walked back indoors.

Used to chase magpies out the garden as well, but not now.

Is it just age, or something else ? Should I take her back to the vets? She disnt seem to have any pain. Just not herself.

She could be in pain. Our dog was like this and has been diagnosed with polyarthritis. There were other signs like sitting awkwardly and having difficulty getting up from lying. And she physically couldn't reach down for a ball. Can your dog pick up things from the ground OK in general?
Ours is on a high dose steroid and this seems to be helping massively.

Agree with pp have her checked out for pain somewhere. With joint pain they don't always limp either.

She can still jump up onto the sofa or bed. Dosnt seem to be stiff on getting up at all. Is picking treats and such up from the floor.

Its almost as if she us in slow motion a lot if the time. She such a lovely girl. I think I will book her in just to be on the safe side.

DH thinks its just her getting older, but I just have this feeling somethings not quite right.

We were having problems with our lovely girl. She has always been noise sensitive, but became worse. She started to refuse to go for walks, and if she did go, would stop and refuse to move. She also went off her food.

We took her to the vets but they couldn't find anything on examination. She was still unhappy so we took her back. She ended up having an X-ray and ultimately a CT scan with a specialist. She has arthritis in her spine and lumbosacral disease. She's now on supplements and 2 different pain killers. It's made a world of difference. The specialist told us that noise sensitivity is very common in dogs in pain.

I'd definitely ask your vet to check her over. Best of luck, and I hope she's feeling better soon x