Dog aging suddenly

[pearlywyte]

I’m wondering if dogs aging very suddenly is a thing?

Our 11 year old poodle has always been very fast and spritely for his age, but a week ago suddenly seemed to start behaving like a much older dog. He seems very tired, lethargic, doesn’t run up to the door to greet us any more. But he’s eating and pooing the same, no other symptoms or signs that we can see. Just seems very old and tired. He is quite old but it’s just happened quite suddenly it feels. May take him to the vet but not sure we have much to go on.

My only thought is he could have arthritis and the change in weather means he is now feeling discomfort/pain after the sunny summer. Don't know where you are obviously and it's a very stab in the dark analysis.
If it is that he needs to see the vet and if it's not, he still does imo as it's a sudden change. Plenty for the vet to go on I would have thought. Good luck.

Yes, this exact thing. Our dog had her booster in June, the vet remarked on how spritely she was for ten. Then a month later she had aged one hundred years. She would quite easily walk a couple of hours, now I’m dragging her for a five minute walk. She’s had one thousand pounds of x rays and ultra sounds and now takes medication for her liver. It’s really taken me aback how quickly it happened.

I’d take him in for a general check up and bloods , make sure they do his blood pressure . Our late dog had primary high blood pressure and despite going into the vets with a variety of symptoms over a period of 8 months it was totally missed until he had a catastrophic event . He did survive the event but was never quite right after and had to be on various meds to try and control his BP .

Former poodle owner here. I would take him to the vets for a full check up, something isn't right for it to come on this suddenly. My poodles did start showing their age from about 11 but nowhere near this extent.

With such a sudden decline in his energy levels I would say he needs to have a vet visit and have some checks done.
Fingers crossed it's nothing but we had similar with my gsd years ago in two weeks he went from eternal puppy to old man
Unfortunately in our case he had a terminal cancer but acting ment we could make his last few days pain free.

Definitely a vet visit. My dog did this but at age 9, luckily for my dog it was a very treatable atypical addisons (mine also didn't eat with his usual enthusiasm as well as losing all omph).

That doesn't sound right to me at all.

I would want a full check-up at the vets including blood work and a full mobility test to check for arthritis - if all the bloods come back clear I would be asking for a pain trial.

Definitely go to the vet. My dog seemed a bit off, I took him to the vets who did bloods and then a urine test. Turned out he had stage 4 kidney disease, the vet had to get a second opinion as she was shocked how symptomless he was.

I have a 12 year old poodle cross. He was at the vets for a routine check up a month or 2 ago and I asked the vet about his likely age span as he is getting on in years but still acts like a young dog.

She said that this is normal. That dogs do age rapidly unlike us humans. One minute they are a young dog and the next they are an old man. She told me to expect that the first sign is that all of a sudden he won’t want his long walks any more and he won’t be as sprightly and there will be no warning.

Thanks for the replies on this. Made a vet appointment but ended up cancelling it as within a few days dog was back to normal and running around in the woods at full pelt as usual. So not sure what that was all about but doesn’t look like it was the beginning of his old age after all.