After a $275 emergency room visit last week and a $450+ trip to the vet today, I just came home and gently held my oh so sick dog. Don't know what's wrong with him. ER found nothing obvious. Not sure but I could almost swear vet fussed at me - no idea why, think they believe I'm exagerating or making it up or something...but my little 1.5yr old, 5lb Maltese boy is very, very sick, and I just don't know what to do for him. So I thought I'd ask if anyone out there has any idea what might be going on with him.
I appologize ahead of time as I will likely have to break this into sections and post part today, part tomorrow as I need to get some sleep for work tomorrow.
It started one day about 2 weeks ago. He was standing around, back arched like a Halloween cat. He appeared to be in pain. I thought maybe it was gastro-intestinal distress. His body was rigid. He wouldn't lie down or sit down. He shreeked when I touched him. His little body was trembling. I watched him for a little while. When things didn't get any better I wisked him away to the ER. We sat for the obligatory hours. By the time we saw the vet, the symptoms had passed. A very slow and careful exam and x-rays showed nothing. At my urging they gave him a shot for pain.
The next day he was fine. 2 days later, similiar symptoms returned. It has happened several times since then. Each time I want to rush him to the ER again, but after my last such experience...
Each time I watch him go through this, I'm more confused as to what is going on. Sometimes it looks like his stomach hurts, like he's having cramps, like he's straining, like any minute he's going to "go" on the floor - but he doesn't. Sometimes I wonder if he has some kind of spinal injury or something like that. His back and neck are usually rigid, and he whines and screams and cries when I touch his neck or back or try to pick him up (remember he only ways 5lbs). When it happens he almost always refuses to lie down or sit. He'll stand around for an hour or more doing nothing. If he does lie down, he'll whince or groan on the way down. Often he lets out a shreek if I touch him no matter how gently.
Recently, I've begun to think maybe he's experiencing really bad anxiety. He trembles and stands around looking almost catatonic. He won't eat or drink or play or "go" outside. If I take him outside (fenced back yard), he just stands in the same spot endlessly doing nothing, motionless, frozen like a tiny statue. When I call him to come inside, he doesn't respond. I have to go out, pick him up (at which point he screams as though I'm killing him), bring him in and set him down where he then stands like a tiny floor ornament.
I tried giving him Benadryl to see if that helped. It didn't. Eventually, he slept only to wake the same. Last night he was particularly "bad". He seemed tortured. I gave him Zanax partly to ease his obvious distress and partly to test the anxiety theory. (When he was younger he was "attacked" by a pit bull. Thankfully, he got away without serious physical harm. The vet prescribed a handful of Zanax to help with the emotional baggage.) It was amazing. About 15 minutes after taking the Zanax, he got up and retrieved the dog treat he had previously shown no interest in. I offered him food, and he ate like he had been starving, both in quantity and urgency. Then he drank a boatload of water, walked outside and did everything like normal, and when he came back in he went straight over to his toy chest to shop for play things. I tossed his ball for him. He ran and played and fetched. He was his "normal" self. It was a miracle.
Tonight I took him to his vet. He's absolutely terrified of the car. (When I bought him I had him flown here from TX, and he has been afraid of the car ever since.) While there he was panting and such. When we got home he went back into the "catatonic" state, standing around all rigid and hunched up, his little body visibly lurching and trembling and "cramping" up. While I fixed dinner, he stood around like that looking "goofy". He refused to "go" outside. I had to take him out, put him down, pick him up, and bring him back in - like a plastic dog ornament. I don't normally give him people food but in desperation I offered him a tiny bit of hamburger - which he promply REFUSED despite the fact that he had not eaten all day.
After dinner, I picked him up to put him on the bed. He screamed as though I were torturing him, as though his very skin were on fire. His little body was as rigid as steel. When I tried to gently stroke his back he screamed out in pain. I put him beside me on the bed and it seemed as though I'd have to "break" him to get him to lie down. Slowly, like ice melting on a cold day, he ever so slowly eased down a little at a time but always he kept his nose pointed straight up into the air such that his back/neck formed a "board" straight line from the top of his hips to the tip of his nose. Once when I "jarred" him by breathing too deeply, he shrieked and ran away to the other side of the bed - as thought the slightest movement caused him unbearable pain. Earlier the vet had told me NOT to give him any more Zanax. I couldn't stand to see him SO very distressed. The Zanax had helped the night before. I gave it to him again. I slept for a little while. When I awoke he was "normal" again.
Help! (We are awaiting results of a full series of blood tests. The vet says he seems otherwise very healthy.)
