Lethergic dog (again!)

[tagg]

Hi everyone!

Last month we tool our spayed American eskimo to the vet. She was lethargic and wanted to stand, she would also intermittently yelp, and our little "pinball machine" would not even respond to us, and seemed to limp a bit.

The vet examined her, for musculature damage, skeletal, etc. Like now, she would tense up, if you put pressure on her belly. They kept her overnight to do a baruim test, along with blood,fecal. went to pick her up the next day and guess what! They found nothing wrong with her and shes her usual pinball self. and a bill for $550!

This is the 3rd day, and shes doing exactly the same thing. Nothing in her environment has changed, and this is the 3rd month in a row!

Does anyone have any suggestions? We love our dog dearly but we cant spend upward of $7000 a year to keep taking to the vet!

[luckypenny]

She gets this way for a few days at one month intervals? Are you occasionally giving her special treats such as rawhide bones?

How old is your dog? What are you feeding her?

If your vet can't figure out what's happening, I'd suggest seeking the advice of another one . Bring her file and test results with you.

[tagg]

could it be frontline? I havent paid any attention to the timing, but we give her frontline every month. At the onset of this, she looks like shes seeing things, like shes hallucinating. Could she have a neurological reaction to her flea med?

[luckypenny]

I can't answer that question for you unfortunately. I do know though, that one of our dogs has a reaction to his topical parasiticide as well so we're looking into alternatives for him. Perhaps if you speak to your vet, he may have a better idea.

[SnowDancer]

I have a 4 1/2 year old Male, neutered American Eskimo. He has never exhibited such symptoms - although occasionally, when younger - say less than a year he would decide he had walked far enough when we had just gone on our normal route - and if your Eskie is like mine, walks can be a nightmare when they see something they want to bark at and they do want to walk everywhere but straight ahead. I was concerned that perhaps he had a health issue, but he didn't - just growing pains. Your posts did not state how old your dog is. Since your vet has done a full work-up and you did indicate skeletal - I am assuming this meant a check for patellar luxation and cruciate ligament. We do not give your dog Frontline - he is now on chewable Sentinel - has been for past 2 years. Initially we gave him topical Revolution (which if I recall correctly does have a flea treatment built in) but due to the double ruff around his neck, the manufacturers told vets that unless people with double-coated dogs actualy shaved a spot to apply the topical or were very good at getting all of the topical on to the skin, they should go to the chewable route - thank heavens for that. The Sentinel I do not believe has a flea treatment, but so far no fleas and he tolerates it well. He is actually on it for 12 months a year now - started this last year as apparently due to our warmer??? Toronto winters, many dogs have been coming down with roundworm etc. during January and the Sentinel helps prevent this. Your profile does not indicate where you live so not sure which products are available to you. Perhaps you should change the Heartworm/Fle med after speaking with your vet - or another vet. You might also lurk over on the Eskimo specific site www.eskie.net - and do a search to see if others have had same problem. I know that some dogs have had issues with certain meds - just a matter of searching. I like to do a quick daily look just to see what is new in Eskiedom healthwise and also found an answer to prevent yellowing of eyes and a food alternative for my guy on that site.