Interesting that someone else has just made a post about something very similar!

My terrier has had several episodes of what appears to be intense pain.  She has seen the vet on two occasions, and they have been unable to identify the cause of it.  Metacam made her violently sick and Tramadol made her gasp for air - the only drug which had a positive effect on one occasion was Prednicare, although when she had this two nights ago it had no visible effect (her pain continued for another 6 hrs).

It seems to come on suddenly - although she has occasionally been very clingy with me in the hours preceding an episode, so its possible she can feel it brewing.  When it starts in earnest, she goes very stiff in her hind legs, appearing to walk on tiptoes on her back feet, and is unwilling or unable to jump up.  I've also described her as looking like she's walking with an invisible bowling ball between her back legs!  Her back becomes slightly hunched and her tummy tucks up.  Her eyes bulge out of her head, her pupils are massively dilated, she gets very anxious and panicky, and she will pant heavily and frantically, as though gasping for air - on the last occasion, the whole episode lasted nearly 9 hrs, despite an emergency trip to the vet and a steroid injection.  I was up with her until 4.30am on Tues morning!

Durting the episodes, her temperature is generally normal, her gums are pink and moist, her nose is cool and wet, and she will continue to take treats even when panting heavily (i.e if I give her medication).  Unusual, as she is normally extremely fussy and picky about food at the best of times.

The vets say its all a bit of a mystery (they have investigated almost every possible cause, although she has only had x-rays and not a scan of the spine as yet).  This last time they suggested treating it as a stress reaction (they gave her Zylkene??).

I'm thinking its maybe abdominal pain....like trapped wind, or a spasm?  Any other ideas I can consider?

Thanks!

I think you would be able to hear trapped wind, or certainly feel it, as the belly would be firm to the touch.  Spasm sounds like a reasonable guess, also slipped disk?  Perhaps a trapped nerve between vertebre(sp?) ?  Have you spoken to the vet about a chiropractor, to see if the pain is coming from the back?

Has she had a blood test for pancreatitis?

Well, her belly just below her rib cage was rigid, and she was a bit sensitive about having it touched - but when the vet palpated her there she was rigid all over with tension, and showed no reaction at all.

The initial episode of this pain - or certainly some kind of pain - lasted 3 weeks, and they did routine bloods (for all infection and abnormalities, but nothing specific such as for pancreatitis), did x-rays of the spine and pelvis, and even tested for lymes disease and other blood infections (which could cause muscular pain).  They found nothing at all, and only two courses of steroids were "keeping the dog normal", as the vets described it.  She very slowly came right again, but we had to reintroduce normal exercise very slowly, as she was reluctant to walk any distance.

They seemed to expect to see a faint outline on the x-ray of a slipped disc, so they have ruled it out (also on the basis that she is fine in between episodes).  I guess a trapped nerve could only be found with a scan, but could well be intermittent.....

Pancreatitis, hmmm......will go look that up (not that I really want to go to the vet with an internet diagnosis, but I guess I could raise it as a possibility!)

Have you had experience of that Bucksmum, do you think the symptoms are connected?

EDIT Having read up on pancreatitis, I'm not sure - yes the pain is acute, yes she breathes rapidly and appears to have abdominal pain.  But she never vomits during an episode, and her bowel movements are normal, although I must admit she does get the occasionally yellow greasy one.  She is on a raw diet (beef or chicken or tripe with veggies), but hubby admits that she regularly gets scraps at work - usually cooked chicken, but sometimes a share of people food which could well be high in fat.

She is not overweight (she's under, if anything), and gets tons of exercise.

Maybe that is enough to suggest it to the vet?  Wouldn't the routine bloods have picked up an increase in white cell count or certain enzymes?  She didn't have blood tests this time.

Hi Susie72,
One of my terriers died back in may aged 16.She had very similair symptoms to yours,rigid abdomen,trembling in pain,no appetite.She would have an episode like this probably about once a month.The only thing that seemed to keep the attacks away was steroids.The vets were convinced it was pancreatitis so a specific blood test was done which took about ten day to come back.The result was it was not pancreatitis.
I just wanted to say that the symptoms you describe were so much like my girls that our vets were sure it was pancreatitis,so it may be worth mentioning it to your vet to see if he thinks it's a possibility.
Incidentally, they eventually put her problems down to IBS,i wasn't convinced but as she was 16 years old i would not put her through an explorotory op and the steroids were keeping the painful attacks away.
I hope you get some answers,it's horrible not knowing x

Wow.  Thank you for that......she's a patterdale terrier, not a yorkie or a mini schnauzer, but not far between the two in type and build!  She is only two years old and is rather lean - she's never had much of an appetite and races around on adrenaline all day long, we can't get any weight on her at all.

She has had three episodes in all - possibly four.  If we call it four, two have been very brief - she shows sudden alarm and anxiety, looks around at her back end frequently and fusses or licks at her belly.  She needs to be as close as me as possible, during a recent attack she clambered up onto my shoulders and wouldn't move!  She will tremble and cower, won't show any interest in anything, and pants a little.  It usually passes by the following morning.

The other two have been worse - this recent one, where the panting and dilated pupils and glueing herself to me were extreme and she couldn't even doze, lasted 9 hrs.  Her earliest episode (if we are assuming that all these attacks are linked) lasted two to three weeks, although she was actually diagnosed with muscular back pain of unknown origin.  Her early symptoms were very similar, and only steroids kept her close to normal - without them she would quickly be unable to walk far, and be anxious and trembling and panting.

Its all very strange.  Will the vet think me rude or obnoxious if i call and mention testing for pancreatitis?  I don't want to be a know-all dog owner. :(

I wouldn't have thought the vets would mind,my approach is normally i say a friend has experienced this and could they test for it to rule it out as a possibility.She did initially have an in house blood panel done but the vet said it was not accurate enough to rule out pancreatitis so we went for the special blood test.
Just to add she never had any vomiting either,except for the yellow bile (hungry sick) and she never had diarreah but was told by my vet that they don't always have these symptoms.
When the symptoms started she was also on a raw food diet and funnily when i tried her again on dry food (burns) she did improve.
On her first attack she had blood checked and her kidneys,liver and pancreas were all functioning so poorly that things were looking pretty dire.
In desparation she was put on steroids,quite a high dose to start with,re checked blood a week later and the ranges were all back to normal.
Never did find out what was going on inside her but the steroids kept it in check until her kidneys failed.
Oh and another thing,if she went for a longish period of time without food this could trigger an attack so she was fed 4 times a day,which made me suspect it could have been an ulcer.

That very interesting.....Nellie's appetite is so poor that we only feed her once a day, she is not interested the rest of the time.  She isn't a fan of dry food, she's been on raw for about 10 months.

She does vomit sometimes, generally grassy bile if she does it.

I assume the in house blood panel at the vets was all fine - they said nothing to indicate that any of her organs were not functioning normally.  But that was done back in March.

I might give them a call and just ask if I could pay for a test to be done........if only to rule it out.

Yes, Judy's appetite was poor,it was hard because she had less attacks on dry food but i always had to add something and was forever having to encourage her to eat.
Good luck with her,i hope you get some answers.

Thanks very much for your help...I think I will tentatively ask the vet if I can pay to have her tested.

If your dog has been neutered recently or has had puppies then strenuous exercise such as running too far or fast even playing catch with the ball may cause these symptoms... trembling, vomiting and general distress and pain, i was told this by a few vets after my terrier experienced this. during these episodes i offered her water and cuddles but not food and kept her calm after approx 12 hours she was almost back to her normal self. i'd advise keeping the dogs away from strenuous exercise unless undertaken by themselves and not encouraged to do so.