Millie is a bit ill.  The first thing I noticed was when we went to take her out last night and OH walked to the car leaving the door open she just sat on the doorstep waiting for me and didn't make a bolt for it.  Then she sat in the road and didn't seem excited about getting in the car until I went and picked her up (although admittedly she had just got a faceful of diesel smoke, which would put me off too).

She had squiddly poos straight after arriving at the park, but was fine running around having an absolute ball chasing moths and came home and slept mostly.  At bedtime she refused to go out for a wee and I discovered she hadn't eaten all of her dinner earlier (which was tuna no less so unlike her!) and she wouldn't come upstairs to bed either.

OH phoned me at 8.30 to say she had refused to go out for a wee when he got up about 6.30 and was sitting in her cage in the lean-to (she hasn't got in her cage for about 3 months now, in protest!) and that I should go down and check and I came down to find she'd just been sick (all the tuna from last night, lovely!). 

She's had some water (drank plenty last night and I've watched her have a good drink today so that's okay) and now she's dozing under my feet.  I'm not too worried, suspecting possibly a tummy bug or something - she's obviously not herself, but she's drinking, has only been sick once - the difficult thing is she's not a morning dog - doesn't do anything until well after midday other than sleep so its hard to guage how she is.  I have a driving lesson at 3pm today and I don't know whether to go or whether to cancel it to keep an eye on her, but I'm just wondering what kind of thing I should be looking for to understand how ill she is.  I don't drive and can't get her to the vets until OH comes home after about 6.30pm anyway (obviously if it was an emergency i would beg a taxi firm to take me or something) but I don't think vets is necessary at this stage, particularly if its just a stomach upset, but just wondered of any things I should be looking for - I don't have a thermometer and wouldn't have a clue about taking temperature anyway so that's out so its visible symptoms really.

Thanks for any advice...

Hi Jess

How are things?

It is hard to advise without seeing Millie I'm afraid so could be why you haven't had any answers.

As a caring owner we get to know our own dogs and what is normal so, as you have, we pick up quickly when they are "not quite right"

Is she crying at all, panting considerably (difficult one as weather is hot - here at least), extra fidgety and unable to get comfortable, been sick again?

I always think that if the dog is depressed it is time to see a vet unless you know why it is withdrawn. So in this case I think I would be getting the vet to take a look, as Sara says it is only the owner who knows when the dog is not right and to what degree.

Yeah, I agree with that about not being able to see which is why I wasn't going to post anything, but I am grateful for your tips on things to look for.

She isn't crying, or panting, and all she has done so far this morning is sleep - but that's what she does every morning so its hard to judge - I've got the fan on her today as it has been really hot here for about two weeks now - we haven't had any storms or rain, just hot weather over 25 so she could be fed up with the weather. 

I don't know if she's depressed, as she was having lots of fun over the park last night, as happy as can be.  However, we have had a change in circumstance whereby one of OH's workmates has come to stay as he has been chucked out again.  He actually came in February and Millie went off her food so I said he had to go (used it as an excuse really ;-)) as I think that was about the time she completely went off Pedigree and we ended up changing it.  But I was ready to watch for any signs of changes in her behaviour when he came back to stay on Tuesday - she absolutely loves him and gets dead excited when he gets home and follows him around everywhere, but that's not to say that the adjustment in her home life wouldn't upset her.  However, I think as she has been sick, it looks more to be a bug than any upset that he is here.  She was sick a second time this morning after posting, but hasn't been sick since (about 4 hours now), and shortly after the second time, she asked to get up on her table at the window to watch the world go by for a bit which was promising, as this is a regular thing for her to do.

I decided not to go on my driving lesson in the end, as she does try to eat her sick back up which I wouldn't be here to prevent, plus I didn't want to add stress by going out and leaving her alone for an hour.  I think she's going to be okay, OH will be home in a couple of hours anyway if I felt the need to go to the vets.  I emailed my sister who said her dog had been sick last night and they were both at the same fun dog show on Sunday so it could be something they picked up there, but he is also walking with a limp now.  She might take him to the vets tonight, and when she gets home about 4.15 she's going to let me know how he is and if he's still ill and have similar symptoms then we'll both take them to the vets as picking something up could then be a possibility.

Blimey she's sitting underneath my chair now and all of a sudden has terribly smelly wind!

I'm wondering if its heat exhaustion.  I'm feeling it myself today, and as she is a black dog, she soaks up the heat a lot (although other than 15 minutes yesterday morning, I don't think she's actually spent any time in the sun) but it is really hot.

I know that when I'm on holiday I always pay attention to taking on board extra salt as well as water - even though I don't normally put salt on my food in England.  I wasn't sure if this would apply to dogs too, so I've just been looking at the net and found a site that says:

"* Bi-carbonate of soda is the main salt that is lost and is therefore the most important to replace. Give large dogs one flat teaspoon daily (half to small size) in the food, double in very hot weather. Dogs do not like it in the water."

Now funnily enough I bought some bi-carb the other to put in my ashtrays (long story) but it sounds really odd to me - can anyone confirm whether this is a good idea or not?

If the body is losing salts you need an electrolyte replacement such as Lectade that you can get from your vets or you could use dioralyte from the chemist. 

Better than HC03 IMHO

woah, too technical for me!

I don't know if that's what it is - in fact she seems to have perked up in the past few minutes and is hanging round the kitchen (indicating she wants feeding) so I have put some rice in the microwave.  I think she's getting better :-D

Hi

Just to let you know Millie seemed much better on Friday night, ate some rice, went for a wee, went round the block for a walk, but she was ill again on Saturday.  She was passing terrible smelling wind constantly every 30 seconds or so from 8.30am (hence my other thread on flatulence!) and when I got home at 4.30, OH said she had been doing it constantly the whole time I was out.  She was lying in the hall passing wind and whining and wouldn't get up, if she did, she could hardly walk, she was like an old dog, not a 9 month old puppy.  I decided to phone the emergency vet who told me to bring her in tomorrow (ie Sunday, today) morning and to give her water with salt and sugar and to ring her later if I was worried.  By 9pm she hadn't drunk any of the solution (of course, she's not silly) and wouldn't walk to us if called.  I had to lift her off the settee because she couldn't get down by herself and whenever she tried to stand, she would get her front legs up, but couldn't get her back legs up and would give up, and just laid there in the hall refusing to move or go anywhere so I decided to ring the vet again.  She told me to get her in the car and bring her in and at the vets, she confirmed she didn't have a temperature, her chest was fine and she wasn't dehydrated but on feeling her stomach she was very tense and sore so she had a couple of injections and she gave us some food and told us to still bring her back tomorrow morning (today).

She was much perkier this morning, and after taking her temp, they gave us some antibiotics and she does seem much brighter, and is walking about and the lodger just came in telling me he has a present - it was a dog poo bag containing a hard poo - lol, I've had better presents!!

So it seems it was probably gastroenteritis, and that she couldn't stand because of the pain, rather than because she was too weak, which was my worry, but then I'm not to know that - all I know is that my puppy who should be flinging herself on and off the furniture and doing laps of the garden was instead unable to stand or walk, and when she did walk was walking like a 17 year old dog - in fact a 17 year old dog would have walked out to the garden faster than she did, so even though OH has told me off, and said she only had a belly ache and I shouldn't have taken her to the vets, I'm glad I did, my theory being that having seen her at 10pm Saturday, she wouldn't have insisted we still brought her back at 10am Sunday for emergency opening hours if it wasn't anything to worry about!

Glad thing are on the mend but sorry for you and the poor pup. IMO it is worth calling the vet and being wrong 9 times out of 10 than not doing it the one time it is needed. Mind you I do understand that some people can't afford to do so and that must be a real worry.