[Hannah1]

Hi. My Labrador is 4years old (almost 5 years). He has always been the most placid dog, smiling, gentle and happy. However, the week before Christmas he started to act differently. He kept wanting to go outside and lie either in his kennel or out on the grass and wouldn’t come in unless I dragged him in by scruff of his neck and/or put his lead on. He is eating and drinking fine and toileting ok. I have taken him to the vets and they think it is pain in his spine and hips as he was not happy when they touched that area. He was prescribed 3 weeks of anti inflammatory and strong pain killers. They have made no difference to his behaviour at all and I don’t see any sign of pain or discomfort in him at all. He jumps on the sofa with us but seems anxious and nervous, shaking a lot. He loves walking and belts around the field loving it.He seems unsettled and not right at all. He had an X-ray today which showed everything with his hips and bone structure to be fine. The vet now wants him on same medication plus tramadol as well but I am not sure as we have seen no affects of this medication at all. This feels like a lot of medication. The vet also wants him to have physio on his muscles around the hips and lower back area. I am concerned it is something else.
I hope somebody can help as I am not sure what to do?
Regards,
Hannah

 

[JohnW]

Obviously not being able to see and touch the dog makes it impossible to really form an opinion. But behaviour changes, and particularly behavioural changes in respect of a dog well past it's formative years and well before senility is likely to occur, must have a reason, some change, either to it's self, such as illness or injury, or changes to it's environment, and this is always the area to start looking, and a trip to the vet is always a good starting point.

Dogs are a very stoic creatures, they rarely complain, even when in pain. They just get on with it. Because dogs cant tell us vets are training in the art of examining stoic creatures, the art of prodding and poking in order to provoke a reaction which will identify the source of a problem.