He is an 11yo Chocolate Lab. He’s not very interested in eating or drinking anything. This just started today. The vet’s assistant didn’t seem too worried, not saying that he didn’t care, but that it didn’t seem too serious.
Unfortunately, I don’t live near any 24 hour vet clinics. At this point, I need to just monitor and see if I can get him in anywhere tomorrow.
Obviously something happened today..damn, I wish you lived near an Animal Hospital. If your dog wanted to eat and drink I’d feel a little bit better about things but something is definitely wrong. The assistant wouldn’t know anything, you need to talk to an actual doctor. What I suggest doing is calling an Animal Hospital(even one not close to you) just to ask what the problem might be, and if its serious enough you gotta bring him in
your dog shows the same symptoms that my 14 year old dog showed a few months ago. She was unable to walk and had nysagmus.(darting back and forth of the eyes) She would also tilt her head to the side and hold it downward and when she could walk would walk in large circles. My vet diagnosed her with Geriatric vestibular disease.
http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/vestibular.html
It is NOT fatal and will clear on it’s own within several days to a week. The vet had me give her benadryl for the dizzyness she was experiencing from the nystagmus and to also control her nausea that comes with it. It did help and she recovered fine.
Even rural areas, especially rural areas, have vets around that will make house calls at all hours, so I’m not sure why you don’t have access to one.
Is he tilting his head pronouncedly to one side? That’s another symptom of vestibular syndrome.
If it’s vestibular syndrome, he’ll have trouble being coordinated enough to eat or drink until the inflammation in the nerves connecting his inner ear with the brain is resolved, you’ll need to hand feed him and bring him water. There’s also an effect akin to sea sickness, so don’t be surprised if he vomits.
As I mentioned, this is often misdiagnosed and good dogs end up being put down for no good reason, when this will resolve itself even without treatment in a few weeks. The head tilt sometimes persists, but the dog won’t mind it much.
If it were my dog, I’d be looking hard for qualified help, though. If he’s eaten something toxic, time could be short.
I hope you are going to be ok. When dogs stop eating and drinking it’s not a good sign. Keep your pup comfy .I remember my old girl Sabrina, black lab back in 1999.
For no apparent reason she stopped eating and drinking and went into our old big bathroom where the tile on the floor was cool. She refused to get up for 2 days . She also developed a body odor and stopped drinking water completely.
During that time I gave her a bubble bath with bubble wash and sang to her but her prognosis was not good. I put her on a blanket and dragged her into the hallway, sat down in the hallway and put her head on my lap. I stayed up with her singing softly to her and praying. She wasn’t much better by early mid-morning having stayed up with all night long. She was right outside my doorway. I lay down to catch a few z’s and drifted off and dreamed she passed. At 11am
I awoke suddenly and she was gone.
My prayers to you and your pup.