Old dog fainting
Discussion
Hi all,
We have a Jack Russel and Pug cross who was adopted by us 12 .5 years ago as a rescue and is now about 13 years old. He is diabetic on 2 injections a day and suffered from a bad bout of pancreatitis at the end of 2017 which is controlled with low fat food. He is also on an anti inflammatory due to arthritis. He still eats well and enjoys his short walks,toys and being with his people.
Over the last 6 weeks or so something else has developed. If he gets excited e.g. barking at the delivery man or seeing someone he “faints” for a couple of seconds. He goes to the floor with his limbs stretched out and on a couple of these has lost control of his bowels or bladder on 2 occasions. This has happened 5 times in total and for most of the time he is fine. It has however happened twice this week with the second one after less excitement.
He is fine straight after and it lasts literally a couple of seconds.
We are keeping him as calm as possible. We’ve spoken to the vet but due to the fact that he hates going to the vet and gets very stressed we are reluctant to take him in in case it causes something even worse. We’ve listened to his heart which sound ok.
Any thoughts would be welcome. In the past I’ve appreciated the help I’ve had for him here
This is the thread with photos of him from his diabetes diagnosis
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Thanks all.
We have a Jack Russel and Pug cross who was adopted by us 12 .5 years ago as a rescue and is now about 13 years old. He is diabetic on 2 injections a day and suffered from a bad bout of pancreatitis at the end of 2017 which is controlled with low fat food. He is also on an anti inflammatory due to arthritis. He still eats well and enjoys his short walks,toys and being with his people.
Over the last 6 weeks or so something else has developed. If he gets excited e.g. barking at the delivery man or seeing someone he “faints” for a couple of seconds. He goes to the floor with his limbs stretched out and on a couple of these has lost control of his bowels or bladder on 2 occasions. This has happened 5 times in total and for most of the time he is fine. It has however happened twice this week with the second one after less excitement.
He is fine straight after and it lasts literally a couple of seconds.
We are keeping him as calm as possible. We’ve spoken to the vet but due to the fact that he hates going to the vet and gets very stressed we are reluctant to take him in in case it causes something even worse. We’ve listened to his heart which sound ok.
Any thoughts would be welcome. In the past I’ve appreciated the help I’ve had for him here
This is the thread with photos of him from his diabetes diagnosis
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Thanks all.
There are a million things that could be going on. Your best bet really is to take him to the vet. It sounds as though it may be progressing and it would be much better that he arrives before some kind of crisis.
Bloods would be a good idea to rule out a lot of stuff.
His resting (ie when he's asleep on the sofa) heart and respiratory rate would be something easy that you can check at home. When you say you have listened to his heart, I take it there is no murmur, what is the rate and rhythm, how is his pulse quality?
Being a pug cross, respiratory issues would be high up my list. Does he cough, particularly before collapsing or at any particular time of day, or with exercise? What is his heart rate like when he collapses or immediately after? Equally respiratory rate. Has his exercise tolerance changed over the last few months? Any other changes in his demeanour etc etc.
My honest advice would be to book an appointment with your regular vet tomorrow, there's nothing like having the animal in front of you.
Best of luck
Bloods would be a good idea to rule out a lot of stuff.
His resting (ie when he's asleep on the sofa) heart and respiratory rate would be something easy that you can check at home. When you say you have listened to his heart, I take it there is no murmur, what is the rate and rhythm, how is his pulse quality?
Being a pug cross, respiratory issues would be high up my list. Does he cough, particularly before collapsing or at any particular time of day, or with exercise? What is his heart rate like when he collapses or immediately after? Equally respiratory rate. Has his exercise tolerance changed over the last few months? Any other changes in his demeanour etc etc.
My honest advice would be to book an appointment with your regular vet tomorrow, there's nothing like having the animal in front of you.
Best of luck
A vet will need to work this one out. We had the same with our Jack Russell. It turns out she has a heart murmur that we didn’t know about. When she got excited she would faint as the scar tissue in her heart blocked the blood flow to her brain. Sadly once that started she didn’t last very long. Hopefully it’s not that but yeah you need to see the vet
OP. Hope you had a good outcome at the vet this morning.
May I give a big THANK YOU to our professionals who post on this forum.
Sitting at home with an undiagnosed pet, waiting to book the vet appointment the following morning can be a lonely time.
Seeing you give your time, to alleviate the worry, is heart warming.
May I give a big THANK YOU to our professionals who post on this forum.
Sitting at home with an undiagnosed pet, waiting to book the vet appointment the following morning can be a lonely time.
Seeing you give your time, to alleviate the worry, is heart warming.
garythesign said:
OP. Hope you had a good outcome at the vet this morning.
May I give a big THANK YOU to our professionals who post on this forum.
Sitting at home with an undiagnosed pet, waiting to book the vet appointment the following morning can be a lonely time.
Seeing you give your time, to alleviate the worry, is heart warming.
Firstly can I echo the sentiments above. The help is very much appreciated.May I give a big THANK YOU to our professionals who post on this forum.
Sitting at home with an undiagnosed pet, waiting to book the vet appointment the following morning can be a lonely time.
Seeing you give your time, to alleviate the worry, is heart warming.
Alf has had a good day with no repeat episodes. We spent a while with the vet who took blood and we await the results. He’s also,going to do an X-ray next week. He listened to Alfs heart and said that he couldn’t hear any issues with it. His first thought was that there is an obstruction to part of an artery which affects the flow of blood when he’s excited. No decision yet on treatment.
Thanks again. I’ll update as news comes.
Definitely, we was in the vets 3.30am Monday morning, as our gorgeous boy nali was breathing differently, emergency vet checked heart, chest, temperature and found nothing to worry about, turns out first stages of pneumonia, we lost him less than 12 hours later. How can a gorgeous chihuahua leave such a massive hole, the what ifs has made it so much worse. Good luck and do question everything, of course we googled pnuemonia and looking back some symptoms were there, but as he's always had nasal issues, was looked at that's just what it was. Only when we sent a video to our regular vets, they spotted elevated head and breathing fast, and we was told to go straight in, unfortunately too late.
Sleep tight little man , every thing crossed for your lovely one
Sleep tight little man , every thing crossed for your lovely one
So sorry for your loss Mex. I am thinking of you and dread the day it comes for us.
We had the blood test results earlier which showed a slightly low white and red cell count which the vet was not concerned about but his sugars were up at 26 and this was about 3 hours after his morning injection and meal. The vet thought that possibly the fainting was connected to high sugars and a lack of ability to cope with the excitement as a result with this also possibly adding to a pre-disposition to fainting.
We haven't seen any signs of poor control and he was obviously stressed going to the vet but we will do some more monitoring and see if we are advised to adjust the doses. We keep very rigidly to the mealtimes, amounts and exercise etc anyway.
Better news than I was anticipating I suppose.
Thanks for all the replies and help which is very much appreciated. It means a lot when professionals give up their time to help and equally I appreciate the kind thoughts of all those who empathise and add their knowledge.
We had the blood test results earlier which showed a slightly low white and red cell count which the vet was not concerned about but his sugars were up at 26 and this was about 3 hours after his morning injection and meal. The vet thought that possibly the fainting was connected to high sugars and a lack of ability to cope with the excitement as a result with this also possibly adding to a pre-disposition to fainting.
We haven't seen any signs of poor control and he was obviously stressed going to the vet but we will do some more monitoring and see if we are advised to adjust the doses. We keep very rigidly to the mealtimes, amounts and exercise etc anyway.
Better news than I was anticipating I suppose.
Thanks for all the replies and help which is very much appreciated. It means a lot when professionals give up their time to help and equally I appreciate the kind thoughts of all those who empathise and add their knowledge.
26 is pretty high, but as it was just a random sample it is difficult to draw conclusions from.
it certainly warrants further investigation - a curve, fructosamine or if you like tech, I would suggest googling "Freestyle Libre 2".
Equally the fainting may well be nothing to do with the diabetes... Best of luck.
it certainly warrants further investigation - a curve, fructosamine or if you like tech, I would suggest googling "Freestyle Libre 2".
Equally the fainting may well be nothing to do with the diabetes... Best of luck.
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