Today's Little Drama

sheeny (Al) · #1 29-11-2012, 03:57 PM

I'm on leave ATM and just got back home last night. We have 2 dogs, our staffy and the young fella, Graham, who lives with us has a blue cattle dog pup nearly a year old.

We noticed the pup behaving a bit oddly last night and a bit worse this morning. Everyone else went to work and school and when I left to go and collect the mail I noticed the pup following the dividing fence between the two paddocks.

When I got back it was nowhere to be found. I searched the whole place twice, one hasty search and a more thorough one by about midday when Jarita got home. She and a friend did another search as did I... stinking hot weather for Oberon (>31°C) then we called Graham and he came home from work to help. While Jarita got on her horse did a search of our place again (higher vantage and able to see better into the long grass) and her and Graham searched the neighbours' paddocks, I got the binos out and moved from shady spot to shady spot

and scanned further a field.

I eventually spotted her about 1 to 1.5 ks away following a fenceline (part of the odd behaviour we noticed). Graham headed off cross country with a radio and I directed him to where I had seen her. By the time he got there she was trapped with her head through an opening in a pretty small ring lock fence, so Graham has called me for bolt cutters.

I keep the bolt cutters in the recovery kit in the truck so I decide the drive over. Into the front of the property, no one home... 4 paddocks later... I can't get there from here.

Back out and down the road to the next property and eventually I get there. We cut her free and make good the fence, but she's not well (Graham's had a bit of a work out too running a few ks in this heat the day after he had an ingrown toenail removed!

).

The little pup is at the vet's ATM. I am intrigued to know what the problem is... it was drooling more than usual (now frothing by the time we found her), keeps wanting to follow fences or walls, just walks in a straight line regardless of obstacles till it finds a wall or fence, seems to be looking for small places and corners to hide in.

Weird. This morning we figured she might have been in pain for some reason. Hopefully we will find out soon.

20 years of search and rescue (and astronomy as a hobby) just paid off (again!

) this morning!

Al.

Octane (Humayun) · #2 29-11-2012, 04:30 PM

Great that you found the poor thing, but, really sorry to hear of her condition.

Hope all works out for the best.

H

blink138 (Pat) · #3 29-11-2012, 04:46 PM

sounds like she may be blind? following fences smacks of disorientation too, they have good noses so they would know where home was even if sight may be lost
poor little bugger.... does not bode well for her though by the sounds of it
pat

scagman (John) · #4 29-11-2012, 04:53 PM

Hi Al.

I'm glad you found her and hope she checks out well from the vet. Its horrible seeing them in distress or sick and them not being able to convey whats wrong. One of our dogs "Hettie" 7-8yr old staffie, is going in tomorrow to have a leg removed at the pelvis after having surgery a couple of months ago to remove cancer.

Colin_Fraser · #5 29-11-2012, 04:55 PM

Some dogs get SARD (sudden acquired retinal degeneration). My Wilson suffered from it. He was blind for a couple of weeks before we picked it up.
Hope your dog is okay. The foaming of the mouth may only be distress or exhaustion.

sheeny (Al) · #6 29-11-2012, 05:43 PM

Thanks guys,

Quote:

Originally Posted by scagman

Hi Al.

One of our dogs "Hettie" 7-8yr old staffie, is going in tomorrow to have a leg removed at the pelvis after having surgery a couple of months ago to remove cancer.

Sorry to hear Hettie's got to go through that, but if they get it all she could still have some quality time on 3 legs. Dogs are remarkably adaptable like that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colin_Fraser

The foaming of the mouth may only be distress or exhaustion.

Here's hoping. It was (still is!) a very hot day by Oberon standards and she'd obviously been moving continuously.

I'm just glad to have found her at this stage. We wouldn't have found her at all without the binos.

Al.

Nico13 (Ken) · #7 30-11-2012, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blink138

sounds like she may be blind? following fences smacks of disorientation too, they have good noses so they would know where home was even if sight may be lost
poor little bugger.... does not bode well for her though by the sounds of it
pat

That was my first thoughts as well other than possibly having been bitten by something.
Hope all goes well Al, give it a hug from me and the missus we love our animals as well.

sheeny (Al) · #8 30-11-2012, 08:24 PM

Thanks Ken.

She's having her second night at the vets. When we spoke to the vet this morning he was of the opinion that she was just suffering from heatstroke and she was right to go, but Lyn informed him quite firmly there was a problem before she went walkabout and got heat struck. The third time we had to tell them!

Fortunately, they took a bit of notice this time (don't mess with Lyn!

) and they observed her behaving like she was recovering from a fit.

Hopefully, they'll work it out. They also X-Rayed her gut - all clear.

I omitted the fact that when I pulled the blankets out of the kennel while looking for her (the blankets were hanging out the door and had got wet) I found half a fishing lure hooked up on the blankets. Hence the request for an X-Ray.

Hopefully we'll get her back tomorrow and we'll have a better idea what is/was wrong.

Al.

Kunama · #9 30-11-2012, 09:14 PM

Hi Al, hopefully the little pup recovers well, the behavior did sound like heatstroke but as you said the odd behavior began before the heat exposure.
Best of luck,
Matt

brian nordstrom (As avatar) · #10 30-11-2012, 09:21 PM

Sounds like cane toad poisoning ?
Hope its gonna be ok .
Brian.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nico13

That was my first thoughts as well other than possibly having been bitten by something.
Hope all goes well Al, give it a hug from me and the missus we love our animals as well.

Deeno · #11 30-11-2012, 09:36 PM

Could be a tick...if so the vet should have found it.

fingers crossed she comes good

brian nordstrom (As avatar) · #12 30-11-2012, 10:07 PM

yea deep in the ear? ( I have seen this as well )
Brian.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deeno

Could be a tick...if so the vet should have found it.

fingers crossed she comes good

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #13 30-11-2012, 10:16 PM

Hmmmm our old girl got bitten by a baby brown snake and had a similar reaction. She was very ill for 3 days, then rallied.

I hope your little one comes good very soon. It's so distressing to see them ill.