Is Something Wrong With Chad?

[Guest jvandover]

Chad was laying on his new bed sleeping/resting peacefully, and the wife and I were watching TV. Out of the blue, he lifts his heard to turn and look at me, and he is panting. Immediately this throws up a red flag as I only know him to pant when he is hot, or distressed. Unlikely to be hot, as it is ~70 in my house, it was warmer than usual for Jan today (60-65) but not hot for sure. I then hear a kind of gurgly noise, I don't know if it was tummy or mouth. I rush him out back, where he wonders like normal for a bit, finds a spot to pee, and poops a bit. He comes back in, I let him back upstairs. He lays down, and immediately starts panting. I get dressed and take him out on a walk at this point, he pants pretty much throughout, it is about 50-53 degrees out. While on the walk he goes poop, looks totally normal, but resumes panting afterwards. Also through out the walk he keeps pausing and looking back at me, not that he usually pulls but he usually only stops if I tell him to with my voice or the leash. I pushed a little on his tummy and felt his tail (see note below) to see if he would react, but got nothing.

 

Anybody experience something like this? Is anything wrong, or am I reading into it?

 

 

 

*I should also mention that he currently has a bandaged tail for a rather large open wound. But that has been ongoing for over a month at this point, and is really progressing great, with the entire wound filled in at this point with granulation tissue.

[seeh2o]

My first thought was possible bloat because of the panting and gurgling stomach. If he tries to throw up, but can't or his stomach seems to be getting big and/or he starts trying to stretch a lot I would head to the e-vet immediately. When either of my two have a gurgling stomach I give them Gas-X just in case, to head off possible bloat. Just the regular Gas-X, though. I give two pills.

 

Sending you and Chad good thoughts.

Edited February 1, 2012 by seeh2o

[Guest jvandover]

He seems to be relaxing now. Hopefully it was nothing. We will see through the night.

[silverfish]

It sounds as if he was in some kind of discomfort, probably trapped gas.

 

Trapped gas can be very painful. However, it isn't the same thing as bloat, and it isn't dangerous, jut uncomfortable. However, it's a good thing to be aware of bloat symptoms since bloatt IS a medical emergency.

 

Panting, pacing, unproductive attempts to vomit, drooling, and either repeated attempts to drink water or eat grass are all symptomatic of bloat. In many cases you see a swollen abdomen which can be enough to distort the rib cage, but in some cases you see no swelling at all.

 

I would err on the side of caution and call the vet if he starts to get more and more distressed and unsettled, or if it continues for long, but if he settles back to sleep and seems fine, then it should be OK to wait it out.

[Guest IrskasMom]

Even it was about in the lower 60 my Morty was panting to. I think it was nothing to get upset over. Give that Boy Chad a gentle Hug :)

[Gryffenne]

Sammi also has started panting. yesterday was unseasonably warm, and she felt hot, so I cooled the house off for her, since I was overheating until I changed into a tee shirt & scrub pants from my fleece. Drinking lots of water, too.

 

Her stools were normal, so were her pee breaks. No straining either time. No attempts to vomit. She ate b'fast and lunch fine, turned her nose up at dinner. THAT is very strange for her, as she is extremely food motivated. She ate a piece of cheese I handed her tho, so thought maybe she just doesn't like that dog food, or if she was feeling under the weather, didn't feel like eating.

 

No pacing. Well, unless you consider getting up from one sleeping spot and going to get a drink of water then coming over to me to pant on me while I pet her and then laying back down again to be pacing,, that is her normal "in between napping spots" routine.

 

Bedtime came with her accepting her bedtime biscuit less than enthusiastically, but still plopped down on her bed in my room with it like every night.

 

This morning, ate half of her b'fast, normal potty break of 1 & 2, and started up her panting again. House is NOT hot, I am chilled in my tee shirt. No GSODS, tensing, pulling away or any signs of pain/discomfort when I felt her abdomen and tuck area. Her abdomen feels a bit firm, so heading out to grab some Gas-X for her.

 

Her only signs of issues are: slightly firm tummy, not rock hard. On and off panting. Slightly above normal water consumption. Slightly off on her food. Warm between her front legs/armpits areas.

 

Now, as an added question, I know that dogs can catch some Upper Resp bugs from us, can the catch other ones? We had a nasty stomach bug go through this house in the past 2 weeks. When i had it, i had body aches, stomach/lower abdomen pain (like PMDD cramps, but just above where those normally radiate from) excessive thirst, slight fever, no appetite. I only had the human D for 1 day of it. Basically everything that all of us that got the bug had, she's displaying.

Edited February 1, 2012 by Gryffenne