[c1axt]

i have a 9 year old golden retreiver and i think shes ill. we hope its nothing serious and wondered if anyone on here might be able to help as money is tight and a visit to the vets is quite expensive and if its nothing serious then maybe we wont have to take her.

if we cannot find out whats wrong with her by tomorrow morning then we will be taking her to the vets.

her symptoms are:
1. her ears keep twitching really often, something ive never seen her do before. her ears are clean and weve administered ear drops but shes still doing it.

2. she has been leaving runny stools in her toilet.

3. she has been drinking water well which is good im guessing to replace any lost fluid in the diherea.

4. she seems lethargic. took her for a walk the last two days and shes been lagging behind me and she doesnt look her normal self. today she didnt even want to go past our front gate and happily turned back.

someone please help.

[Lara's mom]

It could be a great many things. Your dog really needs to see a vet.

[c1axt]

really? that was really helpfull.

did you not read the post?? we dont have alot of money.
things are tuff at the moment and its important to me that my dog is well because she means so much to my mum. my mum suffers with S.A.D (seasonal affective disorder) and every winter she gets depressed. one year in perticular she was suicidal and losing her dog would be like losing a child and now going into winter could be devastating.

so thats the severity, do you think if i could afford to go to the vets i wouldve done so by now??

idiot.

[Lara's mom]

First of all, you are being rude. That is not how we communicate in this forum. Check your "holier than thou" attitude at the door.

Secondly, I am sorry both about your mothers illness and that of her dog. It must be rough. However, this is a forum of dog lovers, not veterinarians. Are you really so niave as to think that anyone is going to be able to diagnose and tell you how to treat your mother's dog with a laundry list of symptoms that could be any one of many different problems?

If the dog is that important to your mother, borrow the money or cut back on something else but, get the poor creature some medical attention. Providing medical care is part of the responsibility of owning a pet. If you aren't willing to do that, don't spread your frustration around this forum by being nasty and insulting. That kind of thing isn't tolerated here and it certainly won't buy you any goodwill with the members of this forum.

[Yogi]

Be reminded, you came here asking for blind advice. Civility is a virtue when asking for help and learning to accept what is given. There are no veterinarians here and as larasmom noted, there are in fact many things that could be wrong that is causing these symptoms where in there is no true way to determine what they are. Only a veterinarian will have the answer to your concern.
Your response will get you know sympathy from members especially if you continue name calling because you did not get an answer that in all honesty cannot be provided blindly from any website. It is all going to be speculative at best since first, no one can see the dogs symptoms and secondly, no one here is qualified to guess. Her recommendation is the proper one. If you care for the dog as you appear and as you noted if no answer you would be taking the dog to the vet, then there is no reason for name calling when someone is basically agreeing with you regarding a trip to see your veterinarian. If this is not acceptable, move on. It is not that know one wants to help, quite the contrary. But your response to the first person who replies is an indicator that you really do not want help. If so, you would be less into derogatory remarks and more into clarifying in kind and trying to provide as much information as possible. Such as information you may have missed in your first post.
Good luck at the vets.

[CorkyMax]

I agree totally with what Yogi and Lara's Mom have said. My 2nd reason for coming in here is to ask you for more specifics!! How long has this been going on? How much (How often) diarrhea--What color? Is there any signs of even specks of blood in it--Is it really dark color?
It is good that your dog is drinking water----If the diarrhea is a lot and been going on----Your dog could become dehydrated and need to go to vet just for that alone!! Did your dog eat anything different just before this started--including something that could cause an obstruction or something with too much fat including turkey skin or fat or any other fats in large quantities? As far as the twitching ears--Is she shaking her head at all--like trying to clear her ears and what are the ear drops you gave? Does your dog appear (and some dogs are esp. good at not showing pain) to be in any pain---The head hanging down could be an indication. Has/is she eating at all? If a bowel prob.--might be better if she didn't eat for 24 hrs. And if it is a digestive problem--You would start out with (after 24 hrs of not eating) just a little food as- well-cooked rice and a few Tbsps. of cooked RINSED of grease ground beef--Put in a colander after cooking and rinse with warm water. If the feces is light colored and greasy-looking--could possibly be from eating greasy foods. As others have said---We are not vets here but if your dog is not better by tomorrow morning--Like you stated--You better take her to vet! Hope all goes well soon! Keep us posted or we will be worrying about your dog---We all love dogs here!

[Mr. Vega]

Originally Posted by c1axt

i have a 9 year old golden retreiver and i think shes ill. we hope its nothing serious and wondered if anyone on here might be able to help as money is tight and a visit to the vets is quite expensive and if its nothing serious then maybe we wont have to take her.

if we cannot find out whats wrong with her by tomorrow morning then we will be taking her to the vets.

her symptoms are:
1. her ears keep twitching really often, something ive never seen her do before. her ears are clean and weve administered ear drops but shes still doing it.

2. she has been leaving runny stools in her toilet.

3. she has been drinking water well which is good im guessing to replace any lost fluid in the diherea.

4. she seems lethargic. took her for a walk the last two days and shes been lagging behind me and she doesnt look her normal self. today she didnt even want to go past our front gate and happily turned back.

someone please help.

Hello, I'm sorry your dog isn't feeling well. I understand that you're pretty frustrated over this situation so i'm just going to ignore some of the other unrelated comments and stick to the dog. While I am not a veterinarian, I am a veterinary student - and, I can tell you that it is literally impossible to give you a definitive diagnosis with the symptoms you described. There are hundreds upon hundreds of disease states that fit lethargy/diarrhea. The ear twitch - something neurological - I've seen some neurological cervical lesions that resulted in neck pain/twitching ears. There are also some neuro diseases that would tie in some of the lethargy/GI problems, BUT there is no way for myself or anyone on the internet (even a double board certified internal medicine canine specialist) to know what is going on with your dog without seeing it IN PERSON. I can not stress this enough - this is NOT something that should just be left alone to see if it resolves on its own.

You should expect the vet to want to do several things in regards to gathering a minimal data base for him/her to work from. This will most likely include some blood work.

Let us know how it turns out

[c1axt]

Originally Posted by Lara's mom

First of all, you are being rude. That is not how we communicate in this forum. Check your "holier than thou" attitude at the door.

Secondly, I am sorry both about your mothers illness and that of her dog. It must be rough. However, this is a forum of dog lovers, not veterinarians. Are you really so niave as to think that anyone is going to be able to diagnose and tell you how to treat your mother's dog with a laundry list of symptoms that could be any one of many different problems?

If the dog is that important to your mother, borrow the money or cut back on something else but, get the poor creature some medical attention. Providing medical care is part of the responsibility of owning a pet. If you aren't willing to do that, don't spread your frustration around this forum by being nasty and insulting. That kind of thing isn't tolerated here and it certainly won't buy you any goodwill with the members of this forum.

ok, sorry for being rude. it wasnt called for but at the time i was feeling very frustrated and was eager to get an indication of what the problem was. and what you posted was stating the obvious and pointless in my opinion. anyway, i am sorry and you are right.

[c1axt]

Originally Posted by Corky/Max

I agree totally with what Yogi and Lara's Mom have said. My 2nd reason for coming in here is to ask you for more specifics!! How long has this been going on? How much (How often) diarrhea--What color? Is there any signs of even specks of blood in it--Is it really dark color?
It is good that your dog is drinking water----If the diarrhea is a lot and been going on----Your dog could become dehydrated and need to go to vet just for that alone!! Did your dog eat anything different just before this started--including something that could cause an obstruction or something with too much fat including turkey skin or fat or any other fats in large quantities? As far as the twitching ears--Is she shaking her head at all--like trying to clear her ears and what are the ear drops you gave? Does your dog appear (and some dogs are esp. good at not showing pain) to be in any pain---The head hanging down could be an indication. Has/is she eating at all? If a bowel prob.--might be better if she didn't eat for 24 hrs. And if it is a digestive problem--You would start out with (after 24 hrs of not eating) just a little food as- well-cooked rice and a few Tbsps. of cooked RINSED of grease ground beef--Put in a colander after cooking and rinse with warm water. If the feces is light colored and greasy-looking--could possibly be from eating greasy foods. As others have said---We are not vets here but if your dog is not better by tomorrow morning--Like you stated--You better take her to vet! Hope all goes well soon! Keep us posted or we will be worrying about your dog---We all love dogs here!

thankyou corgi/max, yours was the sort of reply i was after. i obviously know that no1 could ever know for sure whats wrong with my dog unless they were an actual vet with the dog infront of them to examine, but i thought that maybe if it was something common and easily treated/rectified then it could be resolved.
this has been going on since tuesday, now is friday.
the diherea has not been that frequent from what i can notice but every poo she does do is mushy yellowish colour about normal size.

im informed that she didnt eat anything outside of her normal diet unless there was something she could have possibly chewed on or ate in the back garden??

to me her stomach doesnt feel distended or anything.

another symptom which we have noticed is she keeps 'smacking her lips'. i dont know if thats the correct way to describe that symptom but i hope you know what i mean.

i wouldnt say her head is that low but she definatly doesnt raise her head to look at you in the eye when you give her attention like she usually would so i guess in a way thats hanging her head low isnt it.

i think were taking her to the vets this morning anyway but thanks for your reply

[c1axt]

Originally Posted by Mr. Vega

Hello, I'm sorry your dog isn't feeling well. I understand that you're pretty frustrated over this situation so i'm just going to ignore some of the other unrelated comments and stick to the dog. While I am not a veterinarian, I am a veterinary student - and, I can tell you that it is literally impossible to give you a definitive diagnosis with the symptoms you described. There are hundreds upon hundreds of disease states that fit lethargy/diarrhea. The ear twitch - something neurological - I've seen some neurological cervical lesions that resulted in neck pain/twitching ears. There are also some neuro diseases that would tie in some of the lethargy/GI problems, BUT there is no way for myself or anyone on the internet (even a double board certified internal medicine canine specialist) to know what is going on with your dog without seeing it IN PERSON. I can not stress this enough - this is NOT something that should just be left alone to see if it resolves on its own.

You should expect the vet to want to do several things in regards to gathering a minimal data base for him/her to work from. This will most likely include some blood work.

Let us know how it turns out

thanks very much mr.vega, yours was also the sort of reply i was after. i will probably be taking my dog to the vets this morning anyway but thanks very much for your help

[cherylmartin]

I do understand why you went to the internet and came here to this forum for quick answers/suggestions over the concerns for your furbaby. You will find all that here. I did the same thing and that is how I discovered I was killing my Jasmine by giving her ProIn. As with humans, if the problem persists more than a few days and you have tried everything suggested, then you have no other alternative but to go to the Vet. If this is your regular vet, I'm sure they can work out a payment plan. Yes, medical care is expensive, be it pets or humans.

Please let us know how things progress today. We do care.

Cheryl and Angel Jasmine