Hi, I am completely stumped about how to help my dog with his almost constant, severe pain that seems to be about his stomach, but she does not pull back or respond to touching any particular point in her body. We haven't been sleeping for days now as I want to monitor her all the time and cannot simply ignore her in pain. She sometimes wants to go out at night and seems relieved by the cool air.
She was only a little less energetic than usual at first, so I took her for a checkup about three weeks ago, everything came out positive in her blood/urine tests, except for some minor infection. The vet suggested an antibiotic for three days, and although I'm wary of using them unless absolutely necessary I thought three days would do no major harm. I gave her some canned tuna with her usual kibble to help her swallow it for three days, not too much. A few days after I stopped the antibiotics, she seemed to have lost some appetite so I fed her some organ meats with bulgur and she ate those well.
Since then, she seemed to have lost all appetite, will only eat if i give the kibble to her mouth one by one, wait for her to swallow. This is how she's been eating for a week now. There was some vomiting at the beginning, but ever since I began to feed her small meals by hand several times a day, she stopped vomiting, although she often looks nauseaous, especially when getting up, or immediately after eating or drinking.
The worst is that she seems to have a lot of pain the last four five days, stands on her feet panting as if in pain, and only sits down when she relaxes a little, which never lasts long. The pain is almost constant lately, she gets an hour break here and there and sleeps, but she never uses her round bed anymore as the curling position seems to be uncomfortable for her and trigger nausea.
Her bowel movements are good, the poop looks always healthy, no diarrhea at any point. She drinks on her own, quite a bit since all this has started, but doesn't touch the food, doesn't pick it up from my hand either, but swallows if i stuff it in her mouth one by one.
The vet does not seem to have a clue, I live in a small town and we only have one here. He last told me to wait.
I have been suspecting pancreatitis because of the way this whole thing started (change of diet, antibiotics, although minor) and because of the severe pain. But the lack of diarrhea/constipation, and no serious vomiting does not fit.
She seems especially uncomfortable after eating or drinking, but only for a while, then she relaxes a bit. But it doesn't last long. At least she doesn't vomit.
I am completely at my wit's end, I can't bear to see her suffer so much and I can't sleep at night for fear she may need me. I have tried some chamomile tea, which I think slightly helped, although not much. At least it doesn't seem to hurt. At the beginning I also tried fasting for a day or two, and then homemade probiotic yogurt, but nothing helped.
I really wish I could do something about her pain, but without knowing the cause, I am fearful of hurting her more with medicine that will surely have side effects as they all do. If it gives her a better fighting chance, I'd rather have her suffer than risk complications.
If not for the pain, she seems like she would not be in such a bad shape. And the lack of appetite might be due to the pain.
The pain did not come out of nowhere, it all started with general lethargy, lack of appetite, and some fever (which she doesn't have anymore), so I suspect some kind of inflammation/infection.