Today is Day 9 of Mumble's limited activity restrictions, to promote healing of his leg sprain. Only one week to go until we go back to the vet to check on how things are going!
On Day 7 (Wednesday), Mumble came to work with me during the day, and seemed to enjoy that. He loves seeing all of the people in my office and playing with his toys here. He was not too active during the day, but he was a little bit demanding (for attention). When he was bored, he'd sit by my chair and very softly bark at me. He got to rotate between my office and Mandy's office though so that kept him entertained. He seemed to be at his most "normal" on that day, so far.
Wednesday night, we had our last Therapy Dog class for this session at the Zoom Room. Mumble had an overflow of energy and excitement going in, and then there were some "extras" that night, including an additional dog doing a makeup class, and the trainer's two kids. Mumble was pretty obsessive with wanting to play with or bark at the new dog, and wanting to run around with the new kids, so he did not do as well on some of the "items" as he normally does. During the loose leash walking item, where they are supposed to be able to pass other dogs and distractions, Mumble was pulling on the leash and just generally acting hyped up. After a while though, he did seem to settle down and get into the routine of class. We'll definitely be taking another session of Therapy Dog to continue to hone and perfect his skills!
Thursday was a difficult day. I did not want to write about this when it was happening until I got home and was able to see Mumble for myself and check on him. The day started with Mumble having some sneezy / scratchy allergies in the morning, and just generally being a little more tired than usual. He did have plenty of energy to be "naughty" on our walk though! We walked to Coffee Bean on our morning walk, and after I got my coffee and came back outside, Mumble got away from me when I was untying his leash and just ran around all of the table trying to get people to pet him or give him food. The rest of the walk was pretty uneventful.
Thursday afternoon, I got a call from Mumble's dog walker, which sent me into a slight panic. Even though she said Mumble didn't appear to be in distress, when the words "he doesn't seem to want to get up and walk" came out of her mouth, all of the memories about losing Padfoot came rushing to me, and I had to force myself to remain calm. This is Mumble, not Padfoot. He has an injury, and is not feeling well, but he is not dying. OK, so then I asked her a bunch of questions, and ascertained that Mumble was not wanting to go for a walk, and when she finally got him to go out, just spent the whole time trying to turn around and go back home. When she brought him back in, he went straight back to bed and refused to do anything else. For a dog that is usually extremely hyper and active, this was definitely not normal, and caused her concern. However, his breathing was normal, he didn't seem to be in distress or even in pain.
I contacted Mumble's vet's office and talked to one of the vets there a little while later. After listening to my description of the details from the dog walker, she did not think that being lethargic as a reaction to the medications was the issue. Her opinion? Mumble is "sad" or "depressed" because of the drastic change in his lifestyle over the past week. She said it wasn't uncommon for "working dogs" to become depressed after they were injured or something because when their normal activities were taken away they became frustrated and sad. Poor Mumble, but at least she doesn't think it is something to cause serious concern. Because I google everything, I found this article about dog depression online, and it really does seem to make sense that this could be what is happening to Mumble.
I cheered Mumble up that evening with a visit to Mandy and Chopper, his favorite human and favorite dog pal. On his walk with Chopper, Mumble showed absolutely no signs of not wanting to walk, being tired, or wanting to turn back, which I guess would seem to support the depression theory rather than that something else is physically wrong.
This morning (Day 9), Mumble's lethargy and resistance to his walk continued with me. He was at first just appearing to be tired and not wanting to get up. When we went out for our walk, he was doing fine for the first block. Then out of nowhere, he turned around and tried to head back towards home. I guess this is what he was doing to the dog walker? His tail was between his leg, and he had a slightly panicked look. It is the way he acts when he is scared of something (usually nothing, or something irrational). From that point forward, he did not want to be walking, he just wanted to go back home. I tried giving him commands to walk nicely, to look at me, etc. I tried giving him treats (he clamped his stubborn jaws shut at that), and encouraging him to keep going. It didn't matter. Nothing changed the fact that he just wanted to go back home. When we made it back, he went straight to his favorite spot in the living room (the cushy armchair) and laid down. But back in the house, he was willing to take treats and come on command, etc, and did seem much more relaxed.
The other thing worrying is the loss of appetite. For the past few days, he eats hardly any breakfast and usually has to be coaxed to eat all of his dinner. He has several medications and supplements, some of which he takes with his food, and I don't know if he doesn't like the taste of all of that or what. The vet does think that one of the supplements could cause a loss of appetite, so maybe that's it. Although I guess if he is really depressed, he wouldn't want to eat, right?
In terms of the physical injury, he does seem to be healing well. But I don't know how we are going to make it through the next few weeks if we keep having to "rest" and not go to daycare and agility. I just keep thinking of all of those "depression is real" commercials on TV where someone talks about not wanting to get out of bed or eat, and I think - oh geez, now that's my dog!
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