Taking Andy to the vet. Nerves or sick?
As you might recall...we lost our beloved Roxy one month ago yesterday. I'll try and make this as short as I can. Latley, or since Roxy's passing...our 13 year old cocker Andy, has been displaying some odd behavior....not only in his eating habits...but now has started to have diarrhea. First the eating habits issue. As a treat....Andy used to LOVE scrambled eggs...wheat bread...and tortillas. Roxy HATED all three items. Now....since Roxy is gone...Andy wants nothing to do with them. He won't go near them now. Plus....he won't eat dog biscuts anymore either. He and Roxy used to wolf them down every chance they got. Also...when Roxy was sick and couldn't chew....we started her on wet canned food. Well....Andy decided "he" wanted to have wet food too....so we mixed his dry and wet food together. He like it.....until Roxy died. Now he won't eat wet OR dry. All he will eat is sliced lunchmeat. We have tried not giving it to him thinking he will eat his dry food if he gets hungry enough....but no....he just won't eat anything if we don't give in and give him the lunchmeat. Ok....now for the other part. We took him on vacation with us for 10 days. We didn't want to kennel him by himself after Roxy died....so we took him with us. He was great in every way except he started getting diarrhea. He doesn't act sick at all so we hope it's just nerves from being away from home. My husband and I think it's just because he has been through alot in the past few weeks....first adjusting to life as an only child after losing Roxy.....then being in unfamiliar surroundings while on vacation. Hopefully his nerves will calm down a little since we are back home now. Just to make sure tho....we are calling our vet to see if we can take him in to get checked out today. I keep telling my husband that I think when Roxy passed on....her soul went into Andy and that's why he no longer eats the foods she absolulty hated.  Seriously tho.....have any of you ever heard of such a behavior as one pet taking on another pet's traits after they pass on? I'm very curious to hear about it. I will keep you posted as to what the vet says. Also...I posted a couple of pictures of Andy if you would like to see them. |
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| Do let us know. He may be truly sick or he's lonely and heartbroken. At 13 it's hard for them to bounce back. I'm sure the vet will tell you hold off on the lunch meat as the sodium is not doing your guy any good. It may be a comfort food for him, but as with us, too much comfort leads to problems. could explain the rear end problems.
The vet does have anti anxiety drugs for dogs, but once again, at 13 it's iffy. Taking him on vacation was great! Any dogs he's made friends with he could visit from time to time? |
| Taking away all the details to your story, it sounds like your dog is not eating and developed diarrhea. I would take him to the Vet to see if he has a stomach bug and then put him on rice water and then chicken and rice to help his tummy settle down.
My condolences to you both on the loss of your sweet Roxy. |
Sounds to me like your dog is physically ill. Certainly physical ailments can senak up on your body (human or canine!) when one is stressed, so the answer may be "both". I wish you and Andy well! Let us know. |
| Here is what my vet said. She siad Andy is showing signs of depression. She said that he is probably missing his buddy quite a bit and that sometimes it takes our canine friends a long time to get over losing thier partner.....that makes sense. She said to start mixing his regular food with ground beef and rice until we slowly wein him off and he is eating only his own food. She also suggested taking him on extra walks and doing special activities with him. I told her that since Roxy has been gone...he comes to work with me every day. It works out perfect because I take care of my elderly parents for a living. They ar 88 years old....and they have enjoyed having Andy there. I think it brightens thier spirits a little too. I told her that we have started taking him on more walks and that we took him to Okoboji (Iowa) with us for 11 days. He went swimming too!! He will be ok in a while.....it just takes time. After I hung up the phone after I talked to my vet.....I couldn't help but to break down into tears again. We miss Roxy so much!!! Anyway.....I just wanted to let you know what the vet said. Thanks for the support!! |
| This is not the first ime I've heard of a dog feeling the "death" of their canine friend - human too. Dogs grieve. It doesn't surprise me he is depressed...
Sounds like you are doing the right thing keeping him busy...did you think about maybe getting another dog to keep him company  |
| My mom's Golden retriever was beside herself when her housemate and fellow furkid had to spend a few days at the vet due to emergency surgery. The only way they calmed her down and got her back to normal was to take her to visit the other dog at the hospital. |
| My daughter LeAnne's OES Clay had a similar trouble. In his case his 1st human owner died after a long illness. The remaining partner was very stressed and is a more high strung person. Clay developed awful, chronic diarrhea. They tried meds, prescription dog foods, nothing worked. He also moped and had depression, laid around, no interest in much of anything. He eventually went back to his breeder to be rehomed.
LeAnne got him in April. He is on no medication and a good quality regular dog food. He has NO diarrhea at all. He loves LeAnne, has energy and bounce and a new zest for life! He goes to training classes every week and is a therapy dog in training. When his breeder saw him last month, she was so happy. She sais she has never seen Clay so happy in all his 6 years! So, they can turn around after a time of grieving. Give him attention and some time. I'm hoping he will be back to himself soon. One other thing - my friend Mary had to put their old cocker to sleep, and their other dog was depressed. They later adopted a dog from the humane society, and now both are doing great. Maybe a dog friend would help? Or a neighbor dog he can play with? |
| I believe they do grieve too, when I lost one of my oes girls I thought I was going to loose the other, we had a terrible few months with her after loosing her best friend, took time and she came right and back to her happy self again.
Hugs to andy and sorry for your loss of Roxy, it is hard on everyone and hopefully andy will adjust soon on missing and grieving for Roxy. It takes time for everyone in the family to cope with a loss.  |
| Poor little Andy. He's just going through a lot as is your family. Everyone bounces back at their own rate. Give him lots of What a sweet little guy. |
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