Rough "vacation" week. Ended up with Ursala at both the regular vet and the ER vet. After going out to do her morning business, she came in panting heavily and pacing. All around the downstairs, then upstairs, then all the bathrooms, etc., - even the rooms where she normally never goes. She did this for hours, never laying down or resting. Took her to the vet, they examined/sedated her, found nothing obvious, and gave her a valium/opioid injection after making best guess that she was in pain from SOMETHING, we just didn't know what. She squatted a bit when pressing near her spine, so back pain was best we could figure.
Got her home, and she began pacing/panting despite the injection that should have had her out cold. Emergency vets had a 6 hour wait time, so I was going to try and watch her through the night. Around 10PM or so, she was worse than ever, and was acting non-responsive to calling her name and her legs were shaking. Her tail was tucked, and she was acting scared of me when I approached, even though she's at my side 24/7. I called e-vet thinking she was having a stroke, they said they'll get her right in. She passed all the neurological/cognitive tests, and actually laid down there once her adrenaline started wearing off. They also couldn't find anything other than noticing the same reaction to pressing on her back.
All we can figure is that some combination of arthritis and movement was pinching a nerve in her back, causing a lot of pain. The shaking was mostly from fatigue at that point (14 hours on her feet), so they gave a stronger dose of gabapentin for nerve pain and trazodone for anxiety to be taken in combination with her anti-inflammatory. Other than a little bit of anxiety yesterday morning, she seems to be doing better despite starting to wean her off the anxiety meds. The night we brought her home, she slept through the night, ate her breakfast, and then slept again from 8AM straight through until nearly 7PM. She does seem hesitant to go outside, which leads me to believe that she's associating something out there with pain and it has her a bit spooked.
I think she took about another 10 years off my life, because I was scared to death that we were going to lose her, and that she didn't remember who I was.
Got her home, and she began pacing/panting despite the injection that should have had her out cold. Emergency vets had a 6 hour wait time, so I was going to try and watch her through the night. Around 10PM or so, she was worse than ever, and was acting non-responsive to calling her name and her legs were shaking. Her tail was tucked, and she was acting scared of me when I approached, even though she's at my side 24/7. I called e-vet thinking she was having a stroke, they said they'll get her right in. She passed all the neurological/cognitive tests, and actually laid down there once her adrenaline started wearing off. They also couldn't find anything other than noticing the same reaction to pressing on her back.
All we can figure is that some combination of arthritis and movement was pinching a nerve in her back, causing a lot of pain. The shaking was mostly from fatigue at that point (14 hours on her feet), so they gave a stronger dose of gabapentin for nerve pain and trazodone for anxiety to be taken in combination with her anti-inflammatory. Other than a little bit of anxiety yesterday morning, she seems to be doing better despite starting to wean her off the anxiety meds. The night we brought her home, she slept through the night, ate her breakfast, and then slept again from 8AM straight through until nearly 7PM. She does seem hesitant to go outside, which leads me to believe that she's associating something out there with pain and it has her a bit spooked.
I think she took about another 10 years off my life, because I was scared to death that we were going to lose her, and that she didn't remember who I was.
