Posted By Deb (Pittsburgh, Pa, Usa) on 05/31/2013
One minute he's relaxed and the next minute he jumps up and starts nervously pacing through the house going from room to room, very agitated. Then he will begin to try to hide as he continues to pace quickly through the house.
During this time (lasting two hours) he is panting so heavily that his tongue becomes purple in color, hanging from the side of his mouth. He seems crazed and 'not there' - either in serious pain or fear.
Nothing that we do helps, although a pay-day candy bar with some baby aspirin helped one time. We were not sure if it was the candy bar (if he was having a low blood sugar attack?) or the aspirin (if he was in terrible pain).
Two days ago it went from a 10 to 100:
Exhibiting the same terrified behavior, going into closets and getting stuck, trying to climb under the bed (big dog 110 pounds). The more he paced, panted and hid the more confused and weak he got until he was stumbling into things and getting weaker and weaker. He would stand with his elbows sharply out, his back legs in bizarre positions. He looked as if someone had put a 200 pound weight on him that was collapsing his body down to the ground but he was still holding himself up - barely
His eyes were sunken and his mouth drawn back, after two hours of incessant panting, pacing, hiding and stumbling, he looked like all of the air had been sucked out of him. I could hardly recognize him. He lost control of his muscles and fell on his face, blood everywhere. I was trying to hold him up and keep him from pacing but I couldn't get him to slide his legs down and to lay down
After two hours of watching him fall apart in front of my eyes, I was sure that he was going to collapse and die, the way that he sounded and looked. Nothing had worked this time.
When my husband finally got home, he had to carry Jake to the car to get to the vet's - who said she'd never seen or heard of this before and didn't have any ideas. She sent us home with some morphone-like pain medication which has him so drugged up he only got up to go to the bathroom 12 hours after he'd taken the medication. I've spent countless hours the last few months - and particularly after this episode - trying to find some information on the internet and have come up with nothing. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Thank you so much in advance for any information, suggestion, advice... He's a 12 year old mixed breed rather large dog with some pain in his legs and recently has a hard time with stairs some days... And other days he's fine. No medications.
Thanks again!"
Posted By Claire (Los Angeles, California) on 06/01/2013
Posted By Om Sairam (Hope, Bc, Canada) on 06/01/2013
Posted By Deb (Pittsburgh, Pa) on 06/01/2013
The vet seemed to think that it was arthritis pain, but I've read quite a lot about arthritis pain and I've not read about such severe symptoms such as he exhibited - although he definitely does have pain.
Claire - about the filtered spring water - I know we don't name names here, but would you have some suggestions on where to find this?
And Om - what are some of these homeopathic remedies for, specifically?
Because of wonderful earthclinic, I've learned about blackstrap molasses and coconut oil for his arthritis - which he now gets every day - and from other reading I've found that dogs can get low blood sugar attacks.
So I followed poor Jake around the house for the first hour, rubbing honey on his lips (or trying to get close) hoping it was low blood sugar. It didn't help.
Also from wonderful earthclinic, I've learned about magnesium oil, so I was spraying him with that and trying to rub it in.
If you can imagine being in such pain or anxiety that you're not really aware of your surroundings, but someone keeps smearing your face with honey and spraying you and rubbing you with magnesium oil..... Poor thing..... I can laugh a little about it now, only because he's now had such a good day that I'm sure he would laugh with me about my remedies, if he could.
Thank you again both of you for your kind suggestions!
Jake, thank you as well."
Posted By Claire (Los Angeles, California) on 06/01/2013
I once had a dog whose neck used to go out and when that happened, he shrieked out in terrible pain and would lash out at anyone trying to help him and run around and hide looking terrified. It took a great vet to diagnose the issue and another vet who knew chiropractic to put his vertebrae back into place. So that's why I suggest you do very gentle massage (small circular movements) on his whole body to find out where the issues are. You never know, he might have pulled a muscle one of his back legs. Once you find the area causing pain, you can gentle work on it with acupressure or massage. I find this is a great way to find the areas that are bothering them.
My dog has a sore area midway down the spine (between his shoulder blades) and I do acupressure circles on either side of his vertebrae once a week. When I hit a sore place, he lifts up his head and looks at me with concern. If I do these same massage circles on a muscle near that area, the muscle twitches.
Most dogs and cats LOVE it when you massage the area at the top of the spine just below the skull. I think it often gets very sore, just like our necks. I have found that that area can tolerate deeper tissue massage. In my experience, dogs and cats are soooooo grateful to get massage and acupressure and they absolutely need it, just like we do, as they age. My dog will come up to me and when I massage the top of his neck, he will often bend his head down into my lap so I can dig in deeper. It is so amazing!!
I will be thinking about you and your dog!"
Posted By Deb (Pittsburgh, Pa) on 06/01/2013
I've made an appointment with a vet who does laser therapy, which I've only heard good things about. Hopefully they can find what is wrong - I'm assuming they have a chiropractor there as well - and can fix it.
I would rather that it is skeletal or muscular pain that can be identified and taken care of, than something internal or seizures, etc.
Thank you again!"
Posted By Om (Hope, B.C., Canada) on 06/02/2013
Posted By Deb (Pittsburgh, Pa) on 06/03/2013
You are right - God has given us everything that we need in his natural pharmacy.
I will check out those homeopathic remedies. It has to be better than the pharmaceutical pain medication from the vet.
But I had to give him one today; he went under the outside table this morning and hid for a moment under the tablecloth - something he only does when he's having these episodes - so, trying to nip it in the bud I gave him one tramadol.
He did it again a few minutes later, but now I'm wondering if he has just discovered a new fun thing to do, and that I may have overreacted.
But since he started to include many minutes of (slower and quieter) pacing as well, I think I may have stopped something with the tramadol.
Can't wait to get him off of that, however.
I will update when I have discovered what this is - surely it will help someone in the same situation.
Earthclinic is amazing!"
Posted By Antonella (Canada) on 02/29/2016
On a hunch, the second time it happened, I let him outside because I had seen him eat grass I assume to soothe his tummy. He began eating grass and shrubs like his life depended on it. I let him eat for a couple of minutes then brought him inside and force fed him about a quarter cup of hydrogen paroxide to induce vomiting just in case he had eaten anything bad. He immediately vomited his meal (which was the same he had been eating all along) along with all the grass and vegetation. Again I let him out and watched very closely as he continued to eat grass but not as desperately as he had the first time.
The next day I watched him when I let him out to the back yard and immediately saw the problem. He had started drinking from a small pond in my back yard. The pump had recently broken and I had forgotten to empty the stagnant water. I emptied and covered the pond and have not had an issue since.
Also I`ve since added a probiotic to his food every day as he seems to have a sensitive stomach and bloats. I only use alpha omega probiotic 8 plus for pets. It is an amazing product that I`ve used for internal and topical applications.
I hope this helps."
EC: Thank you for your feedback. For those who don't know, please note that the dosage of hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting is as follows:
"The general rule for peroxide is 5 mls (or 1 teaspoon) per 10 pounds, orally. Repeat every 15-20 minutes, up to three times, until the animal vomits."
Posted By c irving (mt) on 09/21/2025
