QuestionQUESTION: My question is what could be wrong with our yorkie? A couple days ago he started acting very strange, he's walking very low to the ground with very quick movements. He act's very frightened and sometimes shakes. He normally jumps up to greet me and all excited, but since this started, he barely will move, and when he does, he will move a few feet than sit down on his rear and act all confused. We took him to the vet today, and they could not find any physical problem or reason for this behavior. He barely ate the last couple of days, unless you hand feed him, also not drinking. He has not had a bowel movement in a couple days, but vet seemed to think he is not constipated....any ideas??
ANSWER: Chuck,
I will need to know a couple of things before I can answer that question. First, how old is he? Has he been neutered and if so how long ago? Is he left home along while you are at work? Is there anyone missing from the home that is usually there? Are you aware of anything that could have occurred that would have traumatized him?
If the vet could not find anything physically wrong with him then it could be psychological. I can probably be more specific once you answer my questions. I will wait to hear from you.
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QUESTION: He is 18 months old...yes he's been nuetered, around 6 months ago. He's been left home for around 6-7 hours for the last 8-9 months...no one missing that is usually here. We are not aware of any traumatic experince. He started acting this way Sunday evening...but was fine all that day.
That's why we are so stumped on the problem, nothing has really changed. The only other time he acted remotely close to this was when he had a reaction to a vacine at the
vet back in August, and one time while constipated acted strange. We thought maybe he swallowed something, he likes
to chew on plastic. The vet doesn't seem to think so, because all physical signs say not. I know this is tough to diagnose based on what we have ruled out, but wasn't sure if you or someone else had experinced anything similar.
AnswerChuck,
Yorkies acting strange is not an unusual thing. Over the years I have had yorkies that had what I called the queers. I have one now that will go through the queers and it usually lasts anywhere from a couple of days to a week. She shakes and quakes and acts very afraid. If you reach for her she acts like you are going to beat her to death even though we have never spanked her. She is seven years old and has had these episodes for as long as I can remember.
I can tell you from the description of how he is acting it is not because he ate something he shouldn't have. When they eat something that they are not supposed to what results is an intestinal blockage. The symptoms of that are hunching of the back and appearing to be in pain. The hunching is not constant but you can definitely tell they are hunching their backs. Not eating and drinking is usually a sign that there is something wrong but they stop eating and drinking completely. You stated that he is barely eating so that rules out sickness. When mine has the queers she will not eat much either and if you try to give her a treat to see if she will eat it she either sniffs the treat and walks away or will take it and then drop it and not eat it.
One other possibility is that he is experiencing seizures. I do not want to alarm you but yorkies are known for having seizures. Large dogs commonly get hip displasia and small dogs typically get seizures. I would say yours is just having the queers like mine but the part where you explain that he acts confused. I had one that had a severe seizure problem. She was on medication for 5 years prior to her death at the age of 11. The signs of a seizure are sometimes difficult to detect especially if they are not bad seizures. They can range in severity from just appearing disoriented to full out spasms. Your vet would not be able to tell if your yorkie was having seizures unless he had one in front of the vet. After the seizure they go back to normal and so it would not show when you were at the vet. The next time he looks disoriented check his heart rate. You might want to check his resting heart rate first so you can compare the difference. If his heart rate is increased when he looks disoriented you may want to speak to your vet about the possibility of seizures.
The good news is that the seizures are not usually fatal and can be controlled with medication. If you find no changes (or only slight changes)in his heart rate then I would just tell you that he is probably having the queers. Hopefully that is all it is and he will come out of it in a couple of days.
If you can let me know how he is doing and what you finally decided it was.
If they are constipated you will know because they will strain but nothing happens. If the vet has ruled all of these things out and you trust him then I would say
