Sluggish Boxer

Dr. Marie replied:

Hmmm...this sounds like a frustrating case.

The medications that you have described will cover a lot of bases. The Famotidine will help with stomach upset, the Tramadol with pain and the Metronidazole will help with intestinal upset. But it really is frustrating to not know what is going on and why he is not getting better.


While I won't be able to say for sure what is going on, I think it is interesting that he won't jump up on anything. Whenever I have a dog with vague symptoms like this and blood tests are normal I wonder about back pain. Dogs with back pain are reluctant to jump. They are usually sluggish as well.

While Tramadol will help somewhat with back pain it is not always going to give 100% pain relief.

But, what doesn't fit is that back pain shouldn't cause an increase in thirst and urination and shouldn't cause bloating.

The next possibility is if he has an intestinal obstruction. This can be very serious. Often we won't see changes in bloodwork until this condition has been going on for a while.

It's hard to say where to go from here. On one hand you could talk to your vet about trying an additional medication to help with back pain such as an NSAID like Metacam. But, if there is an intestinal or stomach problem then this could make things worse!

It sounds like Cruiser is going to need more tests. If this were my patient I would likely be recommending either an ultrasound of the abdomen or something called a barium series. A barium series is a series of xrays where we watch a dye travel through the intestines. This shows us if there is an obstruction.

I wish I could offer you an over the counter solution, but this sounds very serious. He really is likely to need more tests.

Feel free to reply if you have more questions. I will be offline for the next 20 minutes or so as it is bath time for my little girl but can reply back to you after that.

Dr. Marie.


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Dr. Marie replied:

Well that makes things even more frustrating when we can't figure out what is going on even with these tests.

It's hard to answer the question about the lump without knowing what kind of cancer it was, but the symptoms you are describing don't really sound like they are related to a lump that was previously removed.

Cancers certainly can cause a lack of appetite. They can also cause an increase in thirst and urination but this is usually because the cancer causes an increase in Calcium which affects the kidneys. An increase in Calcium would have been noted on the bloodwork.

Do you live anywhere near a major city? If so, you could ask for a referral to an internal medicine specialist. These vets see all of the strange cases and sometimes can help to put the pieces together and get a diagnosis.

The other thing that I might be doing if this were my case is a bunch of tests on his urine. I'd be culturing the urine to see if there is a hidden infection. But now I'm sort of reaching for a diagnosis.

I wish I could give you more concrete advice! If all of these tests have already been done...again...a specialist may be able to help.

Dr. Marie replied:

Well this is good news that he is eating!

You know, I have had a few cases where I couldn't figure out why a dog or cat is not eating and then we changed the food and they ate like crazy. Even the good brands of food can get contaminated with molds sometimes. Let's hope it's something simple like this!