Dog Illness

[johngerrard]

I have a small 3 year-old Mongrel. Occaisonally he will very suddenly start staggering around as though completely drunk, quite literally unable to walk. His legs then go very stiff for a hour or so. Sometimes he will vomit but not during every attack. After an hour he will go back into staggering around on rubber legs mode then again very suddenly he is quite ok again.

Anyone any ideas about this problem, heat exhaustion perhaps? I discounted him eating something poisonous as i also have two more dogs who are not affected at all. Unfortunately i am not aware of any vets around this area. Any help, suggestions etc gratefully received.

[isanbirder]

You certainly need a vet; where do you live?

[johngerrard]

really in the middle of nowhere! nearest bus stop 8 kilometres, nearest town of any size is Nakhon Sawan or Petchabun, both around the same distance away. Nearest small town is Bung Samphan, also known as Smothot, or Samor tort, depending on the road sign. I'm around 30 kilometres west of there.

My problem is no car, only have a small mobike.

[bina]

some more pertinent details: is this recent? when did it start? how old is he? what do u feed? are u in th eoucntry with other livestock? has he had ticks etc on him recently? has anyone sprayed recently in fields, around the house?

tring filling in the info, and try, also, to get to a vet, who should ask u abou the same questions...

is he drinking? eating? stool? what kind of vomit (foamy, stuff in it, bloody)

scratching his ears? shaking his head? foamy saliva at mouth?

had vaccines? bitten/stung by bugs/snakes/scorpion?

any other symptoms? temperature (take his tmep like with a baby, in his anus-- )

has he gotten in to garbage more then usual?

although actually sounds a bit like epilepsy. it does happen in dogs, and they do stagger around, loose it, come out of it, and are weak and isoriented after... in which case u will need to do a couple of vet visits for meds, finding which ones work, etc, and then sticking to a regime...

try timing the episode. an hour is awful ong fo r epilepsy, usually a few mintues that seem like an hour for us until its finished... actually look at a clock...

dogs dont suffer from exhaustion unless they are working dogs or old and get sun/heat stroke. a normal dog doesnt just get exhaustion. exhaustion is usually accompanied by dehydreation (the dehydration causes the exhaustion) from over work like a dog breeding a bitch ; something along those lines.

if its a mix, what mix dog is it? some breeds get heart problems and stuff that are genetic--

start with all that...

bina

israel

[isanbirder]

If it was my dog (which is large), and this happened to him, I'd move heaven and earth to get him to a vet. Your dog is small, you say. Isn't there a songtaew route near you? How do the people living near you get into the nearest market? Or even, put him in a cage, and take him on your little motorbike. Bina's advice is, as usual, excellent, but I don't think you can handle this without veterinary help. (First locate your vet; there must be one in Nakorn Sawan, if no nearer; if you can't find one through this forum, try a local forum (or get someone to ring the NS Dept. of Agriculture office))

If you look at the pinned thread Veterinarians, there are at least two people in Nakorn Sawan who have posted. Try contacting them by pm for a start.

Edited March 17, 2010 by isanbirder

[johngerrard]

Toda-Raba Bina and Shalom, thankyou isanbirder.

in answer to the last post, no, there is no songtaew route, the nearest concrete road is 8 kilometres away. The few people around here use mobikes. When i said small, perhaps medium would be more apt. I won't bore you with reasons but the mobike idea to the vet isn't possible, NS is 120 kilometres from me, ok that's doable on a bike, but it can't be done at the moment. Thankyou again for your help, much appreciated.

.

[johngerrard]

just to let you know all is sorted. The vet has had a look and didn't seem too concerned, i have the pills etc, so hopefully all ok now. I'm actually a bit unsure about the cause because his english [the vets not the dogs] is about as good as my thai. He knew what he was doing though.

[bina]

any idea what the meds are? or for what? i like closure in dog illness topics...

bina

[isanbirder]

just to let you know all is sorted. The vet has had a look and didn't seem too concerned, i have the pills etc, so hopefully all ok now. I'm actually a bit unsure about the cause because his english [the vets not the dogs] is about as good as my thai. He knew what he was doing though.

Glad to hear you got the dog to a vet anyway. I've had the same problem of communication with vets here!

[johngerrard]

sorry for not replying sooner Bina.

the dog was given some pills [no-name, white, came out of a big jar -this is thailand!] Anti flea and tick shampoo which is available anywhere and something called 'frontline' so it seems to have been some sort of allergy to ticks perhaps?

since the visit to the vets there have been [as far as i'm aware] no further attacks.

My thai wife should be back from southern thailand soon, she's been looking after her sick parents, when she returns we will have transport as i don't drive, i'll take the dog back and check it out again and if the vet says any difference i'll let you know.

thanks guys.

[bina]

glad its working out although that would be a first ive heard for tick allergy/.... maybe the pills were doxicillin and he had tick fever? or prednisone? ... big jar and white pills ) yeah we also had a cookie jar with big yellow pills that we gave to hysterical patients to give to their not really sick dogs. the placebo affect, they were vitamins. many people would come in and get irritated when just given -nothing' since there wasnt really a problem, so this is the answer.

hopefully, in this case, the little white pills are real .... killiing me, my curiouslity. do tryt o find out the name of the pill or the problem, even in thai (have him write it down, make up some excuse as to why, if he isnt that cooperative, we can always ask the thai readers here.....

anyway, the frontline is good stuff, but i have to say that from my experience of the past two years here on kibbutz, either ticks are not responding to the drops or the drops just dont work, so we've gone over to using those collars even on my furry lhasos...

good luck,

bina

israel

[isanbirder]

thai readers here.....

anyway, the frontline is good stuff, but i have to say that from my experience of the past two years here on kibbutz, either ticks are not responding to the drops or the drops just dont work, so we've gone over to using those collars even on my furry lhasos...

good luck,

bina

israel

I had the experience, bina, that Frontline works excellently on ticks at first, but its effectiveness diminishes (though it still helps). I suppose the ticks get immune to it. Still very good for fleas, though.

[bina]

we've all noticed a 'falling off' of effectiveness since last year we had a huge epidemic of tick fever /and the other one (cant remember names) and zillions of ticks all over the kibbutz in the houses on the dogs.......since we are a 'organic' oriented kibbutz we dont tend to use sprays for pest control but other methods (gambusa in the water; water drainage; hormone traps for flies by the chicken houses, detergent spray against certain pests on plants, etc. so the outbreak was a surprise. our guess is that the feral dogs living in the wadi (valley) and hang out at night in our area are carriers of the ticks since there is an unwritten rule here that every pet owner must treat his/her dogs/cats including the feral cats that the cat lady feeds (she manages to treat most with ivomac (30 + cats!!) but these feral dogs are nasty and potential rabies carriers. also flea and tick carriers. recently the county has a approved a two month shooting permit for the nature and wildlife organization to cull out the packs (some as big as 13 btiches and few males) since poison is not approved (nor humane). they are dogs born second and third generation in the wild so not 'tameable' nor catchable.

bina

[Slip]

On the matter of Frontline- I have 3 dogs living in 2 separate locations and have treated them all with frontline at the same intervals. The 2 dogs who live with us in the house have been fine with just a very occasional tick. The other dog that lives outside at a friends with a big and quite over grown garden, has been literally crawling with the little so and so's. About 6 weeks into the 3 month treatment, there was a serious infestation where she lives (you could literally spot a tic about every 6 or so square inches, and people were constantly finding them crawling on their skin). Over 2 days we must have pulled 100 off her, and each ear had literally dozens packed in, deep in her ears.

The frontline was plainly not working. We took her to the vet and got a jab which is what all the Thais seems to do. They were a bit iffy about doing it at first and wanted to know when the frontline had been done, but it was right at the end of the treatment cycle so they seemed to think it was OK.

I guess that we are going to have to stick with the monthly injections for her. To the OP- if ticks are you problem I think you can administer these jabs to the dog yourself.

[bina]

the jab is ivermac. and the scenario u wrote is exactly what happend with us. thousands of baby ticks in the sofa, on the walls...

yep we also have a huge area inf ront of our row of houses that is shrubbery and ground cover. and has hedgehogs in there which is good against the vipers here but they also are full of ticks usually.......blech...........