Since Wednesday (7/21) we've been dealing with some extremely unusual medical issues with Apollo.
It all started Wednesday. Jeremy and I played fetch with Apollo in the yard. It was hot out, so we didn't play very long or hard. When we came inside I gave Apollo fresh water, put his Koolie Collar on, and put him in our bedroom with the A/C on. I checked on him and all seemed fine.
As the day went on I noticed he seemed stiff. It was unusual but I thought maybe he was just a bit out of shape (he did spend the weekend with my parents who did not work him at all). I took him to the park with me where he proceeded to have the runs and the stiffness got worse.
Jeremy and I rushed him home. I put him in his crate to rest, but he began whining. I took him out of his crate and this is where it got scary; he COULDN'T even walk!!! I called the Weymouth VCA and they said to bring him in ASAP, which we did.
They ran all sorts of tests on him; blood work, range of motion, vitals, etc. Everything came back clean. By this time not only could Apollo not walk, but his back was hunched up (very roach back) and he vomited. The emergency vet thought he strained a muscle in his back, though she didn't find anything to confirm this. She gave us the OK to bring him home (after several hours of observation) because he was eating and drinking normally. We planned on brining him to our regular vet first thing in the morning. The Weymouth VCA faxed over all their findings to our regular vet...and a few minutes later our vet's office called us to inform us the vet wouldn't be in until Friday!
The next morning Apollo was acting normal- walking, pooping (though it was diarrhea), and peeing. But, he vomited five more times throughout the day. His vomit was mainly food and yellow bile. But, after he vomiting sessions were done that day, he seemed much better!
Well, Friday morning he pooped out some paper towels and we're confident that is the reason for all the medical symptoms. Apparently, when dogs have an extremely upset abdomen they will hunch their back and refuse to walk (because they're in pain!).
We brought him to our vet and by that time he was almost 100% back to normal. The only thing that was unusual was he had diarrhea. She was confident he had a case of pancreatitis. I wonder what was in those paper towels because he would never eat plain paper towels, something had to be in there.
However, after the paper towels Apollo didn't pass another bowel until....today! He pooped but is was silvery-grey and covered in a mucus (yuck!).
So, hopefully he's back to normal!!! Or as normal as he can get!!! :)
