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Dog Keeps "Seeing Things" - Very Worried
Master Ozzy
Posts: 18,937 Forum Member
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We have a boxer dog. She's female and will soon be 11 years old. She is absolutely full of energy (even more than most boxers!!) and has so much life in her. She hurt her leg when she was younger and had to have a big operation. She also had to have a big operation on her eye to remove a cyst. She also had to have a lot of teeth out due to bad breath. She's been back and forth for various things. Anyway, over the past couple of weeks we noticed that now and again she would suddenyl stop what she was doing and would become fixated on something...bu there's nothing there. She'd only do it for a few seconds and all she would do is stare. Anyway, last night was in a complete and utter state. It came out of nowhere...she started pacing the living room panting like crazy and we could not calm her down at all...it went on for about 2 and a half hours. During this time she kept becoming fixated on absolutely nothing every couple of minutes. Eventually we all went to bed and put big cushions up at the stairs (we do this sometimes due to her age and also incase her unning and up and down triggers her old leg injury). Now she's a very hyper dog, but she's very, well behaved. We all went to bed and thought that if we left her alone for a bit she would eventually calm down. Suddenly we heard a massive thud and she had jumped the HUGE cusions and was running up the stairs to us. She was in complete distress and we can't work out why.
She slept in my parents room last night, but she didn't really settle properly at all. When we woke up this morning she was extremely quiet, but not pacing and panting the room. By the time I was leaving for work though, she was starting to pace the room, pant and "see things" again. My dad has stayed home from work with her today but I won't know how she is until I get home. I just can't understand what on earth is wrong with her. I know boxers are hyper, but this one in particular is crazy and has such a strange personality...she's scared of so many things/doesn't know what to think of things. If she was just pacing the room panting I wouldn't be so worried as the way she eprceives and thinks about things is different o most dogs, but it's the fact she keeps "seeing things" which is making me really worry. I said to my parents maybe she's seeing a spirit, but realistically she just can't be. I just don't get it at all. Has anyone experienced this before with a pet?
She slept in my parents room last night, but she didn't really settle properly at all. When we woke up this morning she was extremely quiet, but not pacing and panting the room. By the time I was leaving for work though, she was starting to pace the room, pant and "see things" again. My dad has stayed home from work with her today but I won't know how she is until I get home. I just can't understand what on earth is wrong with her. I know boxers are hyper, but this one in particular is crazy and has such a strange personality...she's scared of so many things/doesn't know what to think of things. If she was just pacing the room panting I wouldn't be so worried as the way she eprceives and thinks about things is different o most dogs, but it's the fact she keeps "seeing things" which is making me really worry. I said to my parents maybe she's seeing a spirit, but realistically she just can't be. I just don't get it at all. Has anyone experienced this before with a pet?
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I think we might have to take her this evening. She's just such a strange dog. About 2 years ago she was extremely quiet for almost two days and hardly ate a thing and kept walking around with her head down. She actually looked like she was at death's door and my mum was crying and everything. She's never had that happen again since though. I'm convinced that she was just feeling really, really unwell and was worried herself as she's never felt like that before. She's a dog that worries and gets scared easily. I would have said the same thing about this latest incident, it's just the seeing things that's really worrying.
One thing I would say is that the concern your parents may be feeling could be transmitting itself to the dog and making things a bit worse so your parents need to be conscious of the need to be very calm around her, no tears or worried behaviour around the dog and don't change her routine.
And it's not necessarily that she is 'seeing things' when she becomes fixated on a spot in the room - she may be in pain, or suffering a mild seizure... her brain may be re-booting while she's like that and in fact, she's not 'seeing' anything at all. If possible, get your parents to film her on a phone while she's having one of these episodes because it is sod's law that it won't happen while she's in front of the vet.
Hope all goes well and things improve.
http://www.animalhealthcarecenterofhershey.com/medical%20handouts/Liver%20Failure%20and%20Hepatic%20Encephalopathy%20Management.pdf
It does sound like senility or a form of epilepsy. I hope she's ok x
But when we were being asked questions, the neurologist was asking if he stares into space or becomes fixated.
I think boxers are meant to suffer from brain tumours a lot, and 11 is a cracking age, but I would first see the vet and hopefully they will refer you to a neurologist if they cant work it out themselves.
I just wanted to say, when my little bull terrier got to around 12 or so she had all the symptoms you describe. (Predictably it came on during a christmas week as well!)
We took her to the vet's and the verdict was that she had the beginnings of dementia, combined with an ear infection. She was panting, pacing, up all night, seeing things... We were given antibiotics to clear up the ear thing which worked very quickly and Vivitonin which made a difference for quite a while - maybe a year or more. Then it stopped working and she had no medication. The seeing things phase faded out. One weird thing which is common with senile dogs... she developed a fear of her water bowl! We had to ind a certain bowl that didn't scare her (metal shiny ones were the scariest!) She went on to live to be 14 and a bit.
Some people may laugh and be dismissive of this but they do say dogs can sense spirits and thus have a sixth sense that humans obviously lack. It could explain your dog's behaviour.
Carrying on from where I left off on my last post...my dad took her to the our vet and was told to take her to the Queen Mary Veterinary Hospital. We took her there and they looked her over and said that it didn't seem like it was anything to do with her brain. We took her home and had to make an appointment for her to go back and have an ECG and blood test. We took her a few days later where she had the tests. They told us yesterday that her heart is beating incredibly slow but her blood pressure is high, and that we should put her to sleep. We were all so upset. My parents went to pick her up this morning as we were going to bring her home to say goodbye and then take her to the vet up the road to be put to sleep, but as they were driving to pick her up the vets called and said she had died. We are all just completely devastated. She was 11 but was so full of energy, she adored us and relied on us. She hated being away from us and it's terrible to think she was in the vets alone for the past 2 days without us. We're all just in a terrible state.
From the sounds of it I don't expect she was very aware towards the end so as long as she was warm and comfortable - as she would have been - she'll not have been distressed that you weren't there and would have just drifted off. Please don't further upset youself with thoughts of her being alone. The vet nurses will have given her a fuss and many a soft kind word. she was in the right place and you & your family did the right thing.
Take care of yourself xxx
and spirits.. quite spooky it was..
Take care OP