sam pearson

Hi, I"m after some advice regarding our 3yo female English Staffy x American Pit Bull - today she went for the second time to the vet to be sedated to have her nails clipped. I realise this isn't ideal and we are working towards doing it without the sedation but for now that is what we need to do. Last time she went in at noon and by 2pm she was cleared by the vet to come home and we walked home and she was just fine with a lovely manicure - everything as usual. Today she went in at noon and I picked her up at 2pm and she seemed okay- when they brought her out they said she had weed on the office floor which is something she would never do usually (wee inside I mean) but I figured she was anxious or the sedative was the cause of that. Walking home the 10-15 minutes to our home I could see and she wasn't quite right - she didn't want to play at the dog park as we walked by (so unlike her but I figured she was feeling a bit off and perhaps a bit groggy), then she stopped walking a few times and it seemed she was either trying to stretch her back legs out or perhaps try to wee although she didn't produce any urine. She is afraid of storms and a storm started brewing just as we got home. She started whining and I thought it was because of the storm but looking back perhaps she was experiencing some pain - not sure. Anyway once we got home it was apparent she was having issues as despite not having any previous bladder problems she was making little puddles of wee everywhere and wee was dripping out as she walked along. Even when she was lying on her bed urine was dripping out every now and again as she was lying on her side. She also yelped - just the once - for no apparent reason - I can only presume she felt pain (she's a very tough dog pain-wise). I rang the vet who said it wasn't normal but he wasn't too concerned and said to see how she was in the morning. It's now 7pm and it's still happening sometimes, less often though. For the most part she seems comfortable but she is unhappy. The storm has passed and she has stopped whining so perhaps the whining was just about the scary storm. Also, she's been refusing water until just now when she had a small drink so the improvement we've seen might just be because she hadn't drunk enough. She did gobble up her dinner as usual. So my questions are if she was fine last time wouldn't it to be expected that she be fine this time? Is it normal to have this kind of reaction to being sedated? If so how long before she will recover? Is there anything I should be doing aside from wait until the morning. Do they use a catheter when they sedate dogs? If so could that cause what I am describing? Thanks in advance.

Yes, it's air licking she is doing. Thank you. I will perservere and look for a reason. We don't have a vet as we have just moved to the area. I'll look for both a good local vet and a dog dentist.

Hi, Thanks for the welcome. Yes, these two things were exactly what I was concerned about so I thought I'd better head here before getting worried in case it was a Staffy thing or just a "some dogs are like that" kind of thing. I don't feel like she is generally anxious but she is desperate to please and a softie so if she gets told off even gently she will do it a lot then and at those times I feel it is anxiety related but she does it ather times also so that didn't quite fit. I feel that it is just a behaviour she has when in any high emotional state - nervous, exited and perhaps she is just so happy to be hoping in bed with us which is why she does it then - it does make her really happy. But last night in bed I noticed a few times she made a little hiccup motion - not any sound but a very slight jerk - and it occurred to me that my husband does this sometimes whe he has indigestion. We go to bed a number of hours after she has her dinner and no other signs of nausea - no vomitting aside from when she had some avacado once, normal poops. Perhaps I should look at something in her diet. I've never noticed anohther dog doing this. I will post it in the other section also. Thanks for that tip.

Hi Wise Dog Owners, I was unsure where to put my post - mods please move if this is the wrong spot. I was wondering about my lovely and very much loved English Staffy, Audrey. A bit of background... She is a rescue dog we have had for 6 months and she stopped growing bigger and stopped hoovering massive amounts of food 3 months ago so we guess she is just over 2 years old. This is my first question. What do you think? Would this be a good guesstimat of her age based on her growing ceasing?. She was severely abused - was terrified and would cower and urinate if you held a broom or stick and she was afraid of chains and the sound of chains - now she has learned she doesn't need to fear these items. She was found in a terrible state - starving and severely underweight, flea ridden, literally covered in dog bites, both eyes badly infected, dry nose, skin irritation - she is now very healthy with clear eyes, wet nose, lovely coat and skin, has grown to be 2kg above the average range for a female Staffy and is relaxed and confident. She is, like all Staffies, a human contact loving dog. We are home a lot (I homeschool the children and work from home) so she is not lacking attention. Although she is not walked every day (twice a week) she has a very big garden to hoon around in and plays with the kids running around and they do obstacle courses with her so she is not lacking excersice. She eats well - BARF. However, she has one behaviour we would like to remedy and another that I am not sure is normal. The first problem is that she wimpers and pulls at her leash if she is tied up anywhere. At home if put outside or in another part of the house (tied up or not) she will be a bit distressed and will wimper and try to get our attention by walking on her hind legs past the window (this is very funny to us but not for her obviously), and scratching at the door. She will, however, eventually give up and lay down and chill out. I feel that if I keep doing it regularly she will eventually be okay about it and I think this is pretty normal behaviour for a very people person dog who likes to be with the pack. However, if we go into a shop, or if I am at the park and I tie her up outside the playground even if she can see us she is frantic, leaping up trying to break her leash, making her harness chaff her and wimpering becomes crying becomes full blown barking to the point where she will start to loose her voice. I want to take her places but in order to do that at times I need to tie her up for short periods. It was so intense the last time that we had to leave and go home - she was disturbing everybody at the park. I would like to hear ideas about how I can get her used to being tied up in public and calmly waiting for us as accompanying us out is one of her pleasures and I am leaving her home most of the time now because of this issue. The second question I had was about her licking her lips. She does this a lot. When she does it it seems to me to be compulsive but maybe it's normal. I watched a tv show where a trainer was pointing out that a horse had started licking her lips which indicated to him that she had moved from a tense state to a relaxed one. I notice that she seems to do this mainly when she is very excited or very relaxed. She will do it heaps when greeting a family member home or when getting her harness on for a walk. She will lick her lips 20 or 30 times in a row. It seems to be she can hardly contain her excitement and this causes her to lick her lips. She will also do it when she is relaxing e.g. when she first lays down to go to sleep - very annoying when we all hop into bed and she gets into her position which is at the foot of the bed and she licks her lips for up to 5 minutes. Eventually, she falls to sleep but why does she do this? Is it normal? Or should I be looking into the cause? My other dogs have never done this. She is a very quiet dog - rarely barks, never grunts etc. Is this just a way of her communicating both excitement and relaxation? Thanks in advance.