Does anyone know ...

Hi everybody. Its been a very long time since I have been on this site. And then we had hurricane Katrina came and destroyed our homes.
I lived with my dad and we had an oak tree in the back yard that fell on the house. (Louisiana)
The roof was ripped of his second home.

Any way at least we are all ok. I moved to Texarkana, Arkansas.

Anyway, I hope everybody else is ok.


So, I came back to this site because ya'll are really good with giving advice and knowing animals.

Well, for the past 3 days, my Pit Bull, Shianne, has been acting very strange.
Shes fine when you play with her but when you stop she goes right to the corner of the couch and curls up and doesnt want to come from that spot. She used to beg for treats. Now I can just barely get her to come get one from me and she goes back to her spot instead of begging for more. Now THAT is just odd.
Also, when I let her outside, she stays by the door and whines and barks and jumps on the door to come back in... she has never done that before.
And she has never ever whined when in her kennel. Now when I put her in there she just whines.
I had to sit in the room with her the other day until she calmed down and then I had to sneak out.

I dont know what to do.

We think maybe she was spooked by something but we dont know what and we dont know how to fix the problem.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Angie

 

I also wanted to add that I bought her a new squeaky toy a few days ago and that I noticed she has been acting a little aggressive and that is not like her at all.
She has been trying to take this toy with her everywhere and even outside and she has never done this with a toy before, not even with a bone.
If we throw the toy, she runs to get it, puts it in her mouth very gently and then cuddles it close to her.

I never put the toy with her in the kennel yet because she would eat her toys so maybe I will try putting the toy in the kennel with her tonight to see how it goes. I dont think she will eat it. She treats it like its her baby.

Has anybody ever had this happen to their dog? Whats the best thing to do?

Angie

 

Hi! If Shianne was with you during the hurricane, that may be what's wrong, but that's really all I can think of, besides the fact too that it's a new house. Maybe as you live there longer she will calm down and return to her normal self.

 

Well, we left for the hurricane so she wasnt frightened by that. We moved here and have been here since Sept. 10th and she was still acting normal. She has only been acting this way for about 3-4 days now. And the only thing I can think of that has changed it that I got her a new toy.

Last night I put her new and old toys with her in the kennel to see if it would help and it did a little. She didn't whine as much as she has been.

When I took her outside just a few minutes ago, she did her buisness and ran back to the door to go back inside. She never used to do that.



I am thinking about taking both of the toys away for a few days to see if that helps any.

Should I? Im not sure if that would help or make her go crazy looking for them.......

 

maybe this link can help? i hope so.

www.unclematty.com

www.petservice.com (you can email a vet and ask questions too).

and i'm so sorry about what happened with Katrina.

 

Thanks for the link. Ill have to check out the site later

 

Sudden changes in behavior could also indicate a health problem. If possible, I would consider having her checked by a vet.

 

How old is Shianne? Is she spayed? It almost sounds like a phantom pregnancy with the toy thing.

I think I would get her checked out by a vet, as nern said.

 

I would also recommend a vet check usually suddne bahvior changes may signal an illness and I also agree with Jimiya, about the toy thing, that sounds lke a phantom pregnacy. LOl saw on animal planet last week where the dochsy was having a phantom pregnacy and was taking their cordless telephones, it wa sfunny sieeing this dog furled up with 2 cordless phones.

 

oh and It could be she was spooked by something too like you said. is there anything outside that could have scared her she is not used to, like thunderstorms, gunshots, cars backfiring, firecrackers or maybe a runin with a critter?

my parents dog for years was never bothered by loud noises, fireworks rthunderstorms, then a few years ago she went to my sisters whre they had fireworks, dont know what changed, but ever since then she freaks out at thunder or fireworks

 

Shianne will be 3 years on November 15th.

I also thought about the phantom pregnancy thing.

Shianne is not spayed. Where I was living, our entire yard wasn't fenced in, so I would be outside with her any time I let her out. So I never got her spayed.
And now that I moved here, she will be outside more often so I am going to look into that.

I also thought about a raccoon or something scaring her. But that doesn't really explain why she is carring the toy around like a baby.

Today was the first time I let her take the toy outside with her. She carried it in her mouth the entire time she was outside, to pee and then she kept looking for me in the window to let her in. She didnt see me though, I watched her and she took the toy with her in the dog house after she realized I wasn't letting her in.

There are two dog houses, one Cookie goes in a lot and the other one is further out in the yard and Cookie never goes in it. The one that Cookie doesn't use is the one that Shianne was in.

Also, I am listening to her right now while she is in the living room, laying with the toy, just whining.


I have to take her to the vet tomorrow to get a check up on her eye and I will also tell them how she has been acting and get her checked out.

Thanks for all your advice.

Honeybears, aren't you the one with that cute little Winston??
Its been so long since I have been on this site! Hard to remember everyone.

 

It really sounds like the phantom pregnancy thing. Mike could tell you more about that. How long ago was she last in heat?

I would really urge you to spay her. I'm not sure if you have to wait for this behavior to go away first or not. Again, Mike would know about that. I'm sure he'll post soon - whatever the heck time it is in the UK now.

 

Her last heat was in July, I think. Im pretty sure.


Should I take the toy away from her? When we hide it from her, she goes crazy looking for it.


I feel so bad, she is just whining right now with her toy.

She just went get her other toy, the old one. They are both squeaky toys, I just got her a new one bc the old one doesnt squeak as loud as it used to.

I will talk to the vet tomorrow about getting her spayed.

 

I don't know if you should take it away or not. I think you can just let things run their course and she'll get through it, unless it gets really bad. Your vet should know what to do. Are her teats swollen?

 

I didnt realize she was not spayed, it does sound like phantom pregnacy, they get restless, clingy, they will take things and treat them like their pups, A guy I work with dog went thru this and she would take stuffed animals to her bed and protect them. I dont think I would take them away, if she is going thru this it shouldnt last long, If you are not going to breed her I would have her spayed, because when she is in heat she cant left left outside alone, period. and any unaltered males will do anything to get after a dog in heat, not ot mention a female breaking out looking for male. And there are cancers that are more common in unaltered females. Mike is the expert here, so hopefully he can chime in.

good luck and hope her eye is feeling better too.

 

not really

 

I babysat a bichon once that acted like that and it was a phantom pregnancy. Her Mom broght her to my house without the squeaky "baby" but Zoey has tons of squeaky toys and is toy aggressive and drove the poor little bichon crazy!

 

Ok, so I took Shianne to the vet today and her eye is healed up. They gave us some meds so that she doesn't have a scar on her eye.

We asked him about changing the information in her microchip since we just moved and he said I would have to call the company and gave me a website.

We took the toy away from Shianne yesterday and she started acting more normal. She hasnt been eating much at all and yesterday she actually ate all her food and thats normal. So we decided to keep the toy away from her for a few months.
We told the vet about it and he said that she had very little milk but not enough to mean anything he said she might come in heat a little early and that it would be ok to give her the toy back if she continues to eat.

He said everything else looks fine.
Good health.

When we first took her to the vet here she weighed about 73 lbs and now she weighs 69 lbs. So she lost a little weight, which is a good thing bc shes a little big. Now she has more room to run out in the yard so shes loosing some flab! lol

Also, I asked him how much it would be to get her fixed and he said about 90-100 dollars for a large dog... is that a good price?
I am really thinking about getting it done.


Thanks everybody for all the replys!



Angie

 

$90 to $100 sounds very reasonable, I have read here where people were paying to $20o-$300 for a spay which siounds high to me

 

Ok, thanks.


Forgot to add, the vet said that it was probably just a little motherly instinct kicking in. There wasnt much milk there at all. And he said it would be ok to give the toy back as long as she is still eating.