Unspecified pain. - Page 1

My boy Ari has been yelping intermittently with no apparent cause. No sign of limping, no reaction to pressure, no reaction when his joints are flexed and stretched .

The first time was about January. He was running the blinds when he gave out a nasty yelp. He didn’t slip or limp. I called him in and felt him all over, no reaction. He started trotting around me and as soon as he picked up a lope he yelped. I immediately put him on leash and walked him for a while.

I kept a close eye on him for the next few days, but there was no more yelping.

About two weeks later he was doing a short bite and yelped again. This time he whimpered a bit after wards. I checked him all over again, nothing. Took him to the vet, who pressed him all over and manipulated all his joints. No sign of pain.

For the next two weeks he was crated except to go out on leash to relieve himself. Then I slowly let him resume his normal activities. He seemed fine.

In the beginning of April, he was doing a recall and yelped again. He finished the recall with a perfect sit, but he was whimpering the whole time. Again I could find no spot on him that hurt, nor could the vet.

Since then he has been fine. He has been doing bite work, dumb bells, jumps, blinds and no pain.

This morning he was goofing around and jumped a one foot high cat food container. The yelp he let out was awful. He jumped up on the bed, laid down and spun circles whimpering. He then flung his head in my lap and just laid there and whimpered, while I cuddled his head. He is not normally a dog who wants to cuddle. He laid like that whimpering for one to two minutes. Then he picked his head up and was fine. He jumped off the bed, started trotting around like nothing had happened.

Does any body have any ideas? This morning I was thinking of having a MRI done on him, but were would they even begin to look?

have his back x-rayed

I suspect his back too. It sounds alot like my old male (and best buddy). It just broke my heart because we couldn't pin point the problem either. He would get so upset, almost like he got shocked but didn't know what he did wrong.  I finally did an MRI and it showed some slightly bulging discs. I could look up the paperwork and type out the exact findings if you would like. They said he was not a candidate for surgery and the specialist told me that surgery should only be done in severe cases as it does not always go as hoped. I just managed it with slow walks and no upward jumping (running very fast and jumping up or steep stairs would make it flair up) Also acupuncture and chiropractor. After time he was able to run again but he seemed to know he had to hold it back also the jumping and stairs got better. Our staircase was very steep. I blocked them off and slept downstairs with him. My husband soon put in a new staircase that wasn't as steep too!  You "might" have to consider his working days are over...

I suggest getting him to a sports vet and getting some real diagnostics done before you panic or put him out to pasture.. are there any good sports vets in your area?? I know of several in the southeast I could recommend..

We can all speculate but he its best to just get him looked at now!! There are so many really cool rehab therapies/conditioning programs and choices for helping these guys.... oftentimes, they have a soft tissue injury... an ileopsoas muscle or the like which mimics back pain, leg pain..... every dog is different in how they handle and show or not show their pain..

I wish you luck, a good sports vet is so important and hopefully you will find one. Let me know if I can help you in any way!!

I had a similar incident years ago with a wimpering GSD. The wimpering was always during excercise or excitement and the episodes became longer and more frequent. It  turned out be epiletic seizures.

The spine,  but may I also suggest the vet xray the shoulder & elbow.  I can't remember exactly what it's called but there is a condition in GSDs where a little bone fragment gets into the shoulder joint.  This happened to my previous dog & his orthopedic  surgeon said it was not an uncommon condition in GSD's.   My dog displayed very similar behaviour, and it was strange because of how loud he would yelp yet no limp after or before.  Please keep us posted.

Spine!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Can be missed by xray   the cushion may be going out of one of his vertebrae or it may have starte disenagrating....has a name...

I believe you are thinking of Myelopathy.

Mine didn't ever whimper but I had his spine x-rayed because of his hips and we were deciding what to do. Unfortunately I let his hips go too long and he ended up with back problems. He was inoperable byt the time I had the knowledge or money to do anything. The vet showed me on the x-ray where the spinal bones were starting to fuse you can actually see the spurs starting to join together. She said they are painful but once they fuse the pain goes away. He is still going strong 3 yrs later with pain pills and Adequan shots. There is no cushion in a vertebrae the cushion is a disc between the vertebrae that keep them from rubbing together. Dogs can herniate a disc the same as humans. And depending on where it is it definitely causes a shock like pain I know cause I had one in my neck and the pain was down my left arm. Depending on your situation you can start cheap with a regular x-ray, a human MRI is about 2300 bucks have no idea on a dog but it is probably higher because they have to be sedated. Find a good vet if not a sports vet and orthopedic or neurologic.  Good luck!!!