Sneezing, pawing at face, lethargic, lost appetite

[Kaleigh]

Hi All!
This is my first post on doodlekisses and am very thankful for any advice in advance!!
We have an 8 month old little love named Winnie. Normally, she's an energetic gal who loves her food (royal canin rabbit after having some gi issues at the 5/6 months mark), loves to run around outside and nonstop play with her friends at daycare. Last week, we noticed she started sneezing a lot and seeming like she was trying to clear her nose. She also developed a thin clear runny nose and was pawing at her face/ears more than usual. She has had ear infections in the past that were treated with oscernia and otomax. But right now her ears are pink and don't have that funky smell. On Saturday when we picked her up from daycare, our dog walker told us that she laid down for awhile which is very unlike her (she runs circles around everyone else while they nap). We also noticed that she did not go crazy hopping around when we got her dinner ready and she did not finish it (normally will lick the bowl clean and make sure she got every last kibble). She did a lot of napping after daycare which is not out of her norm because she is exhausted after. Usually in the mornings she does a little dance for us when we let her out of her crate/exercise pen, but all we got on Sunday morning was tail wagging. Then she did the same thing with breakfast..not really interested and did not finish. She went on her morning walk and had normal pee/bm but seemed really tired and napped on/off the rest of the day. At dinner, same thing did not finish probably ate about half, had some water, short lived walk with normal elimination and right back to resting/sleeping. Today, we took her to the vet and they wanted to sedate her to do an in depth oral exam.. if they found nothing wanted to scope her. I thought that was a little extreme so I asked if it could potentially be a cold or allergies that are bothering her. Vet said potentially. So, we decided to treat her with chlorpheniramine 4mg tabs (2 tabs twice a day) for a week to see if that helps. My questions are..has anyone experienced anything like this before? Did We make the wrong decision by not scoping her today? Thank you so much for your time reading this!!

[Stacy]

Do you live in an area with foxtails? I've heard some horror stories about them getting embedded in mouths/noses/ears. Or possibly an insect sting? I have no idea if that's what's going on with your girl, but that was my first thought.

Best wishes!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Nope, she's in the Northeast. Foxtails don;t exist east of the Mississippi, thank goodness. 

[Stacy]

They're pretty evil. I wish we didn't have them here! 

[Kaleigh]

Thank you for the input Stacy!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Your vet didn't do any blood work? Reading your post, my first thought was a flue or virus of some type. Lethargy, loss of appetite combined with respiratory symptoms says cold or respiratory virus/infection to me. 

I have no idea what "an in depth oral exam" is, but I've been taking dogs to the vet for 40 years and I have never heard of that before. Nor have I ever heard of "scoping" a dog for these kinds of symptoms. You take their temperature, do a full physical exam, and blood panel.

I hate to say this, but I think I would find a different vet.

I can tell you this isn't allergies. Allergies in dogs don't present with these kinds of symptoms. 

[Kaleigh]

Hi Karen, thank you for the reply! I thought it was maybe some upper respiratory infection but the vet said because she didn't have a fever and her lungs sounded clear she thought her symtoms seemed like she had an obstruction of some sort in her nasal passage or throat i.e. Blade of grass or piece of wood from stick.. That was her rationale as to why she would need to look around deep in her oral cavity and possibly need to scope and/or take X-rays. This was all through the emergency department because we wanted to get her seen due her loss of appetite/lethargy. I didn't feel comfortable waiting a few more days until an appointment opened up with her internal medicine vet but maybe I should keep it to follow up with a suggestion for bloodwork? Thanks again for your help, this worried mama appreciates it.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I would take her to her regular vet as soon as you can. ER vets...well, many of them are not very experienced, and it seems that when they hear hoofbeats, they always think zebra, not horses, lol. They are fine in a true emergency, but otherwise, your regular vet is usually a better option. 

[BG and Gavin]

How is your weather? A sudden rise in temperature and hi humidity cause some of the symptoms you describe in my guy. He does not deal well at all with the heat. I take him in the water up to his belly to cool him down and that turns him around.

[Ginny Nightingale]

My first thought was kennel cough or bordatella since she is in doggy day care-- she is not coughing but the other symptoms are there--some sort of virus could be the issue though since she sees a lot of other dogs each day.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Foxtails in the nose or throat would be my off-the-cuff guess.  Since you don't live around foxtails, is there something similar she could get into her nose or throat?  My granddog recently had Bordatella.  Her case was very mild and she sneezed and coughed some.  Perhaps that is the culprit.  When Bordatella is mild they don't do anything and let it run its course.

[Ginny Nightingale]

I agree---if she has not had the bordatella vaccine (and even if she has), being in Doggy day care exposes her to a lot.

[Kaleigh]

Thank you all for the responses! We switched her to wet food for a few days and put her on allergy meds twice/day and she's got her energy/appetite back. She still will occasionally itch her face and sneeze but it is much less frequent. I'm so glad I found this supportive community:. It's so helpful and reassuring especially for a first time dog parent!!