Michael and I have noticed for several months now that Flynn has been slowing down. When he first came to us nearly a year ago last January, he had enough energy to walk with us all the way over to the Dog Park which is probably a good 1 1/2 miles round trip (depending on how many times we would walk around the park). He walked right next to us and lagged behind only a bit and only on the return home.
What we noticed first was Flynn getting tired after just a short walk through our neighborhood. Then we noticed increasing stiffness in his back legs & difficulty getting up from a lying or sitting down position. Lately taking him to the vet has both of us holding our breaths, hoping Flynn will be able to get in and out of the backseat. He can get his front legs up on the seat but we have to lift his back legs the rest of the way in--he just doesn't have the strength to jump in anymore. When he gets out, he totters at the edge of the seat, peering at the ground and what I imagine is trying to judge the distance between the two. I don't think his depth perception is that great anymore, especially at night, which is when we usually take him to the vet. I have taken to bringing treats with me and bribing (I mean encouraging) him to make the leap so he can have a treat.
In September and October we noticed another change. Flynn began having frequent accidents in the house, which was odd, but not the oddest thing. What I found baffling was that he would be fine all day by himself while we were at work, but on the weekends he would have accidents after just being out a couple of hours prior. It didn't seem reasonable that he was doing it on purpose to spite us . . . the only thing I could think of was that he sleeps all day when we're gone & doesn't have the chance to have an accident because he's asleep. When we're around, he's awake more often & thus finds the need to go out more often. Now we basically put him out each time he gets up after he's been lying down for awhile--just in case.
We took him to the vet for this one about 3 weeks ago and the vet's thought was that he might have the beginnings of canine dementia. So now Flynn takes a pill once a day (nestled in a tasty pill pocket) and the number of accidents has decreased, which could be due to the pill, or could be due to the food we switched him to which seems to cause him to poop less.
The other big change in Flynn just within the past few months is that he has lost a significant amount of weight. When he was at the vet in June he weighed nearly 80 pounds and when we took him in September he weighed 70 pounds--quite a loss in only 3 months.
And within the past few days, he has slowed down on the amount he is eating. He normally eats twice a day & gobbles up anything that lands in his food dish. Now he barely eats 1 serving of food--and I have started bribing him (again!) with treats mixed in with it. It's possible he may have picked up a flu bug when he was at the kennel last week over Thanksgiving, but he's not acting sick. When I come home from work each day, he wags his tail like crazy and frisks about, welcoming me back. He still gulps down treats and he's drinking a ton of water as usual.
So today--Saturday--I am taking Flynn to the vet to see if they can figure out why he doesn't want to eat. I'm hoping that it's something simple, but taking into account all of his other changes, I just don't know.
