Help! Extremely traumatized dog.

[Cocoa's Mom]

Cocoa is a Shih Tzu, Yorkie, Daushund mix. She will be 4years old next month. She is spayed and weighs 14 lbs. I have had her about 3 years. Prior to recent trauma, she was a very active, friendly loving dog. We walked 2 miles almost every morning. She LOVED it! As soon as I put my shoes on each morning, she would jump around excitedly until I walked her.

She has always been extremely frightened by loud noises. Fireworks & thunderstorms make her shake, freak out and crawl up on me in a panic....six days ago, my husband got new symbols for his drum kit and wanted to try them out. I don't know what he was thinking but he set up his drum kit and played them in the house for about 30 minutes! When I came home, I went to pet Cocoa and she yelped like she was in pain. I thoroughly checked her over and found nothing wrong with her physically. The next morning I tried to walk her and she just wasn't herself; sluggish, tail down, slow.

Since then, she has gone from bad to worse. She is completely shutting down. She doesn't want to eat or drink. Won't go outside to pee. Wednesday, she laid in my bed all day, refused to move until she finally lost her urine. Then she hid under the bed and wouldn't come out. I finally had to remove the mattress and box spring to get her and take her to the vet. He gave her Valium and said if she's not better by Monday to bring her back.

I have no clue what to do. She won't eat. I have to open her mouth and feed her by hand or use a straw to put water in her mouth. She just wants to hide all day. I have to leash her and force her to go outside to pee. But now she's walking really funny. Her tail is between her legs (used to be up on her back all the time) and she's walking with her back arched and taking tiny little steps. My once happy, healthy dog has completely shut down. I have no clue how to help her.

[JudyN]

I don't want to worry you, but I think you need to speak to your vet again, even though it is a Sunday The way she's walking could suggest that there's something wrong internally. Your description put me in mind of a Yorkie I had when I was a child who was all hunched up and hid under a bed - it turned out she had swallowed three marbles.

I may be completely wrong, of course, but to my mind it's not worth the risk.

[emmabeth]

I would echo Judy's advice I do not think this is JUST fear.

I have sound phobic dogs and I also play the drums - a similar episode with my sound phobics (and Dilly dog would try to get on my head, would shake, dribble, refuse food) would cause distress for maybe a day or two, but those symptoms would be things like them being much more likely to react to distant sounds, much more reactive to something that sounds similar to the trigger sound... not the symptoms you describe.

Please let us know how she is following your next vet visit. Fingers x she will be ok!