Hey everyone,
We’re really hoping you can help us out with this slightly bizarre issue we’re dealing with.
We have a 7-year-old male Beagle named Bailey who has been in perfect health until recently. He’s always been a well-behaved and good dog.
Late last week, he started yelping for no obvious reason. It’s an extremely loud, high-pitched scream, and then he goes back to behaving normally. It escalated to the point where he’d yelp several times and be clearly in a lot of pain before seemingly being fine again.
We took him to the vet on Saturday morning, and they suspected a trapped nerve issue since he yelped during the examination. We got a few different medications for pain relief, including a nerve-specific pain relief and muscle relaxant (Metacam). However, these didn’t seem to have any impact, so we called the vet yesterday for advice. They asked us to come back in as they had a specialist on duty.
The specialist examined Bailey, bending him in every conceivable way, but he didn’t make a peep. All legs, neck, back—everything was checked. We walked up and down the car park, and he was absolutely fine. The vet must think we’re crazy.
But once we got home, he went back to the random screams. He’s now holding his front left leg up, and it seems to be triggered when he tries to place it down after sleeping. The vet thoroughly checked all the joints in his leg, and everything seemed in order.
For some reason, it seems to be linked to sleeping, tiredness, or evenings and isn’t always present.
The sudden, loud yelps are giving us a heart attack and anxiety every time he wakes from a nap, as we wait to see if he’s going to scream out.
We really don’t know what to do. The painkillers and other drugs haven’t had any impact. When we take him to the vet, he acts perfectly fine.
Could it be some sort of arthritis causing his joints to seize up after sleeping? Can we get much stronger painkillers?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!