Hey everybody, I came home at lunch today to find my dog walking funny!!! I'm a little nervous.
He's a 1 year old neutered cockapoo family pet.
He is walking with his butt underneath him a little and his tail is tucked to either the right or left side.
I rubbed around his butt area to see if he had any pain or anything but he just looked at me like, "Well this is new!!"
After a while his tail seemed to perk back up.
His spirits seem to be fine, happy as usual, no obvious pain.
One thing I would like to mention is that last night before we kenneled him for bedtime, we put his flea/tick oil on him. This is his 3rd month of this stuff. I thought I got the oil a little close to the tail and not close enough to the "base" but I thought it would still be okay. Now today his tail has that matted damp look to it. I don't know if it's from the oil or if he was trying to chew at it last night. ???
Any ideas???
Could getting the oil too far up on the tail cause him to be walking like this?
Could him trying to chew at it all night be causing this?
Could that oil harm him if he ingested some?
Your thoughts would be much appreciated!!!

When in doubt it's best to have a vet check the dog.

This is just a total, of the wall idea but have you ever had his anal sacs expressed?

Yea, I thought I'd get some advice here before deciding on a vet visit.
Not 100% sure about his anal sacs. I thought they did something to his anal area when I sent him to get groomed. ?? Could that be it? Or am I way off base?

If he is rubbing his butt on the floor and sliding along its ethier his anal sacs need emptying or he may have a worm problem

If you do decide to clear his anal sacs, just remember, 10 and 2 o clock...if you do not understand this, I hope you take the dog to the vet, which is my hope anyway.

So I just took my dog to the vet to get his anals expressed and see what she thought. Can I say first, I've never had a good feeling about this lady.
Please let me know if you think this is normal.

I showed her how my dog walks funny with his tail tucked to either one side or the other...she says, "lots of dog do a submissive walk"
I said, "he's never done this before."
So, I inquired about worms. She said we could do a fecal test. I said but I didn't think fecal tests showed all types of worms, she said something along the lines of blah, blah, blah.
She did the anal exam, she said they were full but not too bad, leading me to think that wasn't the problem.
Then she asked if he'd been peeing in the house at all, I said no.
She still seemed to think it was a submissive walk thing.
She ended the exam saying we should do a fecal and urine test (not sure how urine got in the mix). Then she said something about allergies. 2 weeks ago we changed my pups kibble from "puppy" to "adult." She said it could be an allergic reaction and tried to give me SD, I said no I'll figure something out. I declined the 2 tests too.
I'm not sure what to do! I thought maybe it was worms but she didn't seem to think so. Could it be allergies? He is really chewing at his tail, not really his butt.
I'm at a loss. I'm thinking maybe I should talk to a different vet.
Any ideas???

A couple of questions:

Do you know that you want to apply the flea stuff between the shoulder blades and/or upper back only to where he can't lick it?

Small dogs -- apply between shoulder blades; larger dogs -- apply from there down to the base of the tail, but not far enough down so the dog can reach it with his tongue.

Is he biting at the tail, as though it's itchy?

Are his paws or groin or pits enflamed looking?

Have you seen *any* evidence of flea dirt?

Aside from these questions, yes, I'd switch vets if I didn't trust the current one, but I *would* get the fecal done. I'd get the anal glands expressed too. These are two things that are non-invasive, and might be the problem. Why not rule 'em out?

Well, I must admit I think my initial mistake was not buying Frontline. I bought this Zodiac brand that I thought would work (I know much better now). The Zodiac brand has you put it between the shoulder blades and at the base of the tail.
I'm wondering if I got it too close to the end of his tail and he could reach it and got a taste and started chewing on it. Maybe one night in his kennel he chewed on it for a long time and that's why his tail is acting funny ????
Regardless, we gave him a bath right away after a guy at the vets office told me that Zodiac could be toxic.
He doesn't seem to be "itchy" by his tail, just wants to chew it every once in a while.
Haven't noticed any flea dirt and I would have thought the vet would have seen that too. (will give a better look when I get home)
Paws and everything looks normal.
I just don't know, I called another vet clinic a little bit ago but was only talking to a receptionist so couldn't get any real answers.

I would do the fecal and the anal expression.

I'd look carefully for flea dirt (a drop of water on a black speck will turn it red if it's flea dirt).

I'd apply the new med and see how all this is in a few days.... but still do the fecal and anals. There's no reason not to, and every reason to do it. JMO. :>

The anals are done. That's what I had the vet do initially when I went in, I figured, it couldn't hurt.

What would the flea dirt mean?

I'm probably going to take a fecal in after work.

By new med do you mean new Frontline? This vet told me to wait a couple of weeks since the old stuff probably got in his system. Not that this vet knows anything :>