I currently have a chihuahua that is about four years old. He is a rescue, weighs about 15lb's and we received him about two years ago.

This started today. Around 11:00am today he was laying outside in the sun like he does often. He is not the normal chihuahua in terms of being afraid. He will often lay outside with the neighbors trimming their trees with a chainsaw, or kids yelling outside or many other things that cause many other dogs to bark/be afraid. There's not much that will cause him to be afraid. Its also important to note that there is really nothing to access in the back yard. Its also shared with my two other dogs. We searched the yard for everything from chemicals to bee's. As we let him inside this morning he yelped like a mad man ran right past use, peed all over the floor and was limping with his back right leg. He also released his anal glands either right before he was let inside or right after. At this time we took him to the vet for what we thought was a bee sting.

The vet gave him a checkup. We couldn't find any kind of signs of a bee sting, all his vitals were normal, all his gums/eyes/ everything were fine. Really the vet had no idea what was going on. Said to take him home and watch him carefully.

We took him home, he avoided us like we hurt him, wouldn't come out of his crate, wouldn't eat any treats that were left on the floor. Just acting very afraid. at about 6:00 we picked him up and set him outside, he lounged out there slowly returning to his normal self. I was sitting in a lawn chair fairly far away and called him, he got up and yelped and did the same thing as before and cowered under my lawn chair.

I gave him a few minutes to cool down, picked him up in my lap and being to start playing with his foot. I touched/rubbed/poked/moved his foot in every way you could imagine ( carefully ) and he was 100% fine. Its his back right leg that is doing this, we searched endlessly for a sliver, or sting, or cut but there is nothing. Its also important to note that between these times of him getting hurt he had laid down, moved around numerous times without it hurting him.

Any ideas on what this could be?

A far shot into the dark- may be a joint? Knee? Just trying to come up with ideas. He is a small dog and they do tend to have problems with knees. Then again, I am not a vet.

Lenka

After the second incident I started to toy with the same idea. I was thinking maybe he injured his foot/leg or got up wrong and twisted something? I tried to replicate it and moved his leg in every which way when he calmed down and couldn't replicate it.

Sciatica?

Is this a LH or a SH chi? I know my eldest gets really grumpy about catching his hair on decking. Also, is a static shock a possibility? While your chi might not be nervy it's very possible he's a soft dog and might take something minor as the world coming to an end.

Last night about 4 am I woke up to a screaming dog. My eldest managed to hook his dew claw in the ring for his tags and was absolutely paniced. It wasn't more than uncomfortable but he surely thought the world was crashing down around him.

Ants?
Ground bees?
Seizure?

Our older one had a luxated patella. That means the knee cap snaps in and out. When it was out he could not walk and was in major pain. Then it would pop back in and he would pounce around just like nothing happened. Do not twist his legs. You can really injure them even if you are trying to be careful. Next time you take him to the vet ask if it could be a luxated patella. I'm not saying that's what it is but it's a possibility.

Lenka