We had an issue with our 13 yo GSD/lab for about a week. She fairly suddenly stopped moving quickly, seemed very subdued or perhaps in pain, had no interest in playing with our other dogs, or even walking much. She is normally somewhat argumentative, but couldn't be bothered. We worried about heart disease, and had a complete blood panel done. All results were normal, and a quick blood test showed no tick-borne diseases. We were in vacation in an area where there are many ticks. Because she did have a bladder infection, she was put on Augmentin for a week, and during this time, she seemed to recover very well, and she is now her old self.

A number of things happened that could have caused this. One, we took her on two long hikes in the days before this happened, and she did a little scrambling into streams, etc. She could have injured her neck/back. Two, she got a new bed, and seemed to like it so much, she never wanted to leave it. Three, perhaps she really does have a tick borne disease, but hasn't made antibodies yet, or they were not covered in the test (not all are). Four, the bladder infection really bothered her (unlikely, I think, as she has had them before with no similar symptoms), and five, my husband's favorite, she wanted us to spend a few hundred dollars at the vet, just to show we cared.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

Did they do a full abdomen x-ray?

Alyssa,

I was away from the internet a few days. No, she seemed fine on physical exam, and the blood panel was normal. She really seems to have recovered completely, so I am leaning towards a spine/neck injury that healed with time. If it was as obstruction or tear, I would expect her to have some signs of gastric distress, vomiting, bloody stools, there was none of that. She had some of those symptoms, plus extreme lethargy (probably due to pain) a number of years ago, after getting into cooked chicken bones. If she had something very dire, like cancer, it would not have gotten better with antibiotics, or time.

She is an older dog, about 13, but is in excellent shape generally. She seems pretty normal now.