Depressed/sad/stressed collie, advise please.

snollup

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of advice.

We have a 4 year collie cross and of late he has become quite stressed (licking lips a lot & very on edge).

We bring him out three times a day, two of those for about an hour (off lead chasing the ball).

He is eating as normal.

When he's in the house he is constantly on edge & at times he appears depressed/sad.

His routine has not changed.

Archie was always a happy fella but over the last couple of months we have noticed this & it's breaking our hearts seeing him this way.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks.

aonb

Nothing in the house has changed? New people? New diet? New carpet even!?! Its amazing the things that affect our pets that we wouldnt even think of

Have you had him checked by the vet to see if there is something physical going on?

maggiepip

You need to bring him to the vet as a priority and rule in or out any medical issues, then take it from there. Underlying pain/medical problems will cause a dog to behave like this. Also dont be fooled if he seems ok on his walks, most dogs and especially collies, get a huge adrenalin surge when they get excited , which acts as a natural painkiller, and can appear ok during exercise. My rescue collie was acting very like what you describe, the lip smacking was a pain signal too, turned out she was getting episodes of back pain and with the correct treatment is doing great these days.

snollup

Thanks so much for your replies.

I'm going to make an appointment with our vet now.

Will let you know how Archie gets on.

J.