Matte

[annclare]

 Matte has suddenly become strangely reluctant to jump from a height eg chair or bed; he is ok in every other respect; any thoughts folks?   

[elaine.e]

Hopefully this will turn out to be nothing worse than a pulled muscle or something, but it could be an indicator of a number of things, including back pain or poor eyesight.

Is it jumping on, off or both? In my experiences with William, who has damaged discs, he will be reluctant to jump on the sofa, into the car or to go up a flight of stairs when he's sore, but is usually happy to jump down/off carefully. I don't let him do any of those things nowadays and lift him up and down.

Another possibility is a visual problem. Perhaps Matte isn't seeing things very well and is struggling to judge the distance when jumping off things?

Could also be a pulled muscle or strain of some sort. If it was one of my two I'd lift the dog instead of letting it jump and perhaps making things worse, and would take it to the vet to be checked.

[annclare]

Thanks Elaine. He's fine going up the stairs or jumping on the chair, the problem is getting down!

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Charlie has been like this when he pulled muscles as Elaine mentioned.

Recently he sprained his 'wrist' and sat and sulked (anti-inflammatories and pain killers later - he was back to his normal self). When he's pulled a leg muscle; he's been fine in himself and he's slowly got better over a few days.

If Matte appears to be in pain definitely go to the vets. If not, monitor for a few days (short gentle on lead walks at most) and if no sighs of improvement, then go to the vets.