Well, that was a complete waste of time. I had such high hopes for my new vet and guess which 4 letter word came out of his mouth (given that Alfie is a golden cocker) - you guessed it: "rage" (which he also said was excessive dominance
)
He gave him a complete once-over and because Alfie wasnt in any obvious pain, he said it is behavioural and he is being dominant, so I should make him sleep on the floor instead of the sofa etc etc!
I got really annoyed with him and said that he has been a totally different dog in the last 2 or 3 days to how he has been before. It seems extremely unlikely to me that a dog would change its personality almost overnight! Yes, he is a grumpy old thing, but he is NOT scary or viscious. Today, I was almost scared to touch him.
The vet has given him painkillers (just to appease me, I think) so we can see if he improves on those. If he does, the vet said he will concede that he is in pain.
The other interesting thing is that Alfie has gained 1kg in 1 month, despite me cutting his food right back, which to me screams thyroid, but the vet dismissed that idea because his coat is still glossy and full!
Im so frustrated because I hoped the vet would be more open-minded and try harder to look for physiological symptoms - I kind of felt he had made up his mind it was behavioural as soon as he saw a golden cocker!
My instinct is to go straight for a second opinion elsewhere, but OH thinks we should do the painkillers for 5 days and then see what happens, so I guess thats what we will do.
