09/07/2026
Veterinarians sometimes get a bad rap when they can’t immediately tell us what’s wrong with our dogs.
But our dogs can’t tell them where it hurts.
One of my rescue dogs has always had severe anxiety around thunder and fireworks. Recently, he started having the same fight-or-flight reaction when there was no obvious trigger.
Instead of assuming it was “just anxiety,” we started ruling things out. Bloodwork didn’t give us the answer, so we moved on to X-rays.
And that X-ray told us a story we never would have known by looking at him.
It showed evidence of significant old trauma that had healed internally. Now we have another piece of the puzzle and can investigate whether pain may be contributing to what I’m seeing.
The lesson? Document everything. Take videos. Pay attention to changes and patterns. Give your veterinarian as much information as possible and work through the possibilities together.
Our dogs can’t tell the veterinarian what happened.
Sometimes we have to help tell their story.
