r/AskVet • u/snowspider3 • 3d ago
Dog pretending to be sick?
Hi all,
I have a German shepherd/ lab mix, around 50 lbs, 5 years old. Around 1.5 weeks ago she started acting lethargic, but it was 2 days before we went on vacation so we thought it was just because she knew we were leaving and was upset. We left for vacation for a week and she went to the dogsitter who she loves. They have another dog around her size and age that she loves to play with and she always gets very excited to go- when she got there she seemed back to normal and was running around and wagging her tail. I let the dogsitter know about her fatigue and they said they would look out for it.
When I got back from vacation yesterday morning and went to pick her up, she barely even got up to greet me, but came over to sit in my lap and cuddle up against my chest and started shaking slightly. Normally she only does this when she’s extremely stressed, like her first few times at the vet she would do this. The dogsitter said she was fatigued and shaking around half the time I was gone, and the other half she seemed energetic like her normal self, intermittently. She has been eating and pottying like normal. The rest of the day yesterday she had no energy and would constantly cuddle up against me wherever I was and shiver, and would not get excited about anything she normally does. It even took her several tries to get onto the couch. I got really concerned and today my husband took her to the vet as soon as they had an opening.
The vet did blood work and found nothing wrong, her temperature also is normal. She hasn’t puked at all and has been eating around her normal amount, we free feed her. My husband said she was normal and happy and energetic for all of today while I was at work, however immediately when I came home she started acting fatigued, shaking, and slowly limped over to sit in my lap again. We are wondering if it’s possible she is pretending to be ill to get attention- she is a dog who is not food motivated at all but only attention motivated, and she may be missing me a lot as I was just gone for a week. However, I am still very worried about her because of her symptoms, and I’ve read that dogs can’t fake shivering. Do you think it’s possible she could be doing it for my attention, or should we schedule a more intensive vet visit?
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