# Puppy keeps sticking his tongue out!



## CorgiNerd (Oct 21, 2016)

I wasn't quite sure which forum to post this topic in because I have no idea what the cause of the problem is. I have a four month old corgi puppy who will be five months old in two weeks. Recently in the past week, he's been suddenly pretty lethargic for his personality, and has suddenly changed from playful and naughty to a lot more docile and slow. We figured it was a health problem and brought him to the vet a few times, and after a blood test the vet confirmed that his white blood cells were higher than average and the cause of his lethargicness is due to some infection in his body, but they couldn't find out where or what it was. He's been given medication recently and we've just begun to feed him that. He seems active when playing with toys and walking but tires out faster than before.

But ever since that whole sudden lethargicness, he's begun sticking out his tongue out of his mouth. A LOT. Nearly the whole day, and only on a few occassions does he actually have a normal closed mouth. While it's endearing and looks adorable, I'm afraid it might be due to a health problem related with his lethargicness. He does sometimes pant for no reason at all even though he's not tired, but that might be because I live in a tropical country as he never really pants in an air conditioned room. Anybody knows why? Is it because he's teething and his gums ache? Does he have a problem with keeping his tongue in?

This is how he looks like, he just walks around like this (There is no panting or licking of his lips):


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

I think you need another vet to look at him. I'd want to take a blood panel to see how his organs are functioning, a good listen to his heart and a tick disease panel. I'm no vet or vet tech, could be more things to look at as well. Something is wrong and giving medicine without knowing it's the right stuff is likely a waste of time.


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## CorgiNerd (Oct 21, 2016)

Kathyy said:


> I think you need another vet to look at him. I'd want to take a blood panel to see how his organs are functioning, a good listen to his heart and a tick disease panel. I'm no vet or vet tech, could be more things to look at as well. Something is wrong and giving medicine without knowing it's the right stuff is likely a waste of time.


The vet that had checked him before had checked all of those. His kidney and liver were completely healthy, there were no diseases from any insect bites and his breathing isn't abnormal at all. I basically researched all that could cause lethargicness, etc. And had the vet checked him. The only abnormal thing was the whole high count of blood cells and an infection somewhere that they couldn't place. But that couldn't really be why he's sticking his tongue out constantly though, could it?


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Sure it could. Puppy is out of it because he's sick and unaware of what his tongue is doing. Think how you know that people are sick/dehydrated/exhausted, they have strange unfocused looks on their faces and react slowly.

Not breathing, heart rate and sounds. He had blood drawn? Any cultures taken?


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## CorgiNerd (Oct 21, 2016)

Kathyy said:


> Sure it could. Puppy is out of it because he's sick and unaware of what his tongue is doing. Think how you know that people are sick/dehydrated/exhausted, they have strange unfocused looks on their faces and react slowly.
> 
> Not breathing, heart rate and sounds. He had blood drawn? Any cultures taken?


Right, I see. I also noticed that he seems to not stick his tongue out if he was focused on doing some activity such as playing, so that might be it.

The vet did have a blood test on the puppy, but I don't know much vet terms(?) And as such, I'm not sure what a 'culture' might be in terms of vet examinations.


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## khennessy (Oct 16, 2016)

A culture is when the blood is applied to a petri dish and any bacteria/pathogens are encouraged to grow, are identified, and should then be tested for sensitivity to antibiotics/antifungals. If there was not a marked improvement in the puppy's function after 24-48 hrs of antibiotics, that indicates they are not working as they should. An elevation in white blood cells can mean any number of things. This should have led to further testing to indicate the reason for the immune response. Anyway, I hope the puppy was taken to a different vet or taken back. If the puppy wasn't doing the tongue thing prior to the lethargy, it could safely be assumed that this is a symptom of whatever is going on for him. If you haven't noticed an obvious improvement in his condition since your initial post, you should make him an appointment ASAP. Antibiotics can't be just selected randomly with an unknown infection (presuming that's what's wrong with your puppy).


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

I assume the Vet checked his mouth, but just in case - at 5 mos, he is probably losing baby teeth and growing adult teeth. In most cases, a pup's mouth is sore while teething, but that wouldn't cause lethargy. However, if a baby tooth is impacted or didn't come out that might cause problems. Again, I would expect this to be one of the first things that a vet would check and rule out.

If he is panting and is not hot, then he is in pain ... but then we're back to why is he in pain and where is the infection?


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## CorgiNerd (Oct 21, 2016)

khennessy said:


> A culture is when the blood is applied to a petri dish and any bacteria/pathogens are encouraged to grow, are identified, and should then be tested for sensitivity to antibiotics/antifungals. If there was not a marked improvement in the puppy's function after 24-48 hrs of antibiotics, that indicates they are not working as they should. An elevation in white blood cells can mean any number of things. This should have led to further testing to indicate the reason for the immune response. Anyway, I hope the puppy was taken to a different vet or taken back. If the puppy wasn't doing the tongue thing prior to the lethargy, it could safely be assumed that this is a symptom of whatever is going on for him. If you haven't noticed an obvious improvement in his condition since your initial post, you should make him an appointment ASAP. Antibiotics can't be just selected randomly with an unknown infection (presuming that's what's wrong with your puppy).


Thanks for the information on what a culture is, though I'm not sure if she did that - the vet simply took a blood sample and told us to wait outside for about 15 minutes. She returned with the whole blood test results and the unknown infection, and gave us medicine that was supposed to strengthen his immune system in hopes that it will help fight back the infection.



hanksimon said:


> I assume the Vet checked his mouth, but just in case - at 5 mos, he is probably losing baby teeth and growing adult teeth. In most cases, a pup's mouth is sore while teething, but that wouldn't cause lethargy. However, if a baby tooth is impacted or didn't come out that might cause problems. Again, I would expect this to be one of the first things that a vet would check and rule out.
> 
> If he is panting and is not hot, then he is in pain ... but then we're back to why is he in pain and where is the infection?


The vet said that she couldn't identify where the infection was from, but she knew that there might be one due to his higher count of blood cells. I have also tried multiple solutions to help reduce his teething pain such as freezing a wet cloth for him to chew, and the vet has never made any comments on his teeth developing weirdly despite checking his mouth during every vet visit. As of right now, it seems like his entire bottom row of teeth are all adult teeth.

There's good news, however. After a few days of continuously eating these medicines, Thor's completely back to his normal self, bothering people endlessly and just generally wrecking havoc. His tongue sticking out still does occur, but not as often as before, and he doesn't pant for no reason - so I would assume that the infection is likely cured. However, what i did realise after going through my gallery is that Thor did tend to stick out his tongue way before he became ill. As in, maybe a month before the whole lethargy, when his ears still didn't stand. It wasn't often though, maybe once or twice a day? As of right now I don't think it's due to his sickness, seeing as he was still sticking his tongue out sometimes before and after he's been cured... My only guess can be his teething. Do puppies usually stick their tongue out due to the pain that teething causes? Or could it just be a weird habit?


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

So glad the medicine helped. Be sure to finish it all up. I hope that's just a weird habit. Bucky hangs his tongue out the side of his mouth when he's particularly overwhelmed so not really a benign habit but not due to pain or disease or odd dentition. 

A culture takes a couple days. The point is there may be an infection and it can even be really bad. There won't be many bacteria in a blood sample let alone what can be checked in a couple minutes under a microscope though. So the blood is smeared in a petri dish and left in an incubator to see what bacteria may be present.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

My only guess at this point is that sticking his tongue out may be a Calming Signal indicating a little anxiety?


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