Hi Diva,

Thanks for your question.

It sounds like you are linking the fact that suddenly your dog has low energy and little to no appetite with you being away for 3 weeks. This may not be the case. In fact, the symptoms you describe could be caused by hypothyroidism, arthritis, dental pain, abdominal discomfort, gastritis, GI parasites, or pancreatitis to name just a few. I think you need to look for any medical conditions before you consider a behavioural cause.

I’d recommend you have your veterinarian perform a physical exam and consultation looking for many of the rule outs I listed above and perform wellness testing to make sure there is not an underlying medical condition.

The symptoms are very general and don’t point to a particular disease and it’s going to take some investigation.

Best of luck.

Dr. Clayton Greenway