Marla

I work in a clinic and the honest answer is that we would want to hear about it, but over the phone rather than as an emergency walk-in, based on what you have described. Most practices will triage this on a call for free and it takes five minutes.

The things that move it from "call in the morning" to "go now" in our triage are: repeated unproductive retching with nothing coming up, a hard or painful belly, hiding and refusing to move, pale or tacky gums, no urine in the litter tray, or any chance she got at string, tinsel, hair ties or a plant. A cat that is eating, keeping it down and playing an hour later is a much more reassuring picture than one that is quiet in a corner.

I would hold food for a couple of hours rather than offering more, keep water available, and write down every episode with the time. That log is genuinely useful if you do end up going in.

Call the emergency line and describe it rather than deciding alone — they triage over the phone, it costs nothing, and they will often tell you honestly that Monday is fine. That call is the actual answer to this question.

For what the triage tends to hinge on: an intermittent hind limb lameness in a dog who is weight bearing, eating, and not crying is usually a Monday conversation. What makes it tonight is non-weight-bearing at all, a leg hanging at an odd angle, swelling, obvious pain when touched, a wound, or a dog who is panting, restless and cannot settle. Sudden severe pain with a hard belly is always tonight.

Until Monday I would keep him on lead in the garden, no stairs, no jumping onto furniture, and short toilet trips only. Nothing from your own medicine cupboard, ever — several common human painkillers are dangerous for dogs and the vet cannot easily work around them afterwards.

Two weeks of licking to the point of damp pink skin is worth an appointment rather than more torch inspections, mostly because once the skin is broken and constantly wet it can become its own problem regardless of what started it. That part tends not to resolve on its own.

Things the vet will likely ask about, so it helps to have answers ready: when it started relative to any food change, whether it is worse after walks in long grass, whether he does it on other paws at all, and whether the licking stops if he is distracted. Evening-only licking is a genuinely useful detail — the vets I work with take that as a hint but not proof either way.

In the meantime, stopping the licking is most of the battle. A sock taped loosely above the paw or a proper cone in the evenings, plus drying the paw thoroughly after every walk.

This is a fair point and worth pursuing in parallel. Behavioural and physical causes overlap constantly with paw licking, which is why it is such an annoying thing to sort out.

Four days of hiding after a move is very normal, and the fact that she is eating some food and using the tray at night is the reassuring part. Plenty of cats take one to two weeks to come out properly and some take a month.

The number I would actually watch is food. A cat eating nothing at all for more than about 48 hours is a call-the-vet situation rather than a wait-it-out one, because cats genuinely do not tolerate a complete fast the way dogs do. Half her normal amount, with the tray being used, is a different picture and is not in that territory.

Practical things that shorten it: keep her in one room rather than giving her the whole house, put the litter tray, food and a hiding box in that room, and do not pull her out from under the bed. Sit in the room reading out loud and ignoring her. Let the choice be hers and it usually happens faster.

Switching from wet to dry genuinely does increase drinking, because wet food is mostly water and that intake has to come from somewhere. So the explanation is plausible. But increased drinking plus a new overnight toilet trip in a twelve year old is exactly the combination our vets ask people not to sit on, and it is a cheap thing to check rather than a scary one.

What helps them: measure it properly for three days. Fill the bowl with a measured amount, top up with measured amounts, note what is left at the same time each day, and note his weight. "He seems to be drinking more" and "he is drinking 2.4 litres a day at 22kg" are very different conversations.

Book a routine appointment rather than an emergency one, and bring the numbers and a urine sample if they ask for one.

Strongly agree on never restricting water. If a dog is drinking more for a medical reason, taking the water away does not fix the reason and can make things considerably worse.