Panting and pacing

First question -- did they re-test to make sure the meds are appropriately effective?  You often can't just plop them on a med and expect it to work and you have to have it re=tested periodically anyway.

Older house?  Any possible that there is something in the walls or something outside? 

Aside from that, it sounds like heart to me -- often a dog with heart problems doesn't like being inside because they feel like they aren't getting enough air, and often they don't sleep well either. Vet's can usually do EKGs and stuff in-house now and pipe it over the phone to a university for analysis. 

Are the pain meds JUST for pain or are they a sedative (they are different)

Some dogs pace & pant when they are stressed.  It might be caused by something that is going on in your house.

 Yes, we did re-test the thyroid hormone levels recently during such period, tested fine.

The house is older, but not old. I was thinking environmental also, but it happened when we were camping also, totally different environment ... ?

Heart was the first thing the vet thought of, but they concluded that the heart is fine. Didn't do EKG though, do you think we should do that?

The pain med is Tramadol.

 re: stress

Yes, it surely looks like stress, but there is no reason for it. Our house is very peaceful and happy. No conflicts. No changes in routines either. Besides, she likes 'different' because different in our house means good (such as getting ready to go camping etc).

She also doesn't care about thunder or fireworks. She can have a perfectly good night on a stormy night or during the fireworks, then have a very bad one with none of that going on. Doesn't seem to be related to a lunar cycle either. Was monitoring for barometric pressure, results also inconclusive. Weather seems to be a factor to some degree somehow though.

 Curious as to what she does when you do let her out, when she is going through this panting and pacing. Does she try to pee, or does she try to eat grass, try to have a bowel movement, or anything like that, or does she just continue to pace when she is let out?

 When she gets out she'll just stand there and sniff at the air, or just lay down most of the time. She might go around sniffing at strange places. But usually it seems she just wants to spend the night outside. Might dribble the first time or two, but that is not why she wants to be there.

Sounds like bloat onset symptoms actually...

because she has not actually bloated (thank goodness!), and because of her age and breed, you might consider gassiness. If you have ever had gas that cannot escape it is extremely painful and worrisome...some folks even go to the ER because of it thinking it's something more sinister.

Maybe try some Gas-X when she has those symptoms just to see...certainly won't harm anything.

 Yeah, that was the first thing I was worried about (bloat). But her belly was never swolen (at least not substantially) and it's been going on for couple years now.

Yes, it definitely could be gas I guess. I would normally take her for a walk, thinking that it might be intestinal issue. But sometimes that woud help and sometimes it wouldn't. I will look into the Gas-X though, see if that will help.

good, give it a try. You never know.

Belly swelling is actually a big time emergency so I am glad that never came up.

She could like some of us, lol...just get a bit gassy in the evenings and that might worsen with age, even LOL. If she thinks she might "poo" she might worry about that too since a housebroken dog HATES to go inside if they can avoid it. Simple confusion about needing to "go" and needing to let one rip could easily be the cause.

 I was thinking of the possibility of interstitial cystitis. Symptoms are similar to bladder infection, but there is no infection present. If she was uncomfortable, feeling like she had to pee and being housebroken, she'd really worry and want to be outside of course. Once outside, after a bit of a dribble, which might be all she'd be able to do, if she has this, she might relax some and the symptoms, as a result, might even subside for awhile. Same thought about the gas problem and, as was suggested, she might feel like she has to poop and so you have the same scenario as with the pee problem. I'd think the gas problem is a very good possibility, as well, and I'd give gas x as has been suggested. I have one of my dogs that needs it quite often. What do you feed and how often? Just wondering if something might be able to be changed a bit, as far as your feeding schedule and/or what you feed.

 All good ideas. Urinary tract/kidney infection was on the table also at one point. There seemed to have been some evidence of mild infection, she was on Orbax for extended period of time. The infection seemed to have resolved, but episodes recurred during the treatment also. She's also on cranberry supplement.

She pees normally otherwise, I figured there is just dribble at those times because after she already went for her normal pee.

She's on a special home made diet, custom recipe based on http://www.completeandbalanced.com/, because of her other issues - 4 meals a day (she might not eat each of those times though)

 Our new vet is really good, but seems at a loss. Sometimes it just takes some outside idea for things to click. That's why I'm searching for some.

Don't get me wrong, Willow has had these symptoms for different reasons over the years.  And, usually it was some sort of pain, either her arthitis was flaring up or her IBS.  BUT, there were a few times when there was a critter outside that she smelled or heard and that's what had her going.  Especially, it caught my eye when you said she sniffs the air when she gets out there. 

Pirate had an issue with panting at night recently, when I switched to a home-made diet. I thought gas too, so I made his breakfast a bigger portion and his dinner a smaller portion, and added a probiotic.

 Is it a specific time that it starts up? Pirate would get going around 10-11PM...prepare yourself for Chinese medicine babble

Pirate's liver has been 'hot' forever now - it's what we think causes his seizures, and his seizure medicine is also very taxing on the liver. At about the same time as we switched to home-made, I ran out of milk thistle (an herb for liver cleansing). The liver also processes 'change' - like a change in routine (or food...). Every meridian has a place on the clock in Chinese medicine, and the liver's meridian is late night...1AM-3AM is the 'standard' but it isn't exact. When my holistic vet examined him the last time we were there, I hadn't even MENTIONED the panting before she examined him and noticed that his liver was hotter than normal, and she told me to up the milk thistle ASAP.

 I couldn't pinpoint which helped him, exactly, but I'm just throwing stuff out there to see if anything can help you out. Rescue Remedy seemed to help him relax before I figured anything better out.

 The problem started well before the new diet (started this new diet in January). Adding FortiFlora into the dinner meal.

Yes, it usually starts around 1AM. But at times it would start as early as 10PM, 8PM or even in the afternoon. Though the around 1AM is most common.

I am looking out of any 'babble', because one never knows where the answer might lie :-)

I was considering some kind of system cleansing also, will definitely put it on the list of things to explore.