In Defense of Drugs -- November 19, 2013

Years ago, I was very opposed to the use of behavioral meds in dogs. I always maintained that they were unnecessary, given to owners who didn’t want to take the time to work with their dogs, exercise them properly, or build a meaningful relationship with them.

And then I got Bing.

Hopefully you have read some of the blogs here, so you know what our journey has been like.

Only a few weeks ago, Pete said, “I think we should take Bing off his behavior meds. I don’t think they are doing anything.”

A day or two later, Bing pretty much took himself off not only his meds but also most of his food. I tried every which way possible to get his meds into him. He was taking not just Gabapentin and Trazadone for his anxiety, but also Prednisone, antibiotics, antacid and Zyrtek for his new environmental allergies. He had just started healing from his second round of hot spots on his belly, ankles, wrists, anus and tail. The vet agreed with me that there is concern over losing his tail the next time he gets a hot spot there, as the second event was worse than the first.

A quick email to Dr Karen Overall helped me to feel a little bit better. She suggested giving him a day or two off from the drugs. Antibiotics can make food taste different and prednisone can give reflux. A dog’s esophagus is diagonal, not vertical like ours, and she is convinced that some dogs really experience the repeats when they are taking these meds. I was so relieved that I could just not spend time on giving meds that I could almost cry.

But I had a different reason to cry within 24 hours. Inside the house, Bing is fine. He is calm and happy, although currently itchy. As soon as there was any hint of anyone leaving, however, he was starting to whine and squeak. Any leaving at all was met with screaming at the gate. On our walk, I was reminded that he used to be terrified of the train and of the footbridge over the canal (with meds, these fears disappeared, but now returned). And 36 hours into his break from meds, we had rally run thrus. I took him to the pole barn, where he was with all people he knew and liked, and dogs he knew and tolerated. He could not be crated or left alone. He screamed and barked and heeled sideways for me, taking food so frantically that he knocked much of it out of my hand. He was incapable of executing simple cues such as sit or down, and he was completely out of control when it was my turn to run Tango. It had me frustrated and Kim Pike in tears watching it. Clearly he found the stimulation too difficult to handle, despite this being his own back yard.

Interestingly, as soon as run thrus were over, we went home and he started to take food and pills again…it was almost as if he knew it was best. I started to slowly add the meds back in, and he is better, but not perfect yet.

Meanwhile, his stool had also been very loose to liquid for weeks, and his Nutriscan food sensitivity test came back with 12 foods to avoid for him. I thought it interesting that several of them were foods he suddenly seemed to want to avoid…peanut butter and dairy being among them. I am still in the process of removing offending foods from his diet in an effort to help the ‘itchy cause’, and I added a digestive supplement called Acetelator to his food (and to Tango’s), but his stool is much firmer. He is still chewing his feet like crazy, and he is back on his prednisone. I am working on finding alternatives to that now.

Bing is much calmer on his behavioral meds. He is not doped out at all. He can turn it on is two seconds flat. He can run like the wind, do rally and agility, hike for hours, but he can also calmly chew his bone in the van while we drive, which is a huge improvement over just two weeks ago.

Now I know. He needs his meds. I want him to be happy.

.

Ali

 

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