Stella's Spring Weekend

As I write, Stella is resting in her "club house" under the end table after a long afternoon with the six pack. The weather has been beautiful again today. And what an eventful farm walk! George ran away in pursuit of some ground hog holes that he had discovered days ago. We all chased him through the thickets for about twenty minutes until he decided to slow down to play with some new dogs he met, and we "caught him." Hiking through the brush was a real workout for Stella, and she had to be carried over the hill and to the stream for a drink. The farm was busy this afternoon. We saw wild turkey, a fox, Pepper the grouchy senior lab, and Precious the horse, in addition to the new friends George made.

After our farm walk, we practiced some speed circles in agility. It was Stella's first time on the contact equipment this summer, and she did a nice job with her A frame and dog walk. I think that she is exhausted!! I know I am.

Although she's had good times at the farm, Stella hasn't had such an easy weekend at home. She has not wanted to get out of bed in the morning, and she does not play and wrestle in the blankets like she used to. She seems very noise sensitive. She has also been doing lots of staring of into space, always with her back to us. She will often not respond to her name when she is in this mode. This is the kind of behavior that makes Dr. Dodman and Dr. Ogata think that she might have some kind of seizure disorder. The video below provide a pretty typical example. Hopefully, the huperzine will have an effect.

The Plan--Huperzine, Farm Walks and Agility Class

Stella has made some improvements over the course of the week. On Tuesday, she was not able to urinate in the yard in the morning, even when I put her on leash, which seems to make her more confident. She was happy to see her dog walker, Carrie, but she seemed reluctant to go on her walk for the first two blocks. As she got farther along though, she seemed to pick up and act like herself. Tuesday night, she ate dinner in her usual spot for the first time!

On Wednesday, I took a gamble and discontinued Xanax, and she was able to go to bed comfortable. Thursday morning she seemed much more like herself, and went potty and had breakfast without stress. She did not exhibit separation anxiety when I went to work, and the dog walker reported that she seemed normal in the afternoon. This morning, Lisa is here, and we are all in the living room. Stella is in her "safe place" under the end table.

After extensive consultation with Tufts, Dr. Dodman and Dr. Ogata suggested putting Stella back on the huperzine to see if we get improvement. It will be hard to tell, I think, whether the huperzine is working, as Stella had already begun to improve this week without the addition of huperzine. And, the melt down she had last week occurred unaccountably after nearly a month of very improved behavior.

The weather is going to be beautiful today and tomorrow and I am hoping that we get to take some nice farm walks for her. Agility classes at Tree Frog Farm start the first week in May, and she always seems to enjoy that. She feels pretty good about herself when she does agility. I want to keep her in classes whether or not she ever competes, because she loves the work and play.

Recap

So this is what I'm thinking about the last week with Stella, and what I want the doctors at Tufts to know.

*Stella has been on clomipramine for three months. After six weeks, she seemed to make major progress with the separation anxiety, but no progress with noise phobias.

*In the last week, Stella has experienced almost complete regression with separation anxiety, and has developed extreme anxiety around meal times at home. (She was okay in Princeton this weekend).

*Stella has also not only reverted to "freezing" when she goes outside, but her tendency to seek out and hide in dark corners of the house has returned, and has even become more pronounced.

*Xanax seems to help Stella, but it is not a long-term solution. It does not prevent Stella from experiencing anxiety; it only helps to subdue it once it occurs. And, it is relatively short acting.

*Although it might be possible to supplement the clomipramine with buspar or another medication, my gut feeling is that clomimpramine is not the drug of choice for Stella. I think it might be time to switch her to an SRRI. As I have heard that Prozac can decrease play drive in dogs (and in people), I would might opt for Zoloft. Admitedly, I know little about whether Zoloft also causes decreased play drive in dogs, and how it compares to Prozac in studies of dogs with separation anxiety and phobias. I am hoping that Dr. Dodman will have some good suggestions for us soon.

Blue Monday

Today has been a bad day for Stella. Actually, it began last night, when her discomfort about going to bed at night seemed to escalate. She jumped out of bed once, and later, when we tried again, tensely settled down. She finally slept like a rock, and did not want to get out of bed in the morning. She could not eat breakfast, and got "stuck" outside. She freezes in one spot, can't seem to potty, and is very anxious when I bring her back in. There was more hiding in the bathroom closet. She was very upset when I took a shower, and stayed close by, moving from corner to corner in the bathroom. Later, she was able to sit on the couch and check email with me. When I returned from grocery shopping she was happy to see me, and she came downstairs and played with her toys outside. But I had to carry her in from the yard, and she immediately became too anxious to eat dinner. In this video, you can see that she finally eats when I move her bowl, but is circling uncertainly with her tail down, looking very stressed. I have given her another xanax, hoping she will be comfortable enough to go to bed without too much anxiety. Well, as I type, she's in the mood to play with her toys, so that's what I'm off to do!

Regression and Questions Week of April 13

Stella has had a very rough week. After her birthday weekend, I went back to work. Stella was unable to eat her breakfast in the kitchen on Tuesday. She went outside in the morning to potty, and when she came back in, she flew right by the breakfast dish with her tail down and tried to get up the stairs as fast as she could. I heard her trip and fall on the steps, and went running to find her in her "safe place" in the living room. I took her upstairs and fed her breakfast in bed. She seemed agitated when I left, and her separation anxiety seemed to be returning. Wednesday, when I stayed home in the morning, she seemed a bit better, but spent lots of time in her safe space, and she also began to hide in the bathroom behind the laundry basket and in the bathroom closet in the morning as I was getting dressed. Thursday we had a repeat of Tuesday, only she ate her breakfast outside. She continued to hide in the bathroom. The dog walker reports that she is fine on mid-day walks. She is also fine on morning walks, but seems to fall apart when we get home.

Last week, I did try playing Stella's dog music CD only once through during the morning week rather than having it repeat all day, and on got too rushed for food treats before leaving the house at the end of the week. These are events that she has been able to manage in previous weeks, though, and I feel that the clomipramine is no longer as effective as it was.

Stella's Birthday II

We continued the celebration of Stella's birthday party last night, combining it with a celebration of Roscoe and Colby's First and Second Place ribbons in Rally. The Min Pins rule! The dogs had plush toy party favors which didn't go over well. Actually they were cat toys, so they had no squeakers, and I guess they were pretty lame.

The dogs had special party treats--dried chicken feet, yum!! And fancy decorated dog cookies--not as good as chicken feet. The people had pizza and wine and cake. Well Roscoe had cake too! I was demonstrating to Lisa how to help him into your lap, and he scarfed down the half a piece on my plate as soon as he got his nose close to the table. I love that dog . . .

Stella's presents were a new spring time bandana, which is twisted in her picture. It's very cute--pink and green gingham with ribon rose accents. She always looks great in pink and green. She also got new toys and a life vest for summer boating, but it was a bit big, so Douce might inherit it. Douce was the only dog who would wear his party hat.

This was only my second dog birthday party (gasp!), and I think it went fine. The paw print balloons were a hit with the humans. And the Red Sox won, so it was a good night all around.

Stella's Birthday

Stella turns four on Monday! The first thing we did to celebrate was take her on a farm walk. Yesterday was beautiful. It was in the 50s and the skies were bright blues. She had a great run with Spur and Roscoe. She can't catch up with them, but she has her cheatin' ways and a big heart. She never gets discouraged. Click on the link and look at her go!

Stella's Farm Walk

Quilled!

In a study of porcupine quill injuries, veterinarians report that breeds overrepresented for quill injuries were the Rottweilers, Huskies, and German Shepherd mixes. Not Shih Tzus. Well, my Shih Tzus did not get the memo. Saturday night, in the middle of a dinner party, they decided a jaunt into the woods would be more fun than waiting for food to drop on the floor in the kitchen. They were not coming when called, so I cheated and pulled out the clicker. Douce showed up first with a face full of quills. Stella had to be coaxed; she came tip toeing out of the woods, still wearing her dinner party bow, with a few really long quills sticking out of her lip. WHAT?? Bows and quills??

Fifteen minutes later, Stella had a bloody lip but all five of her quills were removed. (There they are, in the picture). She recovered nicely, and was ready to keep partying. Douce was less fortunate. Another forty minutes later, he was exhausted and panicked after Bob, one of our brave dinner guests, removed 25 quills with a pair of pliers--and we hadn't gotten to his chin yet. We all surrendered and took Douce and Stella to the emergency vet, forty five minutes away, so Douce could be sedated for the rest of the process. FIVE HOURS after we arrived at the vet clinic, they finally removed another 10 quills from around and inside his mouth.

Douce, who no doubt started the hunt, definitely got the worst of it--Stella probably followed him into the woods without a clue. She must have made some contact with the porcupine though, as they do not "throw" their quills--the quills release when the dog skewers itself on them while attacking the slow moving rodent.

Douce is raring to get back in the woods, and Stella will be right behind him again. We will be working on fence plans too. And, I will be checking the dogs vigilantly for the next month to make sure I catch any quills that might be migrating through their bodies. Stella, I think, is safe, but Douce had quite the mouthful.

So spring has arrived in Maine! Next year I will know that when my yellow crocuses come up, the porcupines are on the move.