- Starting in June she was unfocused, whiny and showing avoidance during RFE practices. Later in the month this behavior also showed up, to a lesser degree, for tracking. There was also a day when we were doing the Rally-O course where Gimme suddenly yelped and then didn't want to work any more. At the time I thought it was related to her false pregnancy, which seemed to have gone on a little longer than I expected.
- Her chiropractor visit showed she had jammed 2 toes on her left front foot. Right after this she did a little better, but still not her usual. It was painful getting her toes adjusted, but she has a long history with Dr. Powell (and peanut butter which she licks as he works on her), so she was fine when he worked on the rest of her body and only a little tense when he got back to those toes.
- Five days later she had a grand mal seizure. Thank God I was home or I might have missed it entirely - 20 minutes later she seemed entirely normal. I blogged about this a month ago.
- At her next chiropractor visit, he found her atlas was misaligned. Dr. Powell said atlas misalignment (top vertebra where skull attaches to spine) is implicated in seizures, though it remains unproven. He said it also causes migraines in humans (I can verify this) and probably does in dogs.
- Her next RFE practice was about the same and I noticed her gait seemed "off", though not limping. I assumed her toes were bothering her again.
- At the next chiropractor visit, her atlas was only a little out and the toes were fine. Unfortunately her right shoulder was now stuck. Again a big yelp during the adjustment, but ready forgiveness.
- Almost right away Gimme came in season a month early. Normally being in season doesn't affect her attitude, but this time it seemed to. Probably the season just exacerbated the underlying anxiety.
- About this time I started noticing Gimme becoming afraid of things. The first thing was a cane we were working with - which I attributed to the shoulder issue. Then she became afraid of her collar, the couch, the living room and even me! She had lost all resilience, she would yelp and go into hiding in the house for the slightest reason.
- At the next chiropractor visit we learned her toe was still bothering her (toenail has a crack in it) and was probably causing intermittent and unpredictable pains when bumped or catching on something.
- Through this 2½ months, Gimme just had one thing after another. The pains she was experiencing must've seemed like she was being bitten by an invisible monster. At our last RFE practice Gimme was worse than ever, despite my efforts to help her and stick with easier stuff. I've been trying to counter condition the things she has come to fear with only limited success. During that session she suddenly became afraid of her harness, whimpering as I put it on her.
He did say this could have something to do with the breakthrough seizure in early July. Sometimes the anti-seizure medications lose effectiveness over time. So the dogs can be anxious pre-seizure, even if the seizure doesn't materialize. With only the one known break-through seizure, he doesn't want to tinker with her dosage or add other medications.
We talked about anti-anxiety medication, but he wants to hold off, because they are tricky to use with the Keppra she gets for seizure prevention.
Instead he recommended an alternative based approach. I am using an Adaptil diffuser next to her end of the couch when I'm not home. Plus I got an Adaptil sprayer to put on a bandana for the days she's spending a lot of time in the car.
He recommended a calming food, but it was prohibitively expensive. A nine-pound bag was going to be $56! Instead I read the brochure and learned its benefit is because it's high in L-Tryptophan, which the body uses to make Serotonin. So I bought ground turkey and added it to her diet. There are many foods containing significant levels of L-Tryptophan, but turkey is an easy source. I made up 1.2-ounce balls of ground turkey and froze them. I am adding one to 3 of her 4 bowls of "soup" (the other gets egg, which also has L-Tryptophan).
Doc said it might take a week to notice a difference, but I was seeing increased calmness by evening. We also talked about my anxiety level from worrying about her anxiety/fears and how it could make hers worse. I noticed in the evening when she was starting to act anxious, if I talked silly to her about it, it dissipated. So I'm really monitoring my own reactions to make sure I don't buy into her drama and unintentionally feed it. I've also been blocking her access to other rooms when I'm not in them, to prevent her from practicing "hiding". My theory is if she's hiding, then it feeds into the emotion of needing to hide.
In ten days she has improved sooooo much. Sometimes I can leave open the access to rooms she hides and she doesn't hide. If she does I encourage her to come back out and then close off access. Her attitude is so much better. Today is the first time I could put her collar on without a treat in sight, though she still got a treat. I started out having to lure her with peanut butter to put it on, so this is a big improvement. For other things, I'm taking my time a little more, trying to prevent any tweaks for her to over-react to and feed the drama. For instance in the week before the vet visit, I barely moved my foot and lightly brushed her toe. She screamed and ran from the room. This might seem plausible given the sore toe/toenail, except I brushed against the other foot! Thus taking my time and being a little more careful.
So that's it for now. There has been a lot of progress and hopefully this will be a thing of the past before long. For training I'm sticking with basics, things she knows well and can get a lot of reinforcement for.
It breaks my heart to see her lose her zest for life - I'm thrilled to see it returning.
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