Tips for Older Doggies

I wish there were some anti-anxiety meds to help with this situation.

Have you talked with your vet about it? Maybe there are. Years ago I had an adopted dog who had been abused badly and was very fearful of everything. The vet put him on something for the anxiety, which the dog took for the rest of his life. It didn't turn him into a zombie or anything, just relaxed him a bit to where he was able to be part of a family without freaking out.
 

Have you talked with your vet about it? Maybe there are. Years ago I had an adopted dog who had been abused badly and was very fearful of everything. The vet put him on something for the anxiety, which the dog took for the rest of his life. It didn't turn him into a zombie or anything, just relaxed him a bit to where he was able to be part of a family without freaking out.
The vet saw him yesterday morning and did some blood work. All was clear so he's prescribing some meds for him today. I hope it works and will report back. Thanks for the encouragement and recommendations. The biggest problem in prescribing drugs for him is that he's just a small pup. He's about 13 years old and his weight runs between 11-13 lbs.

Do you recall what your veg prescribed?
 
Update: The vet said his tests all show normal levels. He prescribed Clomicalm, 1/4 tablet twice a day to start with. We're now on the third day of him taking this and are ready for a test run to see if he manages ok when we leave him. I'll keep you posted.
 

Update: The vet said his tests all show normal levels. He prescribed Clomicalm, 1/4 tablet twice a day to start with. We're now on the third day of him taking this and are ready for a test run to see if he manages ok when we leave him. I'll keep you posted.
I hope you get good results!
 
I wanted to give the meds a couple of weeks before reporting back . I mean, doncha just hate reading five star or one star reviews of a product only to realize that the person rated it based on speed of delivery, packaging, or after only having used something for a couple of days? What's up with that anyway?

But I digress.

As per the vet's instructions, a couple of days ago we bumped him up to 1/2 pill taken twice a day. The biggest challenge is getting the pill into him because he's never been motivated by food. I put a few small dabs of chunky peanut butter on a plate, hide it in one of them, then attach a smidge of dog jerky to the top of each schmear. Mostly it works the first time, but not always. It's like dealing with a recalcitrant toddler.

We also bought a thundershirt and put that on him a bit before we leave. The TS did little on its own, and the meds were meh on their own. However, with the two combined he's calmed down quite a bit when we leave him. He paces far less while we're out and the barking isn't non-stop. A low threshold perhaps, but we're happy with any glimmer of progress.
 
As per the vet's instructions, a couple of days ago we bumped him up to 1/2 pill taken twice a day. The biggest challenge is getting the pill into him because he's never been motivated by food. I put a few small dabs of chunky peanut butter on a plate, hide it in one of them, then attach a smidge of dog jerky to the top of each schmear. Mostly it works the first time, but not always. It's like dealing with a recalcitrant toddler.

My fussy eater won't take any pills in peanut butter no matter how small they are crunched up. My solution was buying a box of velvetta cheese.
He cannot separate any pills, or pieces of, from the ball of soft cheese. (he was taking allergy pills)
But of course, they have to like cheese.
 
My fussy eater won't take any pills in peanut butter no matter how small they are crunched up. My solution was buying a box of velvetta cheese.
He cannot separate any pills, or pieces of, from the ball of soft cheese. (he was taking allergy pills)
But of course, they have to like cheese.
He gets wise pretty quickly. What works today won't necessarily work tomorrow so I'm grateful for ideas on how to outwit him.

I've never tried a soft cheese. As you suggested, he separates out the pills from the cheese when I stuff the pill into a small piece of a block type cheese or even somewhat moldable types like mozzarella. Thanks for the recommendation.
 
I think any food with the consistency of 'play doh' ..lol ..works. Velvetta, and also liverwurst (goose liver) or whatever you want to call it, is something that can be smooshed around a pill tightly and they can't separate the two. And dogs love that stuff too.
If a pill needs to be split or crumbled, both of those hold it very well.
 
My sheltie was deaf from the time he was 10 years old.
To get his attention I would stamp my foot on the floor and
the vibration would get his attention.
The good thing about his deafness was that he could no longer
hear thunder which terrified him.
 
My sheltie was deaf from the time he was 10 years old.
To get his attention I would stamp my foot on the floor and
the vibration would get his attention.
The good thing about his deafness was that he could no longer
hear thunder which terrified him.
My pup is also losing his hearing. It didn't dawn on me to stamp my foot to get his attention. Thanks for the tip!
 
The vet saw him yesterday morning and did some blood work. All was clear so he's prescribing some meds for him today. I hope it works and will report back. Thanks for the encouragement and recommendations. The biggest problem in prescribing drugs for him is that he's just a small pup. He's about 13 years old and his weight runs between 11-13 lbs.

Do you recall what your veg prescribed?

I can't recall raight now. Clomicalm is basically an SSRI, so can take a while to reach full effect; so don't get discouraged if it doesn't help right away.
 


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