I wish I had some progress to report as far as Layla is concerned. I don’t. She is just the same. She is still getting rest and the anti-inflamatory meds, but the limp remains. We’ll continue until the first part of next week, and then I guess we’ll check back with the vet and see how to proceed from here.
A couple of people have asked about how Rogue is doing since we let her go for an evaluation to our friends at Sheltie Rescue of Utah. So, here’s a brief update of what I know.
As of yesterday, she was beginning to settle in to the point that she was beginning to play with another one of the Shelties in the house. That’s good news! She’s being just a little tricky about trying to eat her treat without getting the pill inside, but they are experts at making sure that the dogs are getting their meds, so I’m sure that’s a temporary problem. They tell me that she is being a really good girl, and that she has been easy to have at the house. 
I guess she’s like a shadow following Barbara around. (I kind of expected that). So, that’s about all I can update you on at this point. I know that she’s in very capable and caring hands!
After hearing from the vet about Rogue’s meds this time around, I find myself frazzled. It’s been 5 months since we started medicating Rogue, and even though I tend to be a pessimist…I think I set my hopes too high. I really thought that we’d be seeing some very noticeable progress by now, and so yesterday in frustration I called our friends at Sheltie Rescue for some advice. I know that they won’t sugarcoat things for me, if I ask for an honest opinion and I also know that they have a ton more experience dealing with anxious dogs than I have. So, here is what we talked about.
Of course, when I’m more rational, and my own nerves and emotions are less raw I had already considered that we may just not have found the correct medication for Rogue. We talked briefly about that. We also talked about the fact that sometimes the changes that these meds bring about are small enough that on a day to day basis I may not be noticing them, but that they may be accumulating more than I think. Also very possible.
I have some concerns about whether our home environment is adding to Rogue’s anxieties, so we talked about that. We talked about whether she might thrive in a home with more stable routine. Having the boarding kennel here means that some days I’m in and out of the house dealing with clients quite a bit, and that seems to stress her out.
Then another possibility was presented. I have to say that I was pretty unsure about it at first, but the idea is growing on me. They mentioned letting Rogue come stay with them for a time to give us a break from the situation and to give them some time to evaluate Rogue. After talking this possibility over with my husband, we both agree that this may be just what all of us need. A little break.
So, once they get back from the Sheltie Nationals in a couple of weeks, Rogue may get to for a short stay at the SRU house. That is, unless there is some radical development with this latest dosage change in her meds. In the meantime I want to express my gratitude for both Barbara and Jim giving of their time, (of which they have none to spare), and their continuing offer of support and help for Rogue and for us.
The only update that I have right now is a more of a medication update than anything else. We still don’t seem to have found just what she needs, so we got an email from Dr. Overall yesterday saying that we can try giving her 20 mg. of Amitriptyline in the mornings now, and then keep the evening dosage at 10 mg. We can try this for 10 days and if we don’t see any improvement than we may need to try something else. So, today will be our first day with the new dosage.
I have a little ranting to do…and a little raving too. Bear with me. LOL I got ahold of Dr. Overall and she agreed that it would be appropriate to add amitriptyline to Rogue’s daily meds at this point since we haven’t seen progress with the fluoxitine alone. I spoke with the vet here in Salt Lake today shared her recommendations, and he agreed to call in the prescription.
Here is my rave. The vet in Salt Lake asked me if I’d considered working with a trainer to help Rogue. I’m grateful that I have a vet who obviously realizes that Rogue’s issues need to be addressed by not only medication, but also through training. I wholeheartedly agree that behavior modification is vital. I would never think that medication alone is the answer. I feel very privileged that we found Dr. Overall through Leslie McDevitt and that she has given us protocols of behavioral modification to work through in addition to her recommendations for medication.
However, here’s my rant. I think I literally bristled a little when he made that comment. Long before I decided to go down this avenue of seeking anti-anxiety medication for Rogue, I had been working with her to modify her behavior. I thought that I’d explained what we’ve done with Rogue prior to coming to him. In fact, I think that anyone who knows Rogue…knows the amount of time and effort we’ve put into training. Granted, in hindsight not all the training that we did was helpful. In fact I think some backfired, but I did what I hoped would help. Bleh, I don’t know, it just struck me like he thought that I hadn’t tried any training before. Whatever, that’s my rant for the day!
So…here’s the latest. We’ll start her out adding 10 mg. of Amitriptyline once a day for 10 days and then go to 10 mg. twice daily. I’ll keep everyone posted if we see any changes. Keep hoping for the best…
We don’t seem to making any headway with our work to lessen Rogue’s anxiety or reactivity, even though we’ve adjusted her meds. To recap: 7 weeks of fluoxitine at 1mg dosage which was an error (fortunately on the safe side). Then we changed it to 10mg of fluoxitine daily for two weeks, which made her more aggressive towards the other dogs, and now we are closing in on 5 more weeks at 5 mg. daily. We’ll re-evaluate again at the first of March.
Frustration and impatience. Those two words would describe how I’ve felt about this process with Rogue lately. Well, and then guilt. Probably those three would sum it up. They usually come in that order too. I’ve been reading and re-reading the consult and protocols that we got from Dr. Overall, and this phrase always gets me, “these are the dogs who show you the type of person you can – but never expected – to become.”
When I first read that statement I thought, “yep, living with Rogue will reveal good qualities about us that we didn’t know we had.” How egotistical! LOL What I overlooked was that it was going to reveal many more negative qualities about myself than positive ones as her stress and anxiety wears on me. As we work through this process, I’m beginning to think that it’s more about being willing to see the flaws in your character and being willing to work to overcome them, to become a better person. Just my thoughts for today….
So, we’ve lowered the dosage of Fluoxitine back down to 5 mg. per day now, and the good news is that at this dosage, she seems to have settled back into her normal self. That’s not to say that she’s not anxious, but at least she’s not sitting there with her teeth chattering and she’s not going after all the dogs to instigate a fight. I think we’ll keep her at this dosage for another month or month and a half and see how she’s doing.
With the warmer temperatures the last week or so, the snow is melting on the ATV trails that we hike on, so it’s a muddy mess now. Not fun to walk in, or to try to brush out of 7 long haired dogs. I hope it either dries out soon, or freezes back up so we can get back into our routine.
I don’t like snow, but at least it’s still easy enough to walk in. On the bright side…the snow is gone in the yard, and we’re back down to the grass, so we can play in the yard a bit now! Woohoo!
O.K. So Rogue has been getting the higher dosage of 10 mg. per day of Fluoxitine for nearly two weeks now. I wish I had better news to report, but I don’t. Instead both my husband and I have noticed that she is getting more anxious and reactive instead of less. 
She has also been acting more aggressive towards the other dogs in the house, not just targeting Zoe. We haven’t had any altercations, (thank goodness!) but I think that’s due in part to the fact that the other dogs just can’t figure out what in the world she is doing. They just look at her like: “What is wrong with you?, and What do you think you’re doing?”
I am battling with my impatience to see progress vs. what I know is a long process to find appropriate medication and dosage and be able to work through the behavioral modification protocols that we’ve been given. Sometimes I worry that my impatience will taint my observations, but when my husband asked me to call the vet to discuss this, I decided that it wasn’t just me seeing negative changes in Rogue.
I contacted the vet in SL today and voiced my concerns and we both agreed that we should back the dosage down to 5 mg. per day and observe her behavior at that level. I also emailed Dr. Overall to get her opinion of what we’re seeing. I’m sure that with her experience she’ll be able to tell me if this was the right decision. Wish us well!
I’ve decided that sometimes all you can do is shake your head and laugh when things don’t go as planned. As you know, we started Rogue on fluoxitine and alprazolam 7 weeks ago. Well, I wasn’t seeing much improvement in her reactivity and so I contacted Dr. Overall again to update her and see if we needed to make adjustments in her dosage or in the medication itself, or if this was just typical.
Well, come to find out that the dosage that we’ve been giving her of 1 mg. daily of the fluoxitine was wrong. Turns out that was a typo and we should have been giving her at least 5 mg. daily, if not 10 mg. So, after I found that out, I tried to contact the vet here and he’s out of town till next Tuesday. Ughh! At the prompting of my friends at Sheltie Rescue I called the vet’s office again and asked if one of the other atttending vets would consider changing the dosage of the prescription, so that we don’t have to wait till next week. Fortunately, they were nice enough to do that for us, and we’ve picked up the new dosage today.
I’m trying to look at this as a really long ramp-up time on the meds, instead of just viewing the last 7 weeks as being wasted, but I’m only partly convinced. LOL Hopefully in the coming weeks we will have some progress to report. I hope!!!
It’s been so long since I’ve posted it probably seems like we’ve dropped off the face of the earth, but we’re still here. Just busy!
We’re closing in on week four of Rogue being on the Fluoxitine and Alprazolam. I am still really anxious to see progress, but it seems slow in coming. Every once in a while I think I notice something that is a different reaction, or at least a smaller one. However, for the most part, (I’d say 95% of the time)…things are continuing as they were before. In instances that I can predict will be stressful for her, we have upped the dosage of the Alprazolam to the full .25 mg. pill as we couldn’t see any effect giving her the half pill. I don’t know that we’ve got it really figured out yet, as sometimes she seems more relaxed with the Alprazolam and other times she is even more cranked up, almost like she’s trying to fight the effects. I hope this latter reaction will fade as she gets used to the feeling.
Everyone else in the crew is doing fine and loving the cooler weather for walks. Well, except for Zoe and the foster pup, they both would prefer the warmer weather and like to sit in front of the heater or the wood stove. Zoe runs inside in the mornings after she takes care of business, and insists on snuggling up under the covers with me. Even though it’s getting cold, we still haven’t gotten any snow that’s stayed on the ground for more than a day or so. I’m wishing now I had left the agility equipment in the field a little longer LOL.
The male puppy that we had staying here, Dakota, was adopted by his permanent family just a day or two after we brought him home. We’re thrilled for him! He was such a sweetheart! I know the new family is just going to love him. The little girl is still here…and we’re loving her