NeylasMom

Thanks. I confirmed I will be getting tablets from Walgreen's. Its filled so I can pick it up tomorrow. The yunnan baiyao is another story. My vet is out, Amazon can't get it to me before Monday, the other vet clinics I've called either don't carry it or in one case, would not give it to me without seeing Violet. You have to be kidding me. I get your policy on meds, but this is an OTC supplement! Really hoping Whole Foods has it. Have to call back because their supplement guy was on his break.

Awesome, thank you so much! I understand that not all coupons may be pet friendly, my "issue" was just the total surprise and being stuck there without a Rx because I missed the warning and couldn't afford the $90 full price. So I wanted to give everyone the heads up so they didn't end up in the same boat. Now that I know to check beforehand it's not an issue. I was actually popping in to update folks that I'll be getting Violet's tranexamic acid from the same Walgreen's and was able to find a coupon through the app with no issue (and double-checked that it's pet friendly). Thanks for this. Options are always good. I honestly don't know what I did before GoodRx. Mostly used Costco and hated every possible minute of it because they could never be trusted to follow through on things properly. Much easier for me to get things through my local pharmacy (or possibly online)!

I knew someone would appreciate my post.

For anyone who has been following the vulva saga - or for anyone else just because seeing a thread title with the word vulva in it is always good for a laugh - Skye had her check up today after our visit last week and everything is looking great! Her vulva looks SO much better. There's some discoloration that I think is from the silver, which we're no longer using and there's still some redness where the rawness was, but it looks pretty much healed. We're keeping her on the Apoquel to give her plenty of time to have really healthy tissue there and I am still wiping her after walks and occasionally applying ointment if I think she needs it, but we're well on the right track, whoo hoo! Vet also said anal glands are looking good. She had been licking a bit more the last couple of days so I started warm Epsom salt compresses and have been using her "panties" to keep her from licking, but the vet was pleased. We're going to do another week of antibiotics to be safe, but hopefully that's taken care of as well. Nice to have a positive update for a change so just thought I'd share.

So Violet is having her dental on Monday and we are trying to prevent a repeat of what happened last time, which was her urinating blood clots when they tried to get her up for the first time as she was coming out of anesthesia. I am still not sure whether this was not rhabdo at all (in which case they think stress likely caused irritation of her bladder/urinary tract), rhabdo only, or a combination, but of course we want to try to prevent a repeat. So the vet and I agreed that we should do something like Amicar and he was on board with Tranexamic Acid since Amicar is still so costly and hard to find. He is asking me to give 3/4 of a 650 mg tablet every 12 hours starting Friday or Saturday (to make sure she doesn't have a negative reaction) and keep her on it through the dental. I read over the old thread on this topic and saw most people were having the medication compounded, but also were talking about capsules. I found a GoodRx coupon that says it's for tablets and that's what the vet said we'd get so presuming that's true, splitting them should be fine, right? That would mean she'd be getting a dose of ~488 mg, which seems about right (she's 60#ish). They also asked me to start her on Yunnan Baiyao. This seems like a good idea to me, but I'm pretty unfamiliar with it's use. Waiting for my regular vet to call back just to run it by her because she uses chinese herbs, but is anyone familiar with it and has anyone used it in this type of situation? I just want to be careful not to overkill it here because she's not bleeding yet, and hopefully won't start. They recommended 1 pill twice daily starting tomorrow. I only see one product available through Amazon - it's in a green box - so I assume there's just one standard dose? Thanks!

I looked for a coupon with another local pharmacy and saw the same issue so it seems to be specific to the person who negotiated the coupon rather than the particular pharmacy, at least in this instance. Every pharmacy I've used has each dog noted as a pet in their records, but she specifically told me that these coupon codes are set up with the requirement of some sort of code (I forget the name of the code) that is provided with the Rx and only human doctors provide those codes, vets do not. I don't know though if they're doing this intentionally to prevent the coupon codes from being used for pets or it's an indirect consequence.

Just wanted to share this in case other people aren't aware... I went to Walgreen's to pick up an antibiotic Rx for Violet and as usual had a coupon from GoodRx to save money. Only the coupon wouldn't work. Long story short, there are some coupons that do not work for pet prescriptions because they require some sort of prescription number that only doctors, but not veterinarians provide. I didn't really follow the explanation she gave me except that there are multiple people from GoodRx who negotiate these coupons with the pharmacies and certain ones negotiate them only for human meds. The tricky(est) part is that if you are looking for coupons online, I couldn't see anything that specified that the coupon wouldn't work for pet Rxs. Through the app there IS a black bar that appears toward the top of the coupon (so you actually have to click on the green "view coupon" button to see it) that says "This coupon will not work for pet prescriptions", but I can assure you it is easy to miss. Another way to double-check is the RXBIN & RXPCN on the coupon. She told me those are associated with the people who negotiate the coupons so the NVT/610602 are from one that won't apply to pets, but I don't know if there are others. I've used GoodRx numerous times for pet Rx, both at this pharmacy and at others and have never encountered this issue. I don't know if I've just been lucky or this is something new they're starting to do, but it meant I wasted a ton of time at the pharmacy only to walk away empty-handed because I wasn't going to pay $88 for a Clindamycin Rx. Thankfully I'm taking Skye to the vet tomorrow so I can pick up a refill of the med for Violet while I'm there, but it means she'll go without it for 2 days now. Anyway, just wanted to share so that you can check to make sure your coupon will work for a pet Rx before having the pharmacy fill it for you. Had I known, I could have checked other local pharmacies for one that would work on a pet Rx rather than having Walgreen's fill it.

Why not use an x-pen or gate him into a dog-proofed room? Also, more exercise and mental stimulation before leaving him and throughout the day will decrease the likelihood of him getting into tgmhings when you're gone. If he's not tired, he'll get bored.

Was she crated in her foster home?

Alicia, just popping in to say I love my sweatshirt.

I have. We hike and camp a lot. I often found dead ticks in my bed, etc that had fallen off the dogs after being killed by the Frontline. This is the first time I've had an issue.

I know that there are some areas where fleas seem to have become resistant to Frontline. Has anyone heard the same for Frontline Plus and ticks? I found engorged ticks on Violet and Skye last night and today, presumably from our camping trip last weekend. They were both Frontlined so it's clearly not working. We haven't had an issue with it before.

I'm not sure you'll get much advice here except to move out. You can do behavior modification to reduce the resource guarding behavior, but that's not going to do anything to prevent the potential health risks of people leaving dangerous things out for him to ingest. I personally wouldn't want to have people I didn't trust to follow my instructions caring for my dog. If you can't move out right now, what about modifying things so they have less access to him alone - taking him with you sometimes, keeping him crated or gated somewhere, etc. Do you think they would at least follow an instruction to crate him while they eat and until everything has been cleaned up? They could give him something yummy like a stuffed frozen kong to work on while crated so he's occupied. That would be the safest option until you are on your own.

Is she drinking or peeing more than normal? A large belly can be a sign of Cushing's. Hope it's nothing serious.

That what the Kong e-cloud collar is.

What about something to keep her calm? Composure or L-theanine. Can't hurt, might help. Sorry for unsolicited advice, bit I get that particular struggle.

Sorry for everything you're going through with Miriam. Would a t-shirt (knotted up to eliminate the slack) work instead of the muzzle? If not,you could try a Kong e-cloud collar. She may still freak, but many people report the dogs use them like pillows and actually like them. Only about $10 on Amazon so maybe worth a try?

The extra information is really useful. I really can't recommend you seek out a professional enough. Unfortunately you can't really counter-condition a dog's response to pain. It's reasonable that a dog would react in response to pain. The problem you have is that your dog's bite threshold is very low, so instead of warning with a snap or growl, your dog proceeds straight to bite and unfortunately there's not a lot of evidence that we can modify a dog's bite threshold though we can reduce or eliminate triggers. I do wonder if when you were rubbing his feet he wasn't giving you some more subtle signs of his discomfort. Not something so obvious as a growl, but for instance, his mouth may have gone from open to firmly closed, or he may have turned his head toward your hand. Not to in any way place blame on you, but looking for those subtle signs may help you predict when he's uncomfortable before he bites. I do think in the meantime, you should modify your behavior. I wouldn't pet him when he's lying down or asleep, and I would eliminate the paw rubs. He may not enjoy them as much as you think, but regardless if you can't predict when he is painful and when he is not, you have to just stop them to be safe. I am also more on board with you using the muzzle at times if you want to start to explore a bit what he is and is not comfortable with in an effort to try to identify those subtle signs. So again, not to do things that will prompt a bite, but especially with the help of a professional to learn a bit more about what his triggers are and how to identify discomfort sooner. I hope that helps.

You mentioned this in another thread and I just want to say that while this seems to work in your case and can in others, you can also create behavioral issues around water by restricting a dog's water intake so I wouldn't necessarily make this recommendation and say it is "definitely okay" in all cases. Medical issues should be ruled out first, which you acknowledged and then other training issues - particularly house training or possible schedule issues - need to be addressed. Water restriction should be a last resort.

This, especially if this is a new problem. Or if the dog is fairly newly adopted and it's potentially a house training issue, keep the dog in the bedroom with you (close the door or baby gate it). Provide access to water in the room, but that way if your dog has to go, he/she can let you know. Also less likely to get up and wander, thus needing to go out, if they're safely tucked into their "den" with you.

It's not okay to restrict a dog's access to water if you don't know if the dog has a medical condition. Doing so with a dog that has, for instance, kidney failure could make the dog much sicker. Hence the recommendations that the owner get the dog checked out thoroughly by a vet.

For goodness sake, a bite of that degree over having paws handled isn't "being a dog". Yes, dogs communicate through barking, growling, snapping and biting. And yes, if you are aware of triggers that might lead to aggression with your dog you should take precautions to prevent those triggers from happening (not by slapping a muzzle on, which does not address the underlying problem). The muzzle should be a last resort if and only if you NEED to do something for the safety of the dog and there's no way to do it without potentially eliciting aggression. Having said that, dogs have choices. They can choose to move away, or to warn rather than bite. A bite of that severity over having a paw handled is not a "usual" degree of response, so while I think it's great that you take some ownership of the incident because you were aware that it was a possibility, we don't have to play this blame game where the OP was a crappy owner for setting the dog up for failure. And YES, YOU CAN CHANGE THIS BEHAVIOR. A behavior modification training plan using counter-conditioning & desensitization (CC&D) can change the way the dog feels about having his paws handled. It may not necessarily change the severity of the dog's bite if he is provoked to aggress in another situation, but it can drastically reduce the likelihood that he will feel the need to aggress when having his paws handled. The ability to modify the dog's behavior will of course depend on the individual dog, the severity of the issue, and the proficiency of the owner when implementing the training plan. To the OP, CC&D is a process by which we pair paw touching at a level the dog IS comfortable with with something of high value (typically very yummy food that the dog doesn't get at other times like cooked chicken or meatballs). Over time, the dog learns that the paw touching predicts good things happening, thus changing the dog's underlying feelings. Once they start to get that, we then proceed to touching for longer, or manipulating toes a bit, etc. always at a rate where the dog is comfortable and not provoked to protect himself until we can safely do what we need to do and the only result is the dog getting the "Where's my chicken?!" look. But I recommended a trainer rather than outlining this process in detail because I think for a dog with the severity of bite you're describing it's important to do this under the guidance of a professional so you can be sure you move at a pace that the dog is comfortable with. I am always happy to provide a few referrals if you tell me where you live. Feel free to PM me if you'd like.

Its possible to make him more comfortable with having his paws handled so he doesn't feel he needs to defend himself. You should seek out the help of a professional if possible, someone well versed in behavior issues who uses reward based training. Also, ideally muzzles should never be used to put a dog in a situation you wouldn't otherwise. Better to work on a behavior modification program while he's not injured to try to modify his response. You can still use the muzzle for safety in case something goes wrong with the training accidentally - that's actually the appropriate use for muzzles.

Quick update - dentist wanted us to follow up on the protein issue, recheck for protein on the dipstick and if present, run a urine protein:creatinine ratio. So I took a sample in and there was no protein. So not sure if that protein was just other "stuff" because her urine was so concentrated or whether my theory that she had a mild rhabdo incident was correct, but either way things look good now so that's one thing off my mind. Not to get her lameness addressed and get through her dental next week.