Dori's Anxiety

[Guest DorisMom]

I am looking for some advice and support from this greyt community!

 

We adopted and brought Dori home in January. She seemed to be settling in at first. We started to see her true personality and that made me so happy. Then a few weeks ago she started to pant and it got progressively worse. Now she basically pants whenever she's awake. I took her to the vet and they did some bloodwork. Everything came back normal. We then decided to do a chest xray to rule out heart problems. Xray showed everything was normal. The vet has basically ruled out everything but anxiety. We have to put her on Clomicalm for two months to see if her panting stops.

 

I just feel so bad about it. We adopted Dori to give her a better life but somehow she's obviously stressed out. I don't know what I can do to make her less anxious. I don't know if it's us or maybe it's our little dog (a whippet/chihuahua mix) that is stressing her out.

 

I'm also wondering if the anxiety is keeping her from coming out of her shell more. She doesn't play with her toys. She doesn't smile, roo or roach.

 

I just want my good girl to be happy.

 

Dori's Mom

[Guest KennelMom]

How long have you had her? How long was she in your home before the panting started? Could anything have happened to spook her or stress her? Anyone visiting or loud noises (i.e. construction starting in the area)? Any changes inthe environment at all just before the panting?

 

 

I often hear people say the adopt a greyhound to "give it a better life"...but going into a pet home is often the most stressful time of a greyhounds life. It never seems to occur to some folks that greyhounds might actually *like* their life before they retire. Meh. At the end of the day, change can be hard for these dogs and they just need time to adjust.

 

My recommendation is to keep her life as simple and stress free as possible. It's really hard to give any other advice without seeing her, seeing the environment, her interactions with you and the rest of the family. Have you been in contact with the adoption group at all? If so, what have they said?

[MP_the4pack]

Are there other greyhound owners around? Someone you can bring her over or they come over for a playdate? If so, watch her reaction.

 

If it's really positive, maybe she needs a grey playmate.

 

Is she left all alone all day while you're at work? Could be SA.

 

 

 

[Guest GreysAndMoreGreys]

Has there been Thunderstorms around your area by chance?

[Guest momofevie]

No advice, just hoping for the best for Dori and you. It's so hard to see them hurting.

[dante2zoe]

If everything else is ruled out and it is anxiety, that medication might not help. Not all medications help that same in every dog and a switch - tapered down and under the direction of your vet - might also help. You could also try a couple drops of rescue remedy to see if it can help take the edge off. We have a whippet with anxiety/SA issues and clomicalm did nothing for him. He takes prozac instead and that changed his whole life. Hang in there!

[carronstar]

I agree with kennelmom completely. Are there changes in her surroundings that could be bothering her? If you are at work during the day, you might not know about them. I had a girl with severe SA and we worked through a lot of it during our first year. Then for no apparent reason she had complete breakdowns during the day every day for a week. She also had a dog walker who was not doing his work and had not one drop of compassion. He was easy, I fired his butt. I hired an amazing dog walker on Saturday. Then I stayed home on the following Monday to see if anything was going on that I could hear or see. It turns out that there was construction in my building. Two apartments being joined together. 100 year old solid brick and lathe construction being knocked down. The walls shook, the noise was so bad I wanted to ask them to stop! At that point I turned to my GPA community and they told me about Rescue Remedy and Dap. Those two items were miraculous for my girl. Combined with a new and caring walker who made sure not to leave her in the apartment until she was content and happy on her couch, really turned the tide for my girl.

 

We also started to train as a therapy team which was helpful. Just the working together through the exercises, combined with me continuing to practice alone time with her in short bursts every night gave her a sense of calm and assurance that even if I left, I would always come back.

 

If you work out of the house, can you take a day to work from home so that you can determine if there is anything going on of which you are unaware? Can you get her a walker who will come in and give her some exercise and attention at the mid-point of the day? I learned early on that my girl could do about 5 hours on her own before she melted down. As long as she saw someone at that point, she was okay.

[Guest DorisMom]

Thanks for your comments.

 

I do have some Rescue Remedy at home. I never even thought to try it! I also got some DAP last night that I will try.

 

Anything to make my girl better.

[duncan41]

Hope she feels better soon!

Edited March 25, 2009 by duncan41

[brandimom]

A friend of mine who has a grey gives him Melatonin 3 mg./2 pills when he seems anxious especially when it is windy or there are thunder storms. She swears by it and has been involved in greyhound rescue for 20+ years. I have also heard that anxiety wraps work in calming a dog.

[greysmom]

All of those suggestions are good ones! Plus, I would add to be patient with her. It's not really been that long that she's been with you and many greys can take months to become comfortable in their home situation. Literally everything is new for her.

 

One other thing that might help is to get her some more exercise. Especially in the morning before you go to work. A tired dog will sleep through anything! And be much calmer overall.

 

Good luck!

greysmom