Pheno Dogs

[Guest BradyzMommy]

Maddi, our 9-year old, started having seizures a few years ago. Not grand mal, just small seizures; losing her balance, shaking, drooling, confusion, etc. We decided to put her on Pheno and it has controlled them very well. We were told that there was a very good chance that the Pheno would make her more vocal than she was already. Well, she did become more vocal, but lately she has become absolutely crazy; CRAZY! At first we thought it was a passing phase, but its been months now and we have seen no end in sight. It starts when we all get settled in for the night. She has this routine that usually started at around 7pm. She starts whining. She lays on her bed and just whines; one loud whine. She used to do it before so we thought nothing of it except instead of lasting two minutes, it now lasts for ten. Then she gets up and goes over to DH and whines at him. When she gets no response, she comes over and whines at me. When that doesnt work, she starts barking at us. You know, that high pitched, yelp bark? Yup, that one. One of us gets up and gives her half a cookie to silence the noisy monster. It keeps her quiet until the next round of whining. We just ignore her. When DH goes to bed, she starts all over again with me. I ignore her. She whines, she cries, she yelps. She gets the other two going. I ignore her and finally go to bed. At around 12:30am, she starts whining and barking and running the length of the house, getting Jack riled up and he joins her. DH goes out there, scolds them and they calm down. This is of course, AFTER she barks AT him as though she is scolding him. DH gets up at around 2am, Maddi is WIDE awake and immediately starts whining LOUDLY. The only way that he can get her to be quiet is to give her treats; a cookie here, a cookie there, yogurt in the dish, etc, etc. She barks, she whines, she carries on like you wouldnt believe. I realize that by giving her treats we are only re-enforcing her behavior, but we really don't know how else to keep her quiet. And at first, we honestly thought it was funny. And we thought she was being so cute. That was before we were both losing sleep. We knew the Pheno would make her "different", but we had NO idea! We arent going to take her off of the Pheno since it's working well for her, but Geez Louise! Anyone else have a similar experience with their Pheno dog acting strange?

[Wonder]

Both Passon and Thunder are very vocal on pheno and both were vocal before pheno.

 

Thunder is super HYPER

Passion is just whiny

[greytpups]

I'd stop with the treats and buy ear plugs. Seriously, I've never had a seizure dog so I don't have any idea how to resolve this. However, we do have a "talker" but he sleeps like a log at night. I'd miss the talker, but not if it kept me up all night.

[Guest Grhndad]

I had a 12 yr old on Pheno for 2 yrs and never experienced anything like that. She was on a low dosage that controlled her seizures, Never had one while on the pheno. Didn't change her behavior at all

[greypuppyluv]

I think that if you have a dog that was already whiny and/or vocal, putting them on pheno will make them moreso. And, IIRC, Maddi was just a tad bit whiny before the pheno , so this doesn't surprise me. When Jenny's girl, Aidan was alive and on pheno, she was a real BIG whiner. That girl would come up to your face and just whine. But, she was a whiner before she went on pheno. Phaelin's not like this, but he's always been a quiet dog.

[Guest BradyzMommy]

Paula, she has LOST HER MIND!!! (and I'm bringing her tomorrow so you can witness it first hand! )