Is there a sub like this but for anxious dogs?

[kimmie_kimm]

Edit: I’ve opted to delete this post because I found myself getting overly frustrated by some of the responses giving basic advice that wasn’t applicable to my situation after I stated I wasn’t looking for advice. Instead of being increasingly frustrated (and thus curt in my responses) I’m just going to manage my own behaviors here and remove the post.

HOWEVER — I am not entirely deleting it because I would just like to say this since it’s really applicable to all of the posts on this sub. I recognize some of y’all were just trying to be helpful and had good intentions but for future reference — PLEASE 1) read the full post before commenting. Some of the advice here wasn’t even relevant to my situation; and 2) if someone says they don’t want advice (aside from people with first hand experience) and rather are just trying to vent, please listen to them and don’t give advice. Especially medical advice when I repeatedly mention I’m working with multiple specialists (vets and trainers). That’s what I pay them for, not strangers on the internet.

Thanks to the commiserations, kind words, and the tips from people who have been in a similarly complex situation.

 

[joshuawithmartin]

@kimmie_kimm There isn’t specifically that I’m aware of, but many of the dogs here are anxious dogs. R/dogtraining is not active at the moment but does have great wiki resources worth checking out

 

[kimmie_kimm]

@joshuawithmartin Thank you, I’ll check them out.

 

[lisad65]

@kimmie_kimm Oh hi, do we have the same dog?? Lol

But seriously, it sucks you're going through this and I can relate 100%. I had to pill my dog to get his meds in him. Our inappetence nightmare finally ended when our internal medicine specialist did an endoscopy with biopsies and diagnosed our dog with IBD. We started him on Prednisone immediately to treat the inflammation and his appetite came roaring back. We still had flares once in a while where we needed to use Entyce to get him to eat, but he's been quite stable for over a year now (initially diagnosed in April 2021). We actively tried to address his anxiety while figuring out his GI issues and it was so freaking hard. I will say that getting his IBD stabilized has helped his anxiety quite a bit and allowed him to finally make progress with behavior modification training.

 

[kimmie_kimm]

@lisad65 Thank you, this is SUPER helpful and exactly what I was hoping to hear. I think next step is probably the endoscopy tbh - the diet was intended to avoid that and first see if it was food allergy related, but I just don’t think it’s working for us. Entyce is what we got last night, it did work very well to get him to finally eat. Did you deal at all with billious vomiting syndrome too? I’m wondering if BVS isn’t actually what’s going on with Jack, and it’s something else all together.

 

[lisad65]

@kimmie_kimm My dog would vomit bile from having an empty stomach due to going so long without eating. He'd also vomit, sometimes food, sometimes just bile, because of the stomach inflammation and/or eating a protein he doesn't tolerate (food allergies/intolerances are very frequently a component of IBD, but not all dogs are fully diet controlled.)

I suspect if you go the endoscopy route and they diagnose IBD, that will overwrite the BVS diagnosis. We started with a diet trial also and it wasn't helping and we were tearing our hair out so I pushed for more diagnostics.

 

[kimmie_kimm]

@lisad65 Luckily my vet is honestly and takes a super holistic approach, so I don’t think I’ll get push back on further testing. They mentioned we could go straight to that if we wanted but recommended trying diet first since if that solves the issue it’s less invasive for him.

 

[lisad65]

@kimmie_kimm For sure, I think starting with a diet trial is the logical first step before jumping to tests that require anesthesia. But don't feel bad asking about moving on to other diagnostics if both you and your pup are struggling. Inappetence is a beast to deal with for us humans and I imagine that as stressed as we are when our dogs won't eat, they're even more stressed about it.

I pushed for the endoscopy and then cried when we dropped our dog off for the procedure. I asked my husband over and over if we were making a terrible mistake putting him under anesthesia. Once it was all over with, I was so glad we had just gone ahead with it. Our dog was totally fine afterwards, just sleepy the rest of that day. Getting a diagnosis and treatment plan was worth it.

I'm not trying to push you to get an endoscopy done, but just want you to know that if you do go that route, don't be scared! It sounds like you have a wonderful vet and are in great hands.

 

[kimmie_kimm]

@lisad65 I am so glad you chimed in here, hearing from someone else who has been through it and is on the other side is so incredibly helpful. The ultrasound last night showed some possible early stage kidney issues, so that’s my primary request to address before we put him under anesthesia for further testing, but I agree further testing is the right next step once we’ve squared that piece away and are sure he’s good there.

 

[lisad65]

@kimmie_kimm Hang in there! I hope you guys can get everything figured out soon.

 

[thedwarf]

@kimmie_kimm How long has he been on Prozac? Did the vet warn you it can reduce their appetite?

If he already had a reduced appetite it's possible it's made it worse? I tried my own dog on the none brand version and he was the same. We resorted to wet food, adding cheese etc but he was losing weight so I took him off the tablets after ten days (sought vet advice first incase he needed to taper off).

My dog gets ingestion and we were up several times a night with him when it was at it's worst. Then I was recommended Slippery Elm by lots of people so we gave it a go. It's been an ABSOLUTE game changer for my dog. He's so much more comfortable digestion wise.

If you decide to try it call your vet to check your dog can have it with other things you need to give him such as Prozac and his occasional gaba but it's a supplement. It lines the gut and slows down their digestion.

 

[kimmie_kimm]

@thedwarf Thank you, I’ll def ask about slippery elm!

We kept an eye on the reduced appetite, the not eating is new and started when we changed the diet. Prozac started in June, diet only started 2 weeks ago.

 

[hiskingdomconsul]

@kimmie_kimm I wholeheartedly agree with OP.

I've an anxious dog, recently adopted. We're about to start working with a behaviorist.

I used the reactive dog sub to find some pointers, because I didn't find a anxious dog one.

Always stated that my dog was reacting to, not just reactive. Despite this, ppl in comments are sometimes quite condemning of us trying to find solutions where we can.

I would love an anxious dog sub.

 

[kimmie_kimm]

@hiskingdomconsul If I created one, would you be interested in helping moderate it and get it started?

 

[safestart]

@kimmie_kimm I think dog with stomach issues + anxiety is pretty common. My dog’s disinterest in food seems to be fully correlated with her anxiety. I actually first reached out to a trainer and started on the anxiety/reactivity journey after my dog turned down freshly cooked steak multiple times.

We first tried Zoloft because it has less appetite suppression than reconcile, but she didn’t handle it well so we moved to the reconcile. When loading, her loss of appetite really worried me and I got entyce, but right as I got it, she hit the 6 week mark and it was like miraculous.

She now eats at least most of a meal most days, and we’ve been to the internist who said “yeah, it seems like she just doesn’t need to eat much, she’s healthy”. So most of a meal most days works for me.

She’s also on Pepcid because she had gone through a phase where she’d throw up first thing in the morning. She still has days with an upset stomach and I don’t think I’ve fully solved that, but overall the improvement feels dramatic.

So - 1) you’re not alone and 2) keep advocating for your pup. You clearly know them well and trust your instincts when it seems like something isn’t right. If it makes sense, I’d consider if the dosage of the anxiety med feels right and you think they’re on the right one.

 

[kimmie_kimm]

@safestart Thanks, appreciate the kind words.

 

[123lx]

@kimmie_kimm I’ve also got an anxious pup. My guy is an ACD mix. Between these two forums I have been astounded the number of people (like ourselves) that are on both the fluoxetine and hydrolyzed protein. We also use trazodone for specific events and that pill is real bitter.

It is very common for my guy to skip a meal (or two or three). I don’t actually think it’s the food/flavor per se because he has been the same with multiple foods leading up to the HP. I suspect that he probably has a lot of stomach upset that is the cause of a lot of his disinterest. I used to have some luck with boiled chicken for pills but in reality the only thing that really works for me is peanut butter*. The asterisk is because it is delivery dependent. I cover it in peanut butter and open his mouth (he doesn’t mind) and then wipe it on his tongue. Since I’ve actually started wiping it off on his tongue we haven’t had any issues

 

[kimmie_kimm]

@123lx Luckily he can’t take trazadone so it being bitter isn’t a problem, makes him waaaay more anxious. I had to do the same thing today re: pills in PB, but on top of that I had to lick the PB myself first in front of him to show him it was okay to eat. I joked with my husband earlier today that he must’ve been a dictator who had a food tester in a past life or something and he was okay with me getting poisoned

 

[prophetictimes]

@kimmie_kimm My reactive dog was a hyper fearful puppy to the point where none of the standard socialization or counter-conditioning approaches were appropriate for her. Never mind not eating around a trigger - she wouldn't move outside of her "safe zone". Took many days before she was ok with exploring different rooms of the house other than the first ones we'd placed her into. Weeks before she would walk around outside, months before she would leave the driveway.

I had to patch together ideas on how to help her. By about a year she wasn't terrified any more, just hyperalert and reactive to some triggers. At 2, and after starting prozac, the hypervigilance is gone, and the reactivity is fading too. She'll never be a social butterfly but she can make friends with new humans she sees often and tolerate the others.

Like your dog, mine is an expert at detecting pills in food, and we've had various challenges with handling issues, and at one point I had fully poisoned counter-conditioning by making her suspicious any time I gave her a high value treat. She got to the point briefly where she wouldn't eat anything without searching it thoroughly, and rejected even high value treats.

After a lot of drama we switched to just pilling our dog by hand. We were worried that it would make her more anxious, but she was already so anxious about searching her food for pills that switching to a brisk-but-kind "treat - pill - treat" was an improvement. She's fine with both food and pills now.

(We discovered this after a trip away, when the dog was being watched by a friend, who is a former vet tech. When we got back I asked the friend if she had struggled with the pills at all. She looked sheepish and said no, she just manually pilled the dogs and everyone was fine with it. "You guys make it such a big deal," she said. "Just pop the pill down her throat, give her another treat, and move on." She was right.)

You guys have some extra challenges with the GI issues, which I cannot offer any perspective on, except to say that I bet the dog will feel a lot better once that's resolved. Hang in there.

 

[kimmie_kimm]

@prophetictimes I’ve wondered if we should try treat pill treat for similar reasons, actually. I think finding the pills is what is causing him to reject the food entirely tbh. Perhaps we will give that a try at some point. Ideally I’d also like to stop the ~6 pills a day and just get him to 1 Prozac every day + stuff for acute anxiety events.