# Advice Needed for Anxious Senior Dog



## brittanyS (Dec 11, 2018)

My girl Dixie is a rescue we got as a puppy 14 years ago. She has always been a little anxious, but it's been getting worse the older she gets. She is fine at certain times of day (late evening and night), but in the morning until about 6 PM in the afternoon she is often panting and suspicious of activity around her. She barks at my husband for speaking/walking around and sometimes she barks at nothing in a high pitched, worried kind of bark. She has always had separation anxiety, it's usually manageable if I keep her to a routine, but lately that has gotten worse, too.

She's been to several different vets and we've tried all kinds of things to get a handle on her anxiety. We've tried calming care probiotics, adaptil collars, and zylkene pills - none of which seemed to make a dent. Anixtane seems to help a little. Trazodone is really helpful, but I can't increase her dose anymore or she has trouble getting around (she is not on the max dose for her weight, just the max she can handle due to her physical weakness). I've recently started adding in CBD oil, but so far haven't seen any improvement with that either. She is on adequan, carprofen and gabapentin for arthritis. This seems like a lot of medication, so I want to note that she's not been on all of this at the same time. These are things we've tried over the past 3 or 4 years.

She does seem to do better when she's outside if I am outside with her - she will find a spot under the rhododendrons and nap. The only problem with that is she never wants to be outside alone unless I'm vacuuming (she hates the vacuum). 

It all makes me sad because I feel like she is on edge all the time. I feel like we've exhausted our options to help manage her anxiety and I don't want her to be stressed all the time. I still see glimpses of her old self on occasion when she seems happy and playful, but that doesn't seem to happen much lately. Physically, she's still in pretty great shape for a 14 year old dog. 

What would you guys do at this point? Is there something that could help her that I haven't considered? I don't want her to be unhappy, but I'm not sure what else I can do.


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## Buckelke (Sep 4, 2019)

she has a wonderful face. all that experience! If you've had her to he vet and she's healthy there isn't much else you can do. Maybe she's not hearing too well anymore, that could be making her anxious. Or not seeing clearly so she doesn't think you are here when you are. If she can't see your husband she may think he's stranger. Maybe both. Poor girl. I would just spoil her a little more and spend a little special time with her. Maybe she aches, I had an old PB who liked it when I sat on the floor with him and put the heating pad (on low) on his hip. She may have a little dementia, too. Things can get confusing with age. I'm sure she isn't sad, just old.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

CBD is tricky because it apprently has to be the right terpenes for dogs' endocanabinoid system, and a lot of what is marketed as CBD for pets is bunk (....like cooked up in someone's crockpot), and full of pesticides (as industrial hemp is a high-pesticide crop). You really have to either be very lucky, or have someone knoweldgeable guide you through what to buy.

How is her vision? Some of what you describe sounds like a dog who is losing vision. 

Have you tried acupuncture? My old blind one finds it very relaxing!


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## brittanyS (Dec 11, 2018)

Magwart said:


> CBD is tricky because it apprently has to be the right terpenes for dogs' endocanabinoid system, and a lot of what is marketed as CBD for pets is bunk (....like cooked up in someone's crockpot), and full of pesticides (as industrial hemp is a high-pesticide crop). You really have to either be very lucky, or have someone knoweldgeable guide you through what to buy.
> 
> How is her vision? Some of what you describe sounds like a dog who is losing vision.
> 
> Have you tried acupuncture? My old blind one finds it very relaxing!


She definitely does not see very well anymore, but I figure there’s not much that can be done about that?

I haven’t tried acupuncture. How long do the effects last? There are several places near me that say they do dog acupuncture.


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

Barking could also be a sign of hearing loss. Sounds that were clear to her before could sound like something else.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Acupuncture needs to be done weekly at first, probably. We do it every other week for my geriatric dog now, but we started out weekly.

With losing vision, you can do things to make the home blind-dog friendly. We use lots of different floor surfaces to signal room transitions (runners, mats, etc.). We have a rubber mat at the top and bottom of the stairs to mark them, for example--he feels that mat under his paws, he knows where the stairs are. We also use a lot of "notice cues" -- we never touch the blind dog without saying "touch" so that he isn't surprised. We have navigation cues like "follow," "step up," "step down" and "watch out!" if he's about to bump into something. He relies on them and trusts us to keep him safe. 

I've also noticed that drugs like Traz and Gabipenten really screw him up because the brain fog interferes with his blind-dog navigation. He has a map in his head composed of scent, sound and feel. He counts steps. He seems to lose all sense of where he is on some of these meds. Mine is fully blind and has been for years though -- I don't know if that might be different for your dog.


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## Dunkirk (May 7, 2015)

Have you considered it could be dementia? What about talking to your vet about increasing the gabapentin dose, as that has a sedative effect and is relatively 'safe'.









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## Buckelke (Sep 4, 2019)

_We have navigation cues like "follow," "step up," "step down" and "watch out!" if he's about to bump into something. He relies on them and trusts us to keep him safe. _
those are good, THANKS!, I think I will start teaching Elke those now. She's still full of herself but she's starting to get white under her eyes. She's older but we don't know how old. The vet remarked she was spunky for a girl her age.


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## Verachi (Mar 22, 2021)

Magwart said:


> I've also noticed that drugs like Traz and Gabipenten really screw him up because the brain fog interferes with his blind-dog navigation. He has a map in his head composed of scent, sound and feel. He counts steps. He seems to lose all sense of where he is on some of these meds. Mine is fully blind and has been for years though -- I don't know if that might be different for your dog.


Interesting! My previous vet put my senior on Carprofen and Gabapentin and shortly after, her personality changed A LOT. She would often hide under the bed and bark, sit in a corner of the room with her head down. I explained this to her new vet and listed all meds she was on and first thing she said was “try stopping the Gabapentin and report back to me”. She’s been on Carprofen alone now for the arthritis, noticed no decrease in mobility since she’s been off the Gabapentin but all of that funky behavior stopped!


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

I learned about notice cues Miki Saito, a Japanese dog trainer specializing in blind dogs. She really changed my perspective on what they're able to do. She has fabulous ideas for improving quality of life:




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Resources | BlindDogTraining.com







blinddogtraining.com


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