Fireworks Anxiety

[Bandits Dad]

I have heard a lot of talk recently about giving dogs Benedryl to calm them for the fourth. Has anyone else heard this?

 

I am tired of giving the vet $50 for a visit just so he can SELL me a couple of pills.

 

Some folks on the radio said .25 mg max, what do you all say?

 

Fatty

[leahluvsherpups]

I gave my sceerdy dogs benadryl last year and it seemed to have worked great. They were a bit loopy but did just fine.

[Bandits Dad]

Cool deal thanks!

[Betsy]

Also, Melatonin... (found in the vitamin section)

 

http://www.peoriahs.org/melatonin.html

 

http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/melatonin.htm

 

What has your vet been prescribing? Mine prescribed Xanax and if I want a refill I don't have to take him in, just pay for the pills (about $1 per pill).

[Kat's Dogs]

I know some people in our training class that use Benedryl - it works well for them.

 

Another thing that helps the dogs with fireworks is to turn on the TV to the food network channel. It always shows people talking in a pretty calm/happy voice and it really calms the dogs down to hear it!

 

Out of all the channels on TV, it works the best.

Good luck with the dogs this 4th!

[Allie+Tess&Kipp]

I've given my dogs Benadryl but it has never made them any calmer or mellower. I must agree with the food network channel. My dog loved it when we had it. Too bad my lame cable company here does not have it. Ugh.

 

Allie + Tess & Kipp

http://weebordercollie.com

[Anda]

Guess I'm lucky: Ouzo doesn't seem to mind any kind of loud noises: he LOVES running to the patio to watch any incomming fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, and this evening we heard some fireworks somewhere in the distance (well, my husband thinks they were gunshots, but for a whole 2 mins? lol, unless some gangsters from a '30s movie wandered in Denver), and Ouzo was super interested to find where those strange noises were coming from, waving his tail and everything, smiling and looking back at me, trying to say "I wanna play, too!"

[Beth G]

All I know is that mine are becoming a nervous wreck and it is frustrating the crap out of me seeing them like this. That's one thing that I HATE abour this time of year.

[SoloRiver]

I'm guessing that the pills your vet is selling you are Acepromazine. This is a drug I absolutely refuse to give my dogs and that is counterproductive for noise phobic dogs.

 

An article about noise phobia and its treatment:

 

http://www.dvmnewsmagazine.com/dvm/article...l.jsp?id=136493

 

I am running a study on noise phobia in Border Collies for the Canine Behavioral Genetics Project. If anyone with noise phobic dogs is interested in participating, check out the website in my .sig or feel free to email me directly.

[bc friend]

My vet recommended Benadryl (25 mg) for a claustophobic dog in the event we had to take shelter in a confined area in the event of a storm.

[Allie+Tess&Kipp]

When we go out to watch fireworks (local town does them tonight, the 3rd, every year), we close all the windows and turn on music or TV (I usually play a movie for them --this year it will be Finding Nemo ). We leave the dogs in their crates (yes, they can see the TV from their crates! LOL!) with chewies, etc. They do fine, they just wait for us to return.

 

On the 4th, we are home and they could care less about the noise because I always have a NEW TOY available to tear apart. LOL

 

I'm lucky, my two so far do not seem alarmed by the fireworks. I keep them close and on leash and our walks take place at a park that does not allow fireworks instead of in our neighborhood where the kids are.

 

Allie + Tess & Kipp

http://weebordercollie.com

[nancy]

We don't have cable, so I can't use the food chanel. But I do use generic benedryl for fireworks and thunderstorms. I also shut Ferg in the downstairs bathroom until we go up to bed. Then she gets herself under my bed table.

[AK dog doc]

The distractions (TV, new toys, etc) are very creative - and they work, at least in some cases, to desensitize dogs to fireworks. I never could get Buddy over his fear; we always medicated him to manage his extreme, dig-a-hole-through-the-wall stress over it. As a puppy Finn was (as many dogs are, spontaneously) afraid of them. Since people set off fireworks like MAD here on New Year's eve (makes more sense than on 4th of July, since it's light all night long in July and you can't really see them that well, though it doesn't stop people from setting them off then as well), we used his first New Year's as a training session for fireworks. I just did as many upbeat, distracting, enticing games as I could think of, until the noise was of no further interest and Finn was so worn out he could not have cared less about them. Same with Ali, who was a little more reactive, but now isn't too concerned. Kenzie (who was desentitized to them during puppy class via popping balloons) will actually run from window to window looking for the best show (as I live on a lake, there often IS a good show, since it makes a great stage for fireworks in the winter.) Having had (before vet school) a fireworks-phobic dog who I inadvertantly worsened by 'comforting' behavior when she showed fear, I really appreciated a puppy class that specifically adressed this issue. (They do teach you in vet school NOT to comfort the fearful behavior, as comforting reinforces the fearful behavior in most dogs).

 

FWIW, I generally send diazepam for fireworks anxiety, but there is some variability in the reaction to it. If I have a dog that doesn't seem to be responding well, I'll consider a different benzodiazepine. (I have not used Benadryl for this application, though I have had clients do so and some report 'acceptable' results, in their view, though I did not assess those dogs so I cannot report the reliability of that observation.) However, my main weapon is to teach the client to desensitize the dog - this is not always possible (witness Buddy), but IMO the ideal solution is to get the dog to a state where they don't care about the fireworks and have no anxiety about them in the first place. Failing that, I'll always medicate a dog rather than see it injure itself out of fear and panic.

 

Edited to add: just read the article Melanie linked; that explains it much better than I did.

[Lunar]

I'm just so SO thankful that Zoe is NOT reactive. She's afraid of everything under the sun, but apparently thunder and fireworks is not one of them. I took her outside yesterday to try to get a look at the fireworks they were letting off in town (trees in the way), she didn't even really notice the noise.

 

Oreo we never medicated... just kept her inside and let her stay wherever she felt safe (unfortunately that was normally your lap). I feel so bad for dogs who have phobias so bad they're destructive. Oreo's freaked out by thunder and fireworks, but not *that* bad.

[Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke]

AK Dog Doc...I have a dilemma, a big old Great Dane one, and I'd love your opinion here.

A co-worker (filthy rich, our hospital administrator) had her handyman bring in her GD from "the river" (VA thing) to board here at the hospital because she had torn up a room at her sister's place when they went to dinner and left her, I suspect, during which a thunderstorm occurred. She remains out of town and will be until she comes home tomorrow midday. She has had this particular dog less than a year.

I am holding down the kennel this holiday, and have been left directions to medicate this dog with Ace if needed. Here's the kicker...we are located 1/2 a mile from TWO local fireworks extravaganzas (one on each side of us, a ballpark and ampitheatre), which I suspect will send this dog over the mental edge tonight. She is shaking now , from anxiety I guess, and there was one lesser fireworks display at the ballpark last night, which she survived.

Yes, I have spoken to the Doc, he wasn't that concerned about it. I am.

Your thoughts?

[INU]

Natalie,

That's interesting. I too have a sound sensitive dog (Jazzy) but she never worried about fireworks (thunders and gun shots as well).

 

I thought she'd freak out and hide under the bed like she did for clicker and metal clanking noises. One thing I did with my dogs on their first july 4th was to play play play during. I also took them to a park next to shooting range and played lots. I am interested to see Melanie's study too.

[AK dog doc]

Debbie, I'd be concerned too, TBH. I personally would expect the dog's anxiety to be higher becuase of being out of her home and in a strange place. I don't know if she's fireworks reactive - some dogs seem fine with that but hate thunder, and vice versa - but if she is, I'd be concerned that the combined effects of her noise phobia plus her away-from-home stress would spool her right up. If she's destructive at home, there's at least the possibility that she might be more destructive (possibly even to the point of injuring herself) in a strange setting. (Some dogs are actualy less destructive in a strange setting, since it may ironically NOT activate their separation anxiety as much as being left at home alone. Depends on the dog.)

 

The bad news with Ace is that it might worsen her anxiety in this event AND for the next time - it doen't control anxiety so much as make it so the dog can't act out about it as much. The mental effects might actually make the dog MORE freaked-out, but without the ability to be as externally destructive about it. This decoys the owner into thinking the dog is better, but it's not. The good news with Ace (which isn't really good news so much as okay-ish news) is that it MIGHT keep her from physically injuring herself by freaking out and destroying her run. Might not, though.

 

If it was me, I'd be trying to get this client on board with treating the dog's anxiety BEFORE next July rolls around, so that the next time the dog has to face the event(s) that scare her, you've got training and medication on your side. It sounds like the dog has multiple issues, though, and I think maybe a consult with a behaviorist and some chemical support might be required... if she's very anxious, it will be hard for her to learn new things, such as that being left at home is not a death sentance. I am NOT a behaviorist, though I can consult one for my behavior cases; I have had dogs who, even with appropriate medical support and training, still require anxiolytics for fireworks (etc). Maybe a behaviorist can get all of them to where they no longer require meds, but I haven't been able to get all of them to that point. Some seem to transition faster than others, but some (as in Buddy) seem SO fearful that it may in the end be impossible to completely control their phobia without medication. Not sure on that. Melanie would probably be a better resource on that, since she lives it every day and has both blazing intelligence and a scientific bent, which give her a pretty comprehensive understanding of the issues - not to mention that canine genetics study she's working on. Cutting edge of science and all that.

 

Anyway, I hope it goes well with the GD.

[Malvie]

AK Dog Doc/anyone, a question:

 

We picnic'd on the screened in porch today and had corn on the cob among many other things. I put the paper plates with corn cobs in a (non-BC-proof) trash can, planning to dispose of them later.

 

I noticed the girls chewing on something (any time it gets really, really quiet with BC's around, one should ask "why?"), looked more closely and they were eating the corn cobs! Yikes! I should know better than to ever use an open trash can, but there you have it. Ethel knows she is not supposed to be in the trash, but then, she is also a sneaky girl.

 

They were just chewing the cobs up, not wolfing them down whole, but by the time I caught them, plenty of the cob was gone.

 

Obviously, if they become distressed, I'll take them to the vet immediately, but any recommendations on what I should do, what I should look for?

[AK dog doc]

Unfortunately, corn cobs can make really nasty foreign bodies. It depends on how big a piece was swallowed, but if they swallowed something big enough to cork up the intestine, they may be going to surgery (sorry). Hopefully they chewed things up to tiny bits, but if not, you'd be looking for poor appetite, vomiting, diarrhea and belly pain, +/- a fever.

 

I hope that turns out fine without a doctor visit... the thing with corn cobs is that the little sockets where the corn kernels fit will fill with bacteria, so you have an obstructing foreign bogy with a rough surface which can traumatize the gut AND is absolutely packed with bacteria. Generally these dogs do well at surgery, however; it's just that if you run into an obstruction situation, you have to HAVE surgery, and that's typically something most of us prefer to avoid.

 

Hope that goes well.