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Rudi, Rudi, Rudi.
I popped home to check on him at lunch and he's being really lovey and he's smiling. I'm sure he's still in pain, but at least he's opening his mouth today!
FTR, If it weren't for IVF, Rudi is more expensive than any child of mine ever could be.
MrsOjoButtons:
He had an anxiety attack of epic proportion and self-harmed. He cracked out half his canine tooth, broke a premolar in half, and broke out another premolar all the way down to the root. Every single tooth on the left side of his mouth is chipped and/or worn down to a nub. He also ripped a nail out of his paw.
Big guy had a very long surgery yesterday to remove the two worst teeth and the root of that premolar that he cracked off and to cauterize his nail. The root of a canine tooth is twice as long as the tooth itself, so they had to do a lot of digging in his sinus cavity.
He was so drugged up last night he couldn't stand very long. He's my shadow, so every time I tried to leave the room he tried to follow me, then collapsed in really uncomfortable positions. He had to be carried everywhere last night. :-(
He was coherent enough today to hold himself up long enough to pee and to eat half his breakfast, so he's doing a little better on that front, but of course that means he's feeling more of the pain now.
Re: Rudi, Rudi, Rudi.
Our greeting everyday at the beach. My two boys.
RUN FREE SWEET BOY RUN FREE gotcha day 12/272009 -11/11/2010
The most beautiful place on earth to me: Glacier NP
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="D
Poor baby! I'm glad he seems to be doing better.
We just had another thunderstorm an hour ago and Joe left work to check on Rudi. He tried to eat the doorknob off the front door and he clawed at the drywall around the door. The mud room is covered in blood and he may have ripped his stitches. He got back into the garage and apparently it looks like a bomb went off in there.
Joe said the thunder was pretty far north of our house and we don't have any rain on the driveway, so he thinks this is more due to separation anxiety than noise anxiety. I don't know why he's choosing now to act out so severely.
He's been heavily medicated all day every day since January. We just doubled his dosage in April.
Oh, poor Rudi. Have you tried the Thunder Shirt with him? The foster I have right now has terrible anxiety thanks to the DB who gave her up. She has suffered so much abuse. The Thunder Shirt has helped her a bit. It also helps her for me to leave a giant bone in there when I leave. She takes her anxiety out on the bone.
You are such a good doggy mommy, I know you've probably tried all of those things but there has to be something out there that will help him. I had one foster that had to have his crate covered when we left. If it was dark and he could hide under a towel, he'd be fine. If we left him uncovered, he'd freak, crap all over himself and chew at the plastic tray in the crate.
Poor guy! I hope he is able to heal without any more issues. I have to say that I'm glad you & J are his parents because most people wouldn't put the time, effort or money into helping him that y'all have. Hang in there.
Goodness! I hope that he heals nicely and that he's in minimal pain.
The vet just called and said she found a drug that she thinks she found a drug for him. It's called buspar and is prescribed to humans for OCD, phobias, and self-harming behavior. It's inexpensive and he can take it in conjunction with his amitriptyline, so we won't have a lapse in medication. He starts it on Tuesday, hopefully.
I keep a spare garage door opener in my mud room on top of my dry erase board. There are claw marks up and down the wall where he aparently tried to get to it.
I did ask the vet about a thunder shirt. She has her own great dane who has moderate anxiety, so she's got some experience with the thunder shirt. She said she wouldn't recommend it for Rudi because it's not safe to leave on him when he's not supervised, and that's obviously when his anxiety is the worst. When Joe and I are home with him, he doesn't self harm.
His crate was covered with a king size sheet. He had an antler in his crate that day, and he had four hours of full on exercise the night prior.
He's got roam of the house today with Bandit. Joe thinks if he has access to a cuddle buddy he might be better, so we're trying it. A few weeks ago when he opened the door to the garage, he had Bandit with him, so I'm skeptical that he'll be calmer, but maybe he won't hurt himself.
I do see some improvement with DAP, so I'm reordering a mass quantity of them today, and a few more bags of Ziwi since it looks like he'll be off raw for a couple more weeks.
And thank you. Our vet keeps saying the same thing, that most people wouldn't be trying so hard. I can't even imagine. I have this dog who loves me so much and literally goes psycho to be with me, to the extent of breaking out his own teeth and ripping his nails out, there's no way I'm not going to do everything in my power to give him the best quality of life possible.
Hopefully having Bandit with him will keep him calm enough to not self harm. For the sake of your poor nerves, I hope this will help him!
And hopefully the new meds will work too. It breaks my heart to know how much he goes through on any given day. And if we were closer, we'd be more than willing to help too.
You guys are awesome dog parents and I'm sure Rudi appreciates everything you both do for him on a daily basis!
I wish I could hug you right now, I'm sure you need it!
(((HUGS)))
Missed M/C 11/5/2010 @ 5 weeks, 3 days* D&C 12/3/2010 at 9 weeks, 3 days
Aw dangit now you just made meThree of my last four trips to the vet have been during my emotional times of the month and I cried at her office. I'm sure she thinks I'm a basket case.
I appreciate the support, guys.
You'll figure something out. It breaks my heart for all of you, especially him. I know you must be frustrated. Keep it up. Let me know if you need to brain storm to try anything else. I'm always around.
This makes me really happy for all of you! At least as far as Rudi is concerned anyway!
Missed M/C 11/5/2010 @ 5 weeks, 3 days* D&C 12/3/2010 at 9 weeks, 3 days