Dog health~Celebrating July 4th BTFD

Dog health~ Celebrating July 4th BTFD (Before The Family Dogs)

Ah, the Fourth of July, the gathering of family and friends, the barbeque's, people blowing off their finger tips with illegal bottle rockets, the town fireworks display, and the drinks! Those were the days of fun and relaxation, the days before the family dogs came to live with us! Did you ever notice it only takes one dog to act like a complete lunatic to set off the whole pack? There’s not enough Prozac in the world for them or me on July 4TH!

BTFD I used to love the fourth of July, we’d bring our visiting New York family to Shamokin, or “smokin’ shmokin” as we New Yorker’s call it, a place that has no money for town revitalization, but boy can they put on a grand pyrotechnics display! We’d park on the street, put on our 3D glasses, strap on a thermos of drinks, and open a bag of snacks. The moon roof would glide open, the seats would recline and we were ready to watch the show. Pure delectable pleasure! Ah yes, those were the days!

At present, beginning on June 1st and up to July 4th (as well as sometime there after) is a total nightmare! Seemingly fireworks can be set off at any time in the neighborhood without warning and clearly by neighbors that are not dog owners, or if they are, then they sedate them heavily before they begin! It only takes one pyrotechnics blast in the neighborhood for my brood to be set off for a continuous two hour barkfest. Once they hear the snap, crackle, pop, and sizzle of a firecracker I know it’s going to be a long, long, night.

It’s about this time of year that I wish I had gone to school to become a veterinarian because surely I would have seven medically loaded needles laid out neatly on the kitchen counter ready to knock them all out. Sweet dreams guys! But alas, when I was in school, unless you were a persistent person, the future for girls was geared to being a good secretary, a good housekeeper or a good cook and we all know where I fall in the cooking category! After my first day in culinary class when asked to touch raw meat, I said, "Adios Amigos!"

July 4Th could be somewhat bearable if there were a specific time frame that we could lall ive by, at least give us time to prepare for the upheaval, the time to tether the dogs so they are not jumping out the window, and the time to mentally prepare ourselves for what is about to come! How about starting the blasting after 9 pm and ending by 11 pm, especially on a weeknight. I'm thinking there must be some rule in place already, but if there is, it is not enforced. Let’s face it, calling the cops on your neighbors, well, that’s just not neighborly, and so we endure and just when we think it’s over, Boom, another goes off.

Enter Rescue Remedy the first big chatter among dog owners, an herb that was supposed to calm dogs from such anxieties. Rescue Remedy came in the form of drops to put in the water or in a spray to squirt on the tongue. I chose the spray since it was only the main instigator, Bentley, that I was trying to calm down at the time. The cost in an herbal store was a whopping $15.00 for a 0.35 oz bottle, but I was desperate. Armed with this in hand I couldn’t wait for the next storm or fireworks blast ‘cuz I was ready to spay Crazy Bentley’s tongue with this miracle product!

Well, that didn’t go so well, I was only able to get three out of the four recommended sprays on the tongue as Bentley paced back and forth in his usual neurotic state and it made no difference in him at all. Each time thereafter that I reached for the bottle just before a storm, Bentley got wise and my squirts started to end up on other parts of his body, like his ears, jowls, or eyes, which might explain why he started walking around like he was blind for a few days!


A couple years later along comes Melatonin, supposedly an over the counter wonder herbal delight to help dogs with thunderstorm phobia, fire works, and other anxieties.
Ah, could this be? A cure to the Fourth of July nightmare? A cure for Thunderstorm phobia?
I highly doubted it, but again, why not try it? So I got on line to Puritans Pride and as usual they had their 3 for 1 sale going on so I ordered 3 bottles and by the next week I was rolling in 360 tablets of Melatonin heaven!

When using Melatonin I suggest you use it not only on the day of the fireworks but days before to get it into their system. It did help the dogs to be a little more calm  and to calm down a bit sooner when the fireworks were over.

So this July 4th you may want to invest in a small bottle if your dog is bothered by fireworks and if it doesn't work for your dog, you can always use it for your insomnia!

Here is information on Melatonin. Always speak to your vet before trying any over the counter medication.

Melatonin and dosing information click here

You can read more on melatonin as well as other methods used for phobias here
http://www.ygrr.org/doginfo/behavior-phobia.html


Another over the counter medicine popular to use because it makes the dog drowsy is Benadryl. You can read about dosing by clicking here:


You may want to try the Thunder Shirt as well. You can find them in most pet stores.
Thunder shirt: click here

Some people will crank up the TV, turn on the AC and put cotton in the dogs ears to muffle the booming levels.
  

Dog health~ Hot Spots

Hot Spots GRRRR!”

Every spring and summer poor Chance and Steeler have to suffer with hot spots, also known as moist dermatitis. Hot spots happen when moisture stays under the fur and the skin remains wet. With all the rain we’ve had it was inevitable that it would soon come to this. The problem with hot spots is that you have to keep them clean and dry in order for them to heal, which means you have to keep the dog from constantly licking them.

Hot spots seemingly happen over night, one minute you’ve put everyone to bed and you snuggle into your own bed nice and comfy, then when you wake with the sun’s rise you notice that your dog has chewed all night long, the hair is gone, the skin is raw, and there is blood and pus in a wide spread area. Gross, I know, especially when said dog is a therapy dog. Hot spots can bring therapy visits to a dead halt. Sometimes as the wound is healing I’ll cover it with gauze so we can attend a visit, but let’s face it, no one wants to look at an ugly wound on a dog.

When people notice the bandage they always ask, “Ah, with a little pity in their voice, what happened?”

I used to explain that the dog had hot spots but not many people knew what a hot spot was so rather than trying to explain over and over again how hot spots occur I now say, “Someone thought he was a bear and they shot him!”
The general public seems to understand that a lot better and the look on their faces is priceless until they realize I’m kidding.


So, tonight I saw Chance chewing his hip area and sure enough there it was, the start of a hot spot, although it did not look very big from where I sat.
Yes! I thought, I’ve caught it early enough! And I promptly broke out the shears all the while smirking that I caught it before it got too large and ugly.

Buzz, buzz, buzz went the shears and as Chance’s hair fell off I realized I was not that lucky after all. The undercoat was kind of molded together leaving me with only one choice, a full shave down of about a four to five inch diameter.

Blasted anyhow, no therapy visits for a while. In my effort to keep this from happening to the other side of his hip, or to Steeler, I shaved them both in the hind quarters leaving only an inch of hair. If it works I’ll do it each spring. Who cares if they look part poodle!

Hot spot care: Should your pup get hot spots the best thing to do is shave the area right away, wash frequently through the day with antibacterial soap, dry well, and apply a triple antibiotic ointment on it. Use an Elizabethan collar so they can’t continuously lick it. Sometimes the hot spot is so bad that that the dog will not allow you to touch it and in that case you’ll need a vet to do the shaving and probably some oral antibiotics for a bacterial infection. The vet can also give you a bacterial spray to use rather than the rub on ointment which is much more helpful if it hurts to be touched. My other three Newfies do not get this problem each year and I believe it is because they are shaved down for pool use so the skin dries more easily.