In my continuing efforts to get Henry to be comfortable when I leave him in the crate, I’ve been feeding him in the crate, playing with him in the crate, and having him sleep in the crate nightly for over a month now with nothing negative associated with it. Slowly, I’ve been going outside while he’s in the crate — to the mailbox, to water the landscaping, to pick veggies in the garden, so on and so forth.
On Saturday morning, I left him in the crate with his breakfast and walked to the end of the block and back.
He didn’t eat breakfast for three days. I can only imagine that it’s because he was afraid that once he started, I’d leave and not come back. *facepalm*
Two weeks later, we finally got Henry’s tooth out of his head. The poor thing. He’s had to go two weeks with this
But! The cool part? THE VET SAVED IT FOR ME! Oh my god, cool.
(I’m such a nerd.)
In all it's gory glory. Only the right 1/4 or so is normally exposed.
For the veterinary nerds, that’s tooth #204, the upper left canine. I didn’t realize how far it normally sits inside his jaw. (He’s gotta feel like he just lost three rounds with a mack truck right now.) The vet also said
For everyone else, this is why it needed to come out. Check out the fracture. The purple/red spot near the tip is the root of the tooth, and you can see where the outer enamel fractured off.
Root and enamel fracture
Poor guy. He’s lived with that for the past two weeks.
Henry’s going under for an extraction next Wednesday after he broke his #204 canine (upper left) when attempting to bust out of his crate. For the near future, days when I might need to crate him are definitely ‘work from home’ days. We couldn’t do the extraction right away because his CBC showed a high white blood cell count — which a physical exam confirmed. His stomach was a bit distended, hot, and grumbly. It probably would’ve gone unnoticed otherwise, but anesthesia would have been a huge risk with the infection like that. This is why you always pay for the pre-surgery blood panel! Every time!
In the meantime, he’s not enjoying life that much. I’m soaking his food and trying to make life as pleasant as possible for him. He WANTS to chew on stuff, but his mouth hurts too bad for it most of the time.
After deciding he needed a ‘job’ … I’m hoping to start volunteering with a local volunteer search and rescue team. They provide resources for people who think they have dogs who would fit in; considering that he’s bred to track and hunt and he ‘tracks’ here in the neighborhood on walks (not to mention tracks where I go and tries to follow me through doors and walls…) I think he’d be well-suited seeing as he’s already mastering most aspects of off leash obedience. If not, the volunteering will still be worthy for me and I’ll gain a lot of training knowledge from people who have to work with and lead their dogs.
I took Henry off of Prozac about four weeks ago since he was showing signs of no longer needing it.
Last week, he flipped out and tore up the miniblinds in the front of the house, all his stuffed toys, and some rags that were piled outside the laundry room. Ok, I can deal with that… we’ll just go back to crating him. Yesterday, he tore the door of his crate *inwards*. It’s not supposed to swing that way.
Today, he flipped out inside his crate, and left a giant puddle of drool. He also seems to have fractured the tip of another of his canine teeth, although there’s no blood or root showing. I’ll drag him out to the vet for a look-see at his tooth in the morning, but he’s definitely going back on the prozac.
Poor psychodog.
I received word today that Henry’s former owner has been paralyzed from the neck down due to an injury he received while doing a jackass-quality dare at a party.
Best wishes for his recovery. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I feel very bad for secretly (or not so secretly) feeling a bit of renewed faith in karma…
As spring has sprung, Henry seems to have come out of whatever shell he was in. I can’t explain it other than that … he still won’t stay in the crate for very long (and I still can’t figure out how he’s getting out), but other than that he’s a different dog entirely.
Gone are many of the unreasonable nervous “flashes” that once characterized his behavior. He’s still shy, but he’s not automatically anxious. He doesn’t beg. He doesn’t prance in place when he can’t make up his mind. He’ll engage Eowyn in play and chase her in toys, and he’s properly submissive to her when she demands it, and challenging at other times … not automatically freaked the heck out like he used to be. It’s an interesting change, and I don’t know how to define it otherwise.
The downside: I can’t turn my back on him sometimes. He’s downright CLEVER about raiding the compost pile, filching things off the countertop that might be good to chew on, and finding things to eat that aren’t for doggies. (Now if he’d just play with his toys and leave he stuff on the counter alone…)
I’ve been reducing his prozac dose over the past month or two, but haven’t had time to do much with either Henry or Eo because my work schedule has been ratcheted up and I’ve had garden and other chores to do every minute. Since he seems to have come out of his shell somewhat, I’ve taken him off of the prozac entirely as of last Saturday … we’ll see what happens. Maybe my long, dark, psychodoggy night is over!
Last night, Henry stole a >= 2lbs package of chicken off of the countertop while I was putting the garbage out to the curb and chatting with the neighbors. He’d consumed the entire thing by the time I got back in.
That lump in the middle? That’s not usually there. That’s chicken.
The funniest part was watching Eowyn watch him. She had this look on her face that said, “I think you’re stuffed with chicken. I have a taste for chicken.” Henry wanted to sleep so bad, but he was trying to sleep with one eye open so that he could see if Eo decided to investigate the chicken more closely.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t contain himself today and ended up pooping in the kennel before I got home from work. On the bright side, he didn’t freak out about it as far as I can tell, any more than would be expected from any other dog. The crate is still even intact. He’s been bathed, the crate’s been cleaned, his toys are in the wash machine and he’s snoring (loudly) by my bed. No doubt dreaming of a world that’s made entirely out of chicken breasts.
… So here’s a picture of a sleeping puppy.
… And here’s a picture of a puppy that WAS asleep before his owner took a picture about three inches from his face with a very large flash.
Yeah, I’m a mean one. Mr. Grinch.
I clicked into this link about human grade dog food from Dolittler and it immediately struck a chord with me: My vets displayed the same confusion when I mentioned that I was feeding Wellness Simple to Henry, and the diet change had cleared up his major digestive tract problem. They’d never heard of it, and didn’t know it existed. They couldn’t tell me if baked or pressed kibble was better for a dog, they couldn’t recommend similar products or even understand why I was paying more than $30 for a 50 lbs bag. In fact, my vets didn’t know any details about any food besides the Science Diet that they carry in the store.
I completely understand why that is. Veterinary students are bombarded with Hill’s advertisements and get free food from Hill’s, Purina, and several other manufacturers through their entire time in veterinary school. When they’re out of veterinary school, Hill’s keeps their clinic stocked with anything they could need and don’t put a lot of demands on the vet. They also are sometimes the only supplier of the specialized prescription diets that some pets need… and those foods, in many cases, are the only thing that will work in a particular case. Why would they bother learning anything else
Luckily, my vet is awesome and has invited me to share some of my food research with him. He also examined Henry’s stool before and after … on many occasions, as we were troubleshooting things! … and agreed with me that it really was the good food that helped him come as far as he has. If you’re feeding good food and you haven’t talked to your vet about the benefits, I encourage you to do so.
Henry’s independence has continued to grow over the past week or so. Exercise has helped him (and me) and having Eo under better control has helped both of them. There hasn’t been food involved, but they haven’t gotten aggressive except during playtime in a while.
Eo, by the way, is pretty much “healed” from the surgery, and now we need to start the physical therapy recovery process. I’m allowing her to be mobile but keeping her on Tramadol for the time being so that she can get used to moving around again without constant pain. I’d like to start
I dropped Henry’s prozac dose from 55mg/day to 40mg/day last week. This week, Henry has wet his crate two or three times, but that used to be a twice-a-day thing. It’s not. His water consumption is up, which means that he’s probably stressed during the day. There aren’t any chew marks on the inside of the crate as far as I can tell, though.
As Henry becomes more independent and in general happier, we’re having to train some things that previously came natural. For instance, off-leash heeling. He comes well when called (because he knows he gets a treat, duh!) and will generally stay close, but without the ever present anxiety if he gets too far from me, his hound dog nose will now sometimes take over and he’ll get lost in la-la land. I might have to train a heel. Other than that, the basics of the obedience stuff that Jennie taught me have stuck even though I’ve been horrible about practicing them while I’ve been out working on the garden.