It is official. While he is lovable, gorgeous, and wild, our Boudreaux is also neurotic, anxious, and depressed.
He has chewed himself raw at least 8 times since May and has lived in a lampshade/e-collar for the past 4 weeks straight. We’ve tried everything and it still hasn’t stopped. He goes on long romps every day where he runs to the point of all night exhaustion. He’s not bored.
We’re not sure what brought all of this on, but we think it has something to do with the fact that I can’t spend every waking hour with him. The vet diagnosed it as separation anxiety.
So today, our beloved Golden Retriever, Boudreaux is going on anti-depressants. I thought I could just stop by the vet’s office the other day to pick them up, but she said she had to order them from Long’s Pharmacy. That’s my pharmacy! My dog is going on people meds?
What’s worse is that I can’t get my insurance to cover Boudreaux’s canine medication, but if he’s on people meds I could probably put it on my Rx insurance card. But then that would affect my insurance rates.
Oh the trials and tribulations of dog ownership!
Fiona was a little messy when we first adopted her. She needed a bath and she had some ear infections. We found out that she has to have knee surgery and she’s only 2! But now she’s fine and our first born has the issues.
Let’s hope that in two weeks, after being on his anti-depressants, Boudreaux will be a different dog and will be back to his old self… like in the photo below!
Who needs kids when we have these crazies to take care of?
Speaking of kids, my adorable cousin is pregnant and she sent me this picture last night. How exciting! Who needs kids when your favorite cousin is having a little girl and you can play with her?
UPDATE: Boudreaux does not have food allergies. Many of you have left comments suggesting that this may be the issue. He has had allergy tests and all kinds of skin tests. This is most definitely a mental issue. We’re just not positive if he is having separation anxiety or if he’s having Fiona anxiety.
A friend of mine has a dog with the same problem, but he hasn’t “grown out of it”. They ended up having to take him to doggy day care during the day.
Do you have a flexible spending account or health savings account? You could probably run the meds thru that for a tax benefit.
My cat used to pull her fur out my the tufts. The vet tried to put her on anti psychotics, but my parents declined. I think she was just ticked that we got a dog.
Hey! I left you a little something on my blog 🙂
My cat did this for 2 years so i totally know what you are going through..she literally chewed off her entire fur!! it was really sad
in other news, WHERE DID YOU GET THAT DRESS OR WHEN CAN I BORROW YOURS???????????? You look HOT!!!!
Oh that is so sad about your dog! That picture of you guys is adorable!! Oh and congratulations on being an aunt!
Cute! We had one of ours on an anti-anxiety when we first got married. If we were in separate rooms, she would walk back and forth crying because she couldn’t figure out which one of us to be with! The vet said she would get used to it! And she did…
Awwwww…poor puppy! I know you can order meds online through Canada for dogs, you may want to check into it to see if it’s cheaper. I have a friend that does that. And I’ve always had this great idea that there should be designer-inspired lampshade collars to help deal with the whole look – does anything like this exist?
Oh my! I hope the meds help your dog get back to his old self soon!
Boomer(my Min-Pin) is decently behaved while my husband and I are at work, but if we don’t shut doors he loves to get into things and chew. He especially loves to chew books!
OMG-that is the saddest thing ever! Poor thing! I hope he gets better soon! (Even dogs need anti-depression meds!) 🙂
P.S. Love your new blog “makeover” 🙂
oh the poor thing. I feel for you. My pug got severe allergies when we moved to Florida. I have to drug him up every morning with benadryl. He’s my lil drug addict now. Ask him if he wants his medicine… he runs to the kitchen and waits for it. The other day I got bit by several fire ants and decided to take the same amount I give him every morning. OMG I thought i was going to fall asleep at work. no wondered he loves it so much…
I hope that your vet ruled out food as a possible culprit. Our dog developed an allergy to his food out of nowhere and we had to do a ton of research as the vets were no help since they usually sell a certain type of food in their office. Try a specialty dog-shop and see if they sell grain free food to see if it makes a difference! We heard a lot of dog-psyche problems develop from the harmful stuff they put in dog food (even “good” dog food). Just a thought since we’ve been there too. New food=new dog!
Ok can I first say that as I scrolled down I totally thought that picture was from a magazine! I love it! You look gorgeous, the dress, necklace, shoes, lovely 🙂 Poor pup and poor you and Hubs, hope he’s feeling better very soon!
While I’m sorry to hear about your dog’s need for anti-depressants [who knew dogs could go on happy pills?!?!], it does make me feel a little better to hear someone else going through the whole “separation anxiety” thing. I can totally commiserate…our pup is VERY needy right now!! Here’s hoping they both chillax ASAP!
Aw, poor thing! As another commenter mentioned, make sure your vet has eliminated food allergies. My childhood chocolate lab was so allergic to most dog foods my mom had to cook for her (barley, ground turkey and beans). That made a world of difference.
Hope your furry baby is feeling better soon!
I love the picture of your family! 🙂
P.S. I tagged you in my blog today!
You poor thing! I’m sure the meds will work and he’ll realize that you still love him just as much as ever. Like others have said, he’ll get used to the new living arrangement and be fine. Animals don’t seem to like change very much and it takes some time for them to figure out that everything is still fine + happy in their world. GOOD LUCK!
p.s. I can’t wait to see your mosaic. It was SO much fun to do!
Poor puppy… if’s it’s not one thing, it’s the other! If you have a flex account or HSA like someone mentioned above, it’s permissable to use it on your dog’s meds, assuming you get them at a regular people pharmacy and not the vet!
The beast has real bad separation anxiety as well. She freaks and can’t even begin to explain what she does to a room.
Oh, your poor pups, one needing knee surgery and the other needing anti-depressants! I hope that the meds help Boudreaux get back to normal soon.
I also agree that if your vet hasn’t already looked at food allergies, you may find that contributing. One of my parents’ dogs has horrible food allergies, and she would chew her poor paws to pieces when they bothered her.
Oh my gosh. I feel like you are telling our story. Our Golden, Dakota (who recently passed to Rainbow Bridge in August) had to be on Prozac for anxiety issues. She chewed herself raw. We had to get it at a human pharmacy and it was so EXPENSIVE! Our other Golden, Simone that we rescued is a perfectly calm, easy going dog. Her only issue is that she is old and achy.
I’m feeling for you – it is hard having a mental dog! I could tell you so many stories of nutty things that crazy dog did – especially as she got older.
I found youe blog today, great read!!
My friend had this problem, her and her husband started waking up an hour earlier and walking him every single day before work, and again before bed, and he was good as new!!
Have a great day!!!