Anyone who has ever had bloat or torsion occur in their dogs should know that it can happen more than once, even after surgery to “prevent” this from happening again (see “What Promotes Bloat?” January 2005) .
I have a five-year-old, 136-pound Rottweiler, in excellent condition and very firm and trim for his weight. In August 2004, after just arriving home from the normal vet visit, Micah drank a large amount of water, then had his normal one cup of kibble. Within minutes, he started to vomit. Nothing came up, and right before my eyes his stomach started to swell. After a quick call to the emergency clinic and my vet, and an immediate trip to the clinic, he was in surgery for bloat and torsion. They tacked his stomach – “so this would not happen again” – and he came home the next day.
Five months after his first surgery, Micah bloated again. I rushed him to the vet, and they rushed him into surgery. Later, they sent Micah to Cornell University’s vet clinic due to his grave condition. He was in intensive care for eight days. The vets at Cornell told us that 95 percent of dogs never have torsion twice. Micah did.
Be on the look out for bloat and torsion, even if your dog has had a surgical procedure to prevent it from occurring again.
Gloria Treen and Katy O’Hora
via e-mail
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Crates and S.A.
I was disappointed by “Crate Difficulties” (May 2005). I am a longtime dog owner/trainer. My dogs have always been crate/kennel-trained. I found your advise not to crate panicky dogs a cop-out and potentially an excuse for owners who have reached their limits with a dog that has separation anxiety (SA) to send them packing to a shelter or worse – the streets! I realize that the article was not about how to crate-train, it was about how to help dogs find contentment in their crates. For SA-stricken companions, this is sometimes possible – not always, but sometimes. I have found the following simple steps to assist a dog with SA:
• Move the crate into a more central location where the family “action” is occurring (i.e., the kitchen), then place your puppy/dog inside with the door closed. While inconvenient for you to have to maneuver around, a few sessions of you preparing dinner or watching TV or folding the clothes while talking to the animal to keep her calm will allow the animal to understand that this is not a bad place.
• As the dog gets used to being inside, then the door may be left open so that the dog may enter/exit on will. Dogs like having a protected place to lie in while observing and being “near enough” to their humans.
• Crates can be progressively moved to less-chaotic areas of the house, but should never ever be in an isolated area and should always be available for the dog to take a nap.
• Dogs with SA often have a strong connection with their humans based on smell. The placement of a smelly piece of clothing into the cage can often work as not only an encouragement but a comforter.
• There are some pheromone-based solutions that come in a “plug-in” type form that are supposed to calm the dog.
Cathy Trent
Chester, NY
Training Editor and article author Pat Miller responds:
It has been my experience, however, that most dogs with full-blown separation anxiety cannot tolerate being crated, and that it takes far more than the simple steps you describe to help them accept close confinement. In most cases of serious SA, the anxiety disorder must be addressed before the dog can be crated. In those cases, crating is likely to exacerbate the dog’s panic and make the SA worse.
There’s a tendency in today’s dog world to overdiagnose SA. Dogs who are mildly stressed about being alone, or those who become destructive when alone due to lack of house manners, can benefit greatly from crating, and it was not at all my intention to discourage crating for such dogs. My apologies if I seemed to do so. Rather, I encourage owners of dogs with destructive behavior and/or mild anxieties to try crating.
I do stand by my position, however, that it’s inappropriate to crate dogs with a serious panic disorder, unless and until their anxiety is considerably lessened. I’ve seen dogs with serious SA who lost teeth from trying to chew their way out of a crate, and others who reduced their paws to bloody messes trying to dig out of a crate; nothing is to be gained by persisting in crating a dog with a panic disorder this strong.
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When It’s Not C.R.F.
I can’t express how much new information I have gleaned off the pages of WDJ. Your most recent article (“Not So Fast,” June 2005) has really put my mind at ease and answered many questions that my vet did not concerning kidney disease. Here is my experience:
About three years ago, my Lab, Lexis (then six years old), went into what I thought was depression (her playmate had recently died). The vet did a complete blood test and physical and the blood test came up with extremely high BUN. Right away my vet said Lexis had kidney failure and an infection somewhere. He prescribed antibiotics and a bag of Hill’s k/d (kidney diet).
I took her back about a week later for another blood test and an ultrasound. The blood test showed the BUN levels going down. We continued with the k/d and finished the antibiotic. About another two weeks later we did another blood test and everything was normal.
I started having second thoughts about the prescription food and six months later I weaned her off it. Again I took her to the vet for another checkup and all her blood levels were very good. Only then did I tell the vet that I had taken her off the k/d!
It’s now been almost three years since her initial diagnosis and everything is still good. She still gets blood tests every six months just to be sure no other problems arise. I am now convinced that she had some kind of renal or urinary infection, not renal failure, since she bounced back to her old self quickly.
Erika Reising
via e-mail
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Hypothyroidism
Your recent article on hypothyroidism (“Help for Hypothyroidism,” June 2005) deserves recognition. As a certified dog trainer dealing primarily with aggression cases, I found your article to be the most complete and informative that I have ever seen. I have collected information on medical issues that contribute to behavior problems (especially the hypothyroidism issue) for years. This article clearly put together the threads of information that have been “out there” for years in bits and pieces. I am passing this article on to the vets that I work closely with.
Julie Winkelman
Alpha Canine Academy, Durango, CO
Your article on hypothyroidism was almost a case study of Bari, our Golden Retriever. Through our own discovery of Dr. Jean Dodds via the Internet, we had him properly diagnosed with hypothyroidism in 2001 at age 21 months. Through daily thyroid medication, constant counter-conditioning, and daily medication for his seizures, we have an almost-normal dog. As your article mentioned, most vets don’t have a clue about aggressive behavior and its relationship to this disease.
We have been long-time subscribers of WDJ and in the early days scoured every issue from top to bottom in hopes for information like this. Even though the article wasn’t timely for us, the article will, I hope, help others like us that are currently looking for answers.
Nancy and John Evenden
via e-mail
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Vaccinations
Having lived with a vaccine-damaged dog for the past seven years, it breaks my heart to see or hear of people who willingly and unthinkingly vaccinate their dogs every year for their lifetimes, never thinking twice about the chronic diseases that may crop up in later life from the practice.
I am especially glad that you made the point that vaccinations are not for dogs who are not in prime health or who are elderly. Why is it that veterinarians don’t get this point and insist on foisting potentially dangerous vaccines on a dog whose immune system is already being challenged by health or age issues?
I do have one slight correction. Under your sidebar (“Opposed to All Vaccines?”) you state that “every state requires dogs and cats to be vaccinated against rabies.” Actually, at least one state leaves that decision up to local municipalities, cities, counties, etc., and does not have state laws requiring rabies vaccination.
Here in Ohio, there is no state law requiring rabies vaccination for dogs. The rabies vaccine is recommended but it is not required by Ohio state law. County or town governments may require rabies vaccinations, based on the recommendations of the local public health officials.
I have an elderly Dane who has seizures following vaccinations, and it took me a long time to find a vet who would admit that the rabies vaccine was not required by Ohio and “let” me not vaccinate my old dog.
Tammy Kinkade, Eyota Danes
Ohio
Thanks for your letter. We were not aware there were any states that do not require current rabies vaccines for all dogs. We’ve been trying to confirm whether there are any other states with laws that leave it up to local public health officials. We’ll let you know what we learn.
