Tuesday, May 21, 2019

A Project Hailey Fail


As you may remember, our Lee is on prozac (the generic form picked up at the human pharmacy) from about April-October every year. She is on the prozac to help her with her severe anxiety cause by fireworks and thunder. (If you have forgotten how severe, in August of 2012 she chewed her way through the wall).

She went back on it in early April. We had our first storm. Short story, I ended up asleep on the couch with the TV and lights on and she ended up in bed with the Man after almost 2 hours of stress. 

I spoke to our vet after this and we decided to try increasing her dose. He said we could double it. We increased it to see. 

The increase caused Hailey to be extra tired and she looked uncomfortable in her body (I think she just felt too stoned). After a short time, we returned her to her regular dose.  I spoke to the vet and he said we could look at an in-between dose and I said let's see.

We just got through our first long weekend of the year which means a lot of fireworks for us. While she was a bit pacy the first night, we let her out of the bedroom and she settled without any destruction. Overall she did really well. So for the time being, we will leave her meds as they are. 

15 comments:

  1. we hope the regular meds help her and there are only good news to share... hugs to you professor lee, we know you are a trooper and with your people and your phod you are in the bestest hands and paws

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  2. Hari om
    Pawhaps all that was needed was a 'booster' dose for the start of season? YAMxx

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  3. Ohhh sweet Lee I can truly identify I don't like loud noises either.
    My daughter's 2nd cat (Cali the Cornish Rex) came with unseen luggage. After a few years,
    she too was on, Buspar, a human med for anxiety/stress. It was a delicate balance for her too.
    Hugs HiC

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  4. Did you ever try the Frankincense essential oil on her? On some dogs it does nothing but for Abby it's the only thing to mellow her out during thunderstorms. She's like stoned dog 30 minutes after I rub 2-3 drops on her head and chest.

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  5. We have our paws crossed that the meds continue to help Hailey during the summer months.

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  6. my friend has the same issue with one of her five dogs, a Malanoi Shepherd. she has a knock out pill for weekends like the one coming up. I can't remember what it is. she also uses a thunder shirt. poor sweet Hailey. Big is scared but as long as one of us gets up and sits on the sofa, he lays under our legs in a tight hole between the ottoman and sofa bottom. not as bad as Lee...I see someone said frankincense oil. wow, did not know about that.

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  7. It seems we're hearing about a lot of our blogger friends having problems with thunder storms and stuff. Hopefully Lee will feel better soon.

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  8. Oh we do hope Hailey settles down and manages without having to take too much of the Prozac.
    Too bad you don't live in Scotland, where thunderstorms are rare.

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  9. Poor Hailey. Finding the right dosing can be very difficult. Here's hoping Hailey will be able to handle the crazy weather.

    Woos - Lightning, Misty, and Timber

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  10. Hope the in-between dosing does the trick. Some bloggers have been talking about a natural product, I think it may be cannabis based that seems to be doing wonderful things for their dog's anxiety.

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  11. We hope you can find a dose that works best for Hailey. Zoey has been on prozac for years...now just a very low dose.

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  12. It is heartbreaking to have a dog suffer from thunderstorms or fireworks anxiety. Bentley has suffered for years and we tried all sorts of remedies. Luckily, we discovered CBD chews and oil. It is nothing short of a miracle for him. I became an affiliate because it worked so well. LOL!

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  13. I knew a dog who had to medication for anxiety but the strange thing I notice he would look up stove fan when a storm was coming in.
    Coffee is on

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  14. I hate fireworks too, Hailey, and thunderstorms too. If more works better - go for it!

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  15. So often anxiety strategies require some adjustments. Sounds like you've got it. Good luck through this wretched time of year. I think I hate fireworks more than the dogs do.

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