➡I accidentally bought Balut eggs: 2 live ducks! Now a Chat Thread!

[Tesumph]

I need this for my dogs. It's getting so bad that whenever it even starts to rain, they're shaking because they expect booms to come next. My dogs are pitiful.

Theia gets full body tremors. She’ll also drool, hyperventilate, pace, and cling to the nearest human for dear life. It sounds cute but it’s really not when you’re trying to sleep or get stuff done, and this will last for several hours before and after it actually rains.
She can’t even hear you when she gets going.. you could shout her name and she can’t or won’t react in that state. It’s very debilitating. She’s held her pee in for 48 hours once during a rainy week.

It starts long before the weatherman says it’s going to rain. I suspect she feels the atmospheric pressure change.
She’ll even start to panic if you flash a flashlight in the rhythm of lightning. It’s bad. I try to gently desensitize her but it’s really hard when her trigger threshold is so low.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Theia gets full body tremors. She’ll also drool, hyperventilate, pace, and cling to the nearest human for dear life. It sounds cute but it’s really not when you’re trying to sleep or get stuff done, and this will last for several hours before and after it actually rains.
She can’t even hear you when she gets going.. you could shout her name and she can’t or won’t react in that state. It’s very debilitating. She’s held her pee in for 48 hours once during a rainy week.

It starts long before the weatherman says it’s going to rain. I suspect she feels the atmospheric pressure change.
She’ll even start to panic if you flash a flashlight in the rhythm of lightning. It’s bad. I try to gently desensitize her but it’s really hard when her trigger threshold is so low.

Aww poor baby! That definitely sounds awful and extremely debilitating! Have you tried any meds with her or you don’t want to go that route? Sounds bad enough she may need them :/

 

[Tesumph]

My daughter is quite allergic to cats. Her boyfriend loves cats and would like to be able to have a cat some day. I told her about the hairless ones. she showed him a pic of one and told him, this is the only cat I can own, if you ever want a cat. He had never seen one before and was quite shocked at the photo lol.

I said the same thing to hubby.
I’m allergic to cats, which is obviously a problem going into veterinary medicine. I’m trying to convince him that we need to get one so I can desensitize myself... lol.

I’ve read that white cats have less allergens than others. Short or no hair is obviously important too.

 

[CrazyCrttr75]

Theia gets full body tremors. She’ll also drool, hyperventilate, pace, and cling to the nearest human for dear life. It sounds cute but it’s really not when you’re trying to sleep or get stuff done, and this will last for several hours before and after it actually rains.
She can’t even hear you when she gets going.. you could shout her name and she can’t or won’t react in that state. It’s very debilitating. She’s held her pee in for 48 hours once during a rainy week.

It starts long before the weatherman says it’s going to rain. I suspect she feels the atmospheric pressure change.
She’ll even start to panic if you flash a flashlight in the rhythm of lightning. It’s bad. I try to gently desensitize her but it’s really hard when her trigger threshold is so low.

Omgosh! Poor girl! And poor you as well! Hopefully you'll find something that will work to ease her anxiety. My littlest dog Marley (jack russell/chihuahua) will get the full body tremors. My other girl, Maggie (pit/lab) just wants to hide under a desk where you are sitting or find a dark spot in the hallway. My boy, Buster (lab/pyrenees) , either tries climbing up in your lap or laying under/on top of your feet under your desk. And yeah, I believe they can feel the atmospheric pressure change. My Buster always starts reacting earlier before any rain gets here.

 

[Tesumph]

Aww poor baby! That definitely sounds awful and extremely debilitating! Have you tried any meds with her or you don’t want to go that route? Sounds bad enough she may need them :/

Medication is the only thing we haven’t tried. I’m not opposed to it, I just feel like she’s SO bad that it would only be masking a bigger problem.
She also gets upset when she mistakes a plane overhead or the sound of a wheeling garbage bin for thunder. She heard a plane 10 minutes ago and she’s still smacking her lips (her first “warning sign” that she’s getting anxious).

Right now we’re managing it with a thunder shirt and her soft body crate. She goes in the crate when she gets really bad, or when we’re trying to sleep. It stops her from pacing and getting stepped on (she’ll glue herself to your feet); as long as she can see us she will somewhat settle.

I will probably ask about getting some medication just to have on hand. I don’t want to drug her multiple times a week, but it would be nice to have in case of a tropical storm or hurricane.
I’m 100% positive she would’ve starved herself for a week if she had been here for Harvey.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I said the same thing to hubby.
I’m allergic to cats, which is obviously a problem going into veterinary medicine. I’m trying to convince him that we need to get one so I can desensitize myself... lol.

I’ve read that white cats have less allergens than others. Short or no hair is obviously important too.

I think desensitizing can work but it depends how bad your allergy is. I’m technically supposed to be allergic to cats and dogs as is one of my brothers but we’ve always had both!! And I outgrew it. My brother is still pretty badly allergic and gets stuffy/sick when he comes home from the cat hair. That said, we used to have a short hair cat before Luna and was fine but I still haven’t fully gotten over Luna and get irritated when her fur gets in my face/eyes/nose, and it’s been 9 years so it depends. She is long hair. I was fine with the short hair cat. And completely 110% fine with dogs!! Even when I hug/bury my face in fluffy dogs. So completely got over the dog one or was never allergic. Still iffy on the cat haha and I’m starting to wonder if some of my sinus troubles aren’t also related to the cat haha cause I’m better when I go away. That said, sometimes it’s the saliva or dander that causes problems in addition or instead of just the fur. So even with a hairless cat, you could still be allergic to the saliva!

And there are actually cats that are supposed to be allergic friendly and not have a certain protein or allergen or something in the fur even some long haired cats. I think the Siberian is one but I’m not sure.

Course it also depends if the dogs would eat a cat or not.

 

[Tesumph]

Omgosh! Poor girl! And poor you as well! Hopefully you'll find something that will work to ease her anxiety. My littlest dog Marley (jack russell/chihuahua) will get the full body tremors. My other girl, Maggie (pit/lab) just wants to hide under a desk where you are sitting or find a dark spot in the hallway. My boy, Buster (lab/pyrenees) , either tries climbing up in your lap or laying under/on top of your feet under your desk. And yeah, I believe they can feel the atmospheric pressure change. My Buster always starts reacting earlier before any rain gets here.

It was very very frustrating when we first adopted her. There were nights when none of us got any sleep.
One of the first things we tried was locking her in the laundry (no windows, no lightning) with loud fans on (no thunder).
She started full on body slamming herself into the door and wouldn’t stop no matter what we tried. It was a horrible night lol. The softbody crate was the best decision I’ve made.

Meanwhile Triumph literally couldn’t care less.
While Theia is having a full blown panic attack, he’ll stroll outside with thunder cracking all around and do his business in the middle of the downpour. Come back inside like a sopping wet sponge wondering what all the fuss is about.

 

[Tesumph]

Omgosh! Poor girl! And poor you as well! Hopefully you'll find something that will work to ease her anxiety. My littlest dog Marley (jack russell/chihuahua) will get the full body tremors. My other girl, Maggie (pit/lab) just wants to hide under a desk where you are sitting or find a dark spot in the hallway. My boy, Buster (lab/pyrenees) , either tries climbing up in your lap or laying under/on top of your feet under your desk. And yeah, I believe they can feel the atmospheric pressure change. My Buster always starts reacting earlier before any rain gets here.

There’s evidence that some dogs can feel actual electric shocks from the storm in the air. Some of them will hide in grounded areas, like behind the toilet or in the bathtub.
I mean geez, if I could feel that I’d freak out too.

I’ve seen dogs that get explosive diarrhea and sprint through the house during storms.
Saw a dog that busted through a window and needed stitches.
Could be worse I guess lol.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Medication is the only thing we haven’t tried. I’m not opposed to it, I just feel like she’s SO bad that it would only be masking a bigger problem.
She also gets upset when she mistakes a plane overhead or the sound of a wheeling garbage bin for thunder. She heard a plane 10 minutes ago and she’s still smacking her lips (her first “warning sign” that she’s getting anxious).

Right now we’re managing it with a thunder shirt and her soft body crate. She goes in the crate when she gets really bad, or when we’re trying to sleep. It stops her from pacing and getting stepped on (she’ll glue herself to your feet); as long as she can see us she will somewhat settle.

I will probably ask about getting some medication just to have on hand. I don’t want to drug her multiple times a week, but it would be nice to have in case of a tropical storm or hurricane.
I’m 100% positive she would’ve starved herself for a week if she had been here for Harvey.

That makes total sense and I completely understand where you’re coming from! And you definitely don’t want to be having a permanently drugged dog or masking a bigger problem but that said, I do think that the medicine could actually potentially help for training purposes too. It might help to take the edge off so that you can continue to work on desensitizing her without her totally freaking out, you know? I think it might help her to really progress because she will be better able to focus on you and the training/progressing/learning that it’s not scary without her body backfiring on her and sending all these unnecessary fear signals. And then maybe you can eventually take her off of it or wean off but I do think it would be a good stepping stool to help move forward with the training and start making more progress or finally have a breakthrough or whatever. Obviously you don’t want to have her on it forever or full time but I do really think it could be a great stepping stool and start for her. Even if she was just on it for like a couple weeks or a month or something while you work on training and then after that only as needed or something. Maybe on a low dose at first so she’s not like “drugged” but enough to calm her down, take the edge off, and make progress?

But that said, it does seem like you are making some pretty good progress already with the thunder shirt and crate! Glad that is working out. Does she seem to have calmed down a bit or made some progress since she’s been there with you guys? Seems like she has? That’s good if so.

I do think it might be a little easier to train her though or I guess reach her without her getting to that state you said she gets which is where I think meds could help her but obviously not necessary and I don’t normally advocate drugging dogs and definitely not every dog but in this case, where you say her threshold is so low, and she gets in such a state she won’t hear you, that they could be helpful for her. Because obviously training in that state is nearly impossible and there’s not going to be much learning going on when the dog is that wired.

Although that said, have you tried any CBD products with her? That might be another thing that might be able to take the edge off a bit without having to resort to drugs.

Also, how much exercise does she get? I’m sure you know this already but sometimes upping the exercise can really help anxious dogs too. Although of course in her case she’s severe enough I don’t think it would do much but still, you never know.

Or even possibly trying to let her get some intense exercise/running in and get her really tired before trying to train and desensitize? That might help too because she will be too tired to be anxious lol

Sorry, I am sure you know or have tried most of these already. But just trying to be helpful hah

 

[ShrekDawg]

It was very very frustrating when we first adopted her. There were nights when none of us got any sleep.
One of the first things we tried was locking her in the laundry (no windows, no lightning) with loud fans on (no thunder).
She started full on body slamming herself into the door and wouldn’t stop no matter what we tried. It was a horrible night lol. The softbody crate was the best decision I’ve made.

Meanwhile Triumph literally couldn’t care less.
While Theia is having a full blown panic attack, he’ll stroll outside with thunder cracking all around and do his business in the middle of the downpour. Come back inside like a sopping wet sponge wondering what all the fuss is about.

There’s evidence that some dogs can feel actual electric shocks from the storm in the air. Some of them will hide in grounded areas, like behind the toilet or in the bathtub.
I mean geez, if I could feel that I’d freak out too.

I’ve seen dogs that get explosive diarrhea and sprint through the house during storms.
Saw a dog that busted through a window and needed stitches.
Could be worse I guess lol.

Oh wow that sounds awful!!! Ew omg lol glad she is not worse and glad she seems to be making some progress at least!!

And that’s so interesting about them feeling it. I’d be terrified if I could feel the storm!

And man, Goldens are so awesome haha always so chill!! Course I’ve known Goldens that get anxiety over thunder storms too but still. They’re so sweet and chill usually.