Let's play a game- who has the most high maintenan

[puppiesandrainbows]

I guess I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and want to vent. Feel free to chime in with your story, and whoever wins the most votes gets our unending sympathy and official "queen mommy martyr" status. Disclaimer - of course it goes without saying that we love them and they're worth it, but it can get overwhelming sometimes.

I've had Hoss for a year. He is a yellow lab/golden retriever mix.

Hoss has bad food allergies. He cannot have any product or by product of chicken or turkey. He's also very allergic to grains, corn, rice, and now I'm suspecting peas too. Do you have any idea what a nightmare it is trying to find him food?! If he has these foods he breaks out in oozing/bleeding sores, scratches himself bloody, gets yeast infections in his ears, and if I'm super lucky, a UTI too. Prednisone is the only thing that calms this down.

He's also allergic to the environment. He has a bad reaction to Zyrtec, and Claritin isn't working that great, so we're on the hunt for a 3rd allergy med. Benadryl does nothing for him. He's allergic to grass, but he's so itchy he rolls in the grass to scratch, which covers him in the allergens...you get the idea. He chews his paws from it so I have to wash his paws with baby wipes when he comes in from outside to keep him from chewing raw spots on them.

He has a chronic UTI condition that we *just* got under control after dealing with it for months. ::knock on wood::. I only spent $1300 on vet visits, medicine, X-rays and ultrasounds. What finally did it was 30 days of antibiotics, prescription urinary acidifiers, a cranberry powdered supplement to treat the high pH and struvite crystals, and a special water fountain to encourage him to drink.

The X-rays revealed that his spine is a hot mess, and that he's closer to 5 yrs old ( instead of 3). The vet said he has severe spondylosis of his spine. He's a little stiff sometimes now, but the vet said eventually he's going to be in a lot of pain and other than giving him pain meds there's nothing they can do.

He has bad anxiety. I got him as a foster before formally adopting him. They said he was around 2 yrs old, and his *entire life* before I got him he lived in shelters and boarding. He had never even been inside a house until I brought him home. As you can imagine, he had some behavioral issues, like not knowing commands, not knowing how to take a treat, etc, but those are mostly resolved. He goes to daycare to work on his social skills.

However, now that he has it so good, he's terrified it's going to go away. He follows me constantly and is velcro'd to my legs. If I make a tiny move he leaps up off the floor like someone jabbed him with a pin, in a panic lest I move five feet away. He refuses to go potty unless I'm standing outside with him. He pants, paces, obsessively grooms himself, and checks on me all night long to make sure I haven't left my bed. He's so anxious he wouldn't play with the other dogs at daycare, but since he's started Prozac that has improved a bit. He's on meds, plus I'm implementing training, Rescue Remedy and a Thundershirt to help, but I think he needs a behaviorist. I would love to get him a sister to see if it would help his anxiety, so I took in a foster dog for a week. She was a small 40lb very submissive sweet lab mix. I thought Hoss was going to lose his mind. He aggressively resource guarded me, and nipped her and bullied her constantly. The final straw was when he nipped me on the elbow for petting her. I gave her to a different foster for her own safety.

Due to his food allergies, his food options are severely limited. Avoderm ($47/bag) was his last resort after his Nature's domain made him very sick during the pet food recall. He now has a case of hot spots, leading me to believe he's allergic to peas too (peas are very similar to corn) and if so I don't think I'll have any other choice but to cook him food. I've searched endlessly and I can't find food that is free of poultry, grains, corn, rice and peas. Cooking food for a 105lb dog that can't have cheap chicken is a daunting and expensive task. Then when you add in his cranberry supplement for his UTI issue, glucosamine and chondroitin for his spine, allergy meds for his environmental allergies, Rescue Remedy and Prozac for anxiety, and the high cost of his heartworm/flea meds due to his weight....his daily food and meds alone are eating my fun money.

It's been an exhausting, stressful and very expensive year. It can only get better, right?

[redheadbaker]

Sorry -- I think DougsMom wins, hands-down.

[puppiesandrainbows]

She needs to come in and post, I'm not familiar with the back story.

[straymo]

Yes, Doug's mom will probably win.

I could have won this if it was 2 years ago. At the time, Tillie, our senior at the time, was in remission from Cushings disease. She had weakness in her backside which caused her to not have control over her bowels. Poop came whenever and wherever and our house was covered in small fleece blankets which made things easier to clean up.

We had to keep an eye on Max during this period because he was conveniently a poop-eater. Tillie also was showing signs of dementia and we had to take special care to keep her world small and consistent. Meds helped with most symtoms a lot. The dementia also caused another issue. Her brain was unable to communicate with her bladder and she was unable to pee on her own. She had special meds that allowed me to express her bladder several times a day.

Oh and during all this, we had Lily who has severe separation anxiety and panic disorder. She was further stressed over our stress about Tillie and would have set backs in her treatment.

At this point, I think I've got it pretty good though. Max is happy, although dx with EPI - a disease in which he can't digest food on his own and would starve to death untreated. He continues to mark all around Lily's crate and food dish. Lily is doing well in her anxiety/panic and despite her pissy little brother.

[darkling_glory]

Puppiesandrainbows -- can you try hydroxizine for the anti-histamine? It's prescription and not super expensive.

As for the pred, you can try either Atopica (cyclosporine) or Temaril-P instead of using pred constantly. Both have their own issues or side-effects but they also have their benefits. If you have a doggie dermatologist near you, I'd go see one.

And for food, have you considered cooking for him? You can make a big batch up at the beginning of the week and it's really not much work. Google around for more info about it, but it would probably be less stressful and less expensive than the pricey dog food I bet you're buying.

Good luck! I have an allergy dog too, so I know what you're going through!

[dougthedogsmom]

Are you guys talking about me and my little angel?

Highlights include: ability to open doors and trash cans, helps himself to ice from the ice dispenser on the fridge, hugs everyone who comes or goes, screams bloody murder in the car, can unbuckle himself from his seatbelt, has allergies, has awful thunder/firework anxiety, is more persistent than just about any person or animal, poses and smiles for pictures, likes to pee on people, can open fence gates, has attended: school dance, AA meeting, blood drive all on his own, audible farts, has the ability to remember things for ridiculously long periods of time, the list never ends

Not sure what he was planning on doing with it, but I found a $20.00 bill in his crate yesterday. I was tucked under his bed.

[straymo]

Jul 6, 2012 10:04:22 GMT -5 dougthedogsmom said:

Are you guys talking about me and my little angel?

Highlights include: ability to open doors and trash cans, helps himself to ice from the ice dispenser on the fridge, hugs everyone who comes or goes, screams bloody murder in the car, can unbuckle himself from his seatbelt, has allergies, has awful thunder/firework anxiety, is more persistent than just about any person or animal, poses and smiles for pictures, likes to pee on people, can open fence gates, has attended: school dance, AA meeting, blood drive all on his own, audible farts, has the ability to remember things for ridiculously long periods of time, the list never ends

Not sure what he was planning on doing with it, but I found a $20.00 bill in his crate yesterday. I was tucked under his bed.

Oh I miss Doug stories. PLUS, he looks great in any outfit. Maybe he was going to buy himself a speedo for swimming with his $20.

[dougthedogsmom]

Straymo- he would need doggles for his speedo too. I want to see if I can get him to do some dock diving. I think he is a natural, but it could just be a repeat of Flyball.

He has been pretty mellow lately though. I think a lot of his energy has been going into his Jedi levitation skills for getting food off of our plates and into his mouth. One of these days.....

[osulori]

Omg E...I love Doug. OP, as far as high maintenance dogs go, though, your Hoss is definitely up there! My Eddie isn't particularly high maintenance by comparison, but does have to have his prepuce (the skin surrounding the penis, aka red rocket) flushed out 1x/month, ears cleaned a couple of times a month, just recently was able to make it the whole 5 min trip to the vet and 5 mins back home without puking in the car (though he still has to ride in the passenger seat, which is an improvement over his prior insistence of riding with me in the driver's seat), and is on Prozac for anxiety (plus Thundershirt as needed) and Allegra (generic-fexofenadine) for allergies. We give him 60 mg/day, and its worked out pretty well if you need a different allergy med.

Oh, and he gets a spoonful of Welactin on his food at dinnertime to keep the random thin hair spots at bay and keep his coat looking nice and shiny (and not pathetic like he used to).

In the past, he has eaten multiple pairs of my clean underwear and the crotches out of one pair of running shorts, one pair of Nike workout capris, and my favorite jeans (also all clean). He also used to demand bark at me for no reason, but a couple of rounds with the spray bottle curbed that little behavior real fast.

Oh, and we have to put a big kong in his food dish when we feed him so that he slows down juuuust a touch and doesnt choke on his food :$

[kellbell191]

Darwin had the same allergies and separation anxiety when we got him. He eats only natural balance: he can have duck and potato, bison and potato or venison and potato. For treats he gets raw veggies or PB or duck jerky. He takes zyrtec but it took us a year or two to find his best medication. Separation anxiety we used the DAP collar and NILF, but its completely resolved since we adopted his dog sister. Hang in there, it took us about a year to get into a healthy routine for him on what he can eat, where he can go, etc and he's been great since. He has really bad environmental allergies but they come and go. he was sneezing blood the other day which was a really pricey 4 am e vet visit.

Our difficulty comes from a combination of the fosters and residents. Sam has feline herpes and has to take lysine every day. he is obsessed with being on the kitchen counters and racked up major vet bills b.c. he has a grain allergy and the vet prescribed him something with grain, then couldn't figure out what the problem is. Boo has bad teeth is a bad eater and is obsessed with eating my hair at 5 am. She has major food allergies and gets ear infections when they flare up which is $$ Molly always gets out of our fence and runs away; when I make her stay on leash she gets stuck places. I had to cut her leash to get her out from UNDER OUR BARN yesterday, then she ran away. We've tried working on recall with hot dogs and she's good for an hour, then finds a rabbit and the end. I'm worried she'll be hit or shot by our house. Hunter is a healthy asshole, Darwin has all kinds of health issues. It can be overwhelming some days, especially as they wake me up a lot at night, but we're getting into our routine and I have my faults too : )

[kellbell191]

Jul 6, 2012 7:58:22 GMT -5 straymo said:

Yes, Doug's mom will probably win.

I could have won this if it was 2 years ago. At the time, Tillie, our senior at the time, was in remission from Cushings disease. She had weakness in her backside which caused her to not have control over her bowels. Poop came whenever and wherever and our house was covered in small fleece blankets which made things easier to clean up.

We had to keep an eye on Max during this period because he was conveniently a poop-eater. Tillie also was showing signs of dementia and we had to take special care to keep her world small and consistent. Meds helped with most symtoms a lot. The dementia also caused another issue. Her brain was unable to communicate with her bladder and she was unable to pee on her own. She had special meds that allowed me to express her bladder several times a day.

Oh and during all this, we had Lily who has severe separation anxiety and panic disorder. She was further stressed over our stress about Tillie and would have set backs in her treatment.

At this point, I think I've got it pretty good though. Max is happy, although dx with EPI - a disease in which he can't digest food on his own and would starve to death untreated. He continues to mark all around Lily's crate and food dish. Lily is doing well in her anxiety/panic and despite her pissy little brother.

You are usually very high on my list of people who have specials needs animals and handle everything gracefully and with good humor.

I get frustrated easily. A friend was commenting that we always seem to be at the e vet and its true. At least once a month.

[Deleted]

Jul 6, 2012 10:04:22 GMT -5 dougthedogsmom said:

Are you guys talking about me and my little angel?

Highlights include: ability to open doors and trash cans, helps himself to ice from the ice dispenser on the fridge, hugs everyone who comes or goes, screams bloody murder in the car, can unbuckle himself from his seatbelt, has allergies, has awful thunder/firework anxiety, is more persistent than just about any person or animal, poses and smiles for pictures, likes to pee on people, can open fence gates, has attended: school dance, AA meeting, blood drive all on his own, audible farts, has the ability to remember things for ridiculously long periods of time, the list never ends

Not sure what he was planning on doing with it, but I found a $20.00 bill in his crate yesterday. I was tucked under his bed.

I LOVE DOUG!!!

[Deleted]

And I am dying that he thought he should be attending a school dance and then hit up an AA meeting.

[calico]

I think I need to bookmark this threadand revisit whenever I get frustrated at Kai.

Ya'll are saints.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Our dog is super low-maintenance, but I think our Hobbes could probably win the cat category, due mostly to sheer stupidity. He's about 20 pounds due to no off-switch on his eating habits, jumps up on anything and everything (including the stove once - thankfully it was off), eats EVERYTHING he can get his mouth around, and has required surgery for blockage, as well as IV fluids.

I joke with DH that our house is practically baby-proof, thanks to Hobbes. So far in his life, he's managed to destroy: 3 laptop cords, 1 mouse cable, 1 webcam cable, 6 electrical cords to various items, 4 different cell phone chargers, 3 pairs of pj pants (he ate the drawstrings), the shoelaces on every pair of shoes we've brought into the house, 4 sets of blinds (at least, I may be blocking some out), and a dozen eggs (long story). And he's only 5. If he lives as long as Cat, that means we should be expecting to continue preventing him from damaging himself for at least another 10-12 years.

Also, he's a biter and cannot go to the vet's without her having to don some sort of crazy protective suit. And he hates the groomer too, so when I take him, I end up loading on 4-5 shirts (lovely in a CA summer) and holding him so the groomer can shave his butt - because he's too fat to groom himself back there and will wind up with the dingleberry to end all dingleberries.

**sigh** He's our cross to bear, so to speak, but we love him. Although occasionally DH and I will get into play-fights over whose "fault" he is. (We found him as a stray and convinced him to come out of hiding, then brought him inside)

Me: YOU fed him the french fries
H: YOU said we should bring him inside, take him to the vet ... (and so on)

[redheadbaker]

Jul 6, 2012 10:04:22 GMT -5 dougthedogsmom said:

has attended: school dance, AA meeting, blood drive all on his own

LOL, what??

I think I missed these stories the first time around!

[puppiesandrainbows]

Omg. I thought I had it bad, but listening to the poop, pee and marking stories.....y'all win.

To the pp who suggested cooking him food, that's pretty much where I am now. I'm looking for a canine nutritionist who can help me formulate the right diet.

[puppiesandrainbows]

Oh, and Straymo...hats off to you. Between the uncontrolled pooping and bladder "milking" I really cannot imagine how horrible that must have been. To be honest, if it had been me I would have been strongly considering putting her to sleep. That is just awful.

[nital]

Would you consider raw feeding? I've heard some people say their dogs with chicken allergies can eat raw chicken. Or if your pup can have beef and pork, it should be affordable.

[puppiesandrainbows]

Jul 6, 2012 19:20:08 GMT -5 nital said:

Would you consider raw feeding? I've heard some people say their dogs with chicken allergies can eat raw chicken. Or if your pup can have beef and pork, it should be affordable.

I tried that. Feeding him raw chicken was how we found out how severe his chicken allergy is. Within 24 hours he was covered (and I mean covered) with bleeding hot spots. He also got yeast in his ears and a UTI. Poor buddy was beyond miserable for days. No freaking way can he eat raw chicken.

I googled like mad trying to find raw feeding co-ops, or sources to buy inexpensive meat in bulk. There are no co-ops within several hundred miles of where I live. I found a chicken place, but it's 40 miles from work and is only open M-F 9-5, not that it matters because he can't eat it anyway. I could not find affordable sources for beef, fish and lamb. I don't know where you shop, but I find beef to be expensive, unless it's stew meat that is not on the bone which defeats the purpose of feeding raw. I don't know of any budget friendly place that I could get fish, turkey, pork, beef etc, and trust me, I tried.

To throw another wrench in the food allergy saga, I have been seeking help on another online forum. They told me that since the Avoderm is "new" food (he's been on it for over a month) there's no proof it's the peas, it could be anything.

I was kind of resistant to this and googled the ingredients in the Nature's Domain (which he ate for nearly a year with no issues). Well guess what. It has peas. I don't know why I thought it didn't, but there you go.

I compared the Avoderm to the Nature's Domain, and ignoring various vitamins, the items in the Avoderm that are NOT present in the ND are trout, herring meal, garbanzo beans, pea flour (not just peas), Avocado, dried beet pulp, alfalfa meal, and kelp meal. So it could be any one of those items that are making his allergies flare up.

So now I have a choice. I can "cut corners" and return him to the Nature's Domain even though the contaminated food made him sick and I am not confident in their product any longer, or I can move him to a cooked food diet.

By the way, the ladies helped me a lot and after extensive googling we found only TWO commercial made foods (that are NOT manufactured by Diamond) that he could eat. One is California Naturals Herring and Sweet Potato canned food, but this will run at least $120/month. The second was Honest Kitchen "Love" dehydrated food, which will run a minimum of $80/month. Due to Hoss's size and all of his other expenses, budget is unfortunately a factor. I wish I could afford to just pay whatever the best costs, but it's just not an option.

I put in an email to his vet to get his input, plus I emailed a pet nutritionist they recommended to me to consult with her on this issue. I guess we'll see what happens...

[puppiesandrainbows]

Sometimes it gets overwhelming, but how can you not love this face and want to do everything I can for him?

[nital]

Poor guy. When I feed beef, it's primarily beef heart or brisket (which I used to find for $1/lb all the time during the summer). The only bony beef I give is beef ribs, because my dogs spent hours eating the meat. Otherwise, I avoid beef bones for fear of tooth fractures. Pork shoulder I found on sale for under $1/lb. this was a few years ago though, and I've noticed prices have def. gone up.

Personally, I wouldn't even consider going back to Natures Domain for him. Not worth a possible flare up. How about Flint River Ranch duck and oatmeal or fish and chips? Wysong Epigen? Nature's Logic? Natures Variety? EVO red meat? Wellness Core Ocean?

You can also cut costs a lot by reducing his HW medication. It works by killing juvenile HW that are under 45 days old. So I oly give HW preventative every 6 weeks. You can also give liquid ivermectin instead of a chewable. Liquid ivermectin is CHEAP, you just need to make sure you are dosing correctly.

[puppiesandrainbows]

I'll ask my vet about the liquid ivermectin, thanks!

After lots of discussion, I think the way to go right now is to do a cooked food elimination diet. I'm going to talk to my vet about it, but I think I will start by doing two weeks of beef and sweet potato, and work up from there. This way I can truly isolate the cause of his allergies. Although I did read something last night that said some dogs do not react to the food being cooked at home versus the food in the dog food. The chemical processing changes the food so much that the dog's body does not recognize it, but eating the natural cooked form is okay. That will be interesting to see.

[darkling_glory]

After lots of discussion, I think the way to go right now is to do a cooked food elimination diet. I'm going to talk to my vet about it, but I think I will start by doing two weeks of beef and sweet potato, and work up from there. This way I can truly isolate the cause of his allergies. Although I did read something last night that said some dogs do not react to the food being cooked at home versus the food in the dog food. The chemical processing changes the food so much that the dog's body does not recognize it, but eating the natural cooked form is okay. That will be interesting to see.

Read more: pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=pets&action=display&thread=28393#ixzz2085YOsgc

This is what I was going to suggest after all you posted. Thank you, thank you, thank you for doing this for your pup. He can't say it, so I will!

One more food you could look into is Fromm's. It's local to Wisconsin but I think they've started shipping other places. Not sure if it'll work.

Good luck on the elimination diet! Don't rush it. It will take you a few more months to figure it out!

[spotteddogs]

No disrespect, DougsMom, but WTF did you get that dog from?

Gee whiz... The most high maintenance dog I've seen is one we adopted as a pup, with horrible food allergies and lots of constant whining. Other than that, he's lovely, easily trained, and highly manageable. I can't imagine having ALL the issues you deal with in Doug. He's cute but man... what was the breeder thinking?

[puppiesandrainbows]

Jul 9, 2012 7:54:22 GMT -5 darkling_glory said:

After lots of discussion, I think the way to go right now is to do a cooked food elimination diet. I'm going to talk to my vet about it, but I think I will start by doing two weeks of beef and sweet potato, and work up from there. This way I can truly isolate the cause of his allergies. Although I did read something last night that said some dogs do not react to the food being cooked at home versus the food in the dog food. The chemical processing changes the food so much that the dog's body does not recognize it, but eating the natural cooked form is okay. That will be interesting to see.

Read more: pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=pets&action=display&thread=28393#ixzz2085YOsgc

This is what I was going to suggest after all you posted. Thank you, thank you, thank you for doing this for your pup. He can't say it, so I will!

One more food you could look into is Fromm's. It's local to Wisconsin but I think they've started shipping other places. Not sure if it'll work.

Good luck on the elimination diet! Don't rush it. It will take you a few more months to figure it out!

Thank you, that's really kind of you. I've already started the cooked food elimination diet, and Hoss thought he had died and gone to heaven when he got beef and sweet potatoes for dinner, LOL. I also emailed a pet nutritionist who creates custom diets for dogs. She emailed me back today and told me the first thing I needed to do was the cooked food elimination diet, so there ya go. Once we're done with the elimination diet, she can them formulate a plan to meet his nutritional needs based on the foods that he is able to eat.

[dougthedogsmom]

Jul 9, 2012 20:45:28 GMT -5 spotteddogs said:

No disrespect, DougsMom, but WTF did you get that dog from?

Gee whiz... The most high maintenance dog I've seen is one we adopted as a pup, with horrible food allergies and lots of constant whining. Other than that, he's lovely, easily trained, and highly manageable. I can't imagine having ALL the issues you deal with in Doug. He's cute but man... what was the breeder thinking?

No disrespect taken. It is not really a breed thing, just my crazy man. By nature Vizslas are bright, loyal, and extremely clingy. I just got the very extreme with Doug, but I wouldn't have it any other way. He is super smart and very mischievious, just like my husband Honestly, I am not sure I could deal with some of the other issues that people on here have had to deal with with their pets, if that makes sense.

[straymo]

Jul 6, 2012 17:06:04 GMT -5 puppiesandrainbows said:

Oh, and Straymo...hats off to you. Between the uncontrolled pooping and bladder "milking" I really cannot imagine how horrible that must have been. To be honest, if it had been me I would have been strongly considering putting her to sleep. That is just awful.

Truthfully, looking back it really wasn't that bad. The poop was kind of a pain, but we were used to it. The "milking" was the easy part once we got the meds right. Heck, she'd never have an accident. The hard part was I was one of the few people who could do it so could never be gone from her for more than 7-8 hours. It was clean and easy once you found the sweet spot. She wasn't phased by the process at all. I'd do it all over again if I could have her back.

[iammalcolmx]

I know it's not the same breed but there is a Weimaraner at Doggy Daycare who has to chill with the staff all day long in the recpetion area. Why you ask? The dog causes a tad bit of trouble in the yard. Seems that she like to bark non-stop and when the humans have their backs turn the little sucker opens the gates and lets all the dogs outside( don’t worry outside is still a contained area) . So most days when I arrive to pickup Des, I start chatting with the staff and then see a large thin dog curled up on her bed, not making a peep, and barely moving. It’s almost like you want to think they are lying about the dog opening gates, but you HAVE to know it’s true.

[puppiesandrainbows]

No offense, but every Vizsla I have ever met has been completely off his rocker crazy and neurotic. They are SO beautiful though.