NGAP asked me to do a write up on Rainy. All about her anxiety issues, the soloxine, and her crazy hair growth. Figured I would also post it here.
In October of 2008 I brought home the perfect dog. Rainy was the ideal 4 year old greyhound to send home to a first time adopter. She was bombproof, literally has been to a gun range and handled it without blinking! Nothing phased her. We were a happy active family and she loved hiking, meeting new friends, car rides, and everything else in her perfect doggy life. We lasted 10 months before chipping and bringing home a second shy little borderline spooky greyhound. Rainy was very critical in teaching her sister that the world wasn't a scary awful place.
Before her crazy hair growth
July of 2011 we had an odd incident with Rainy. We were in the mountains in our family's cabin, which is a familiar travel spot for us. Someone in the valley started shooting off fireworks and Rainy lost her mind! I had to keep her leashed and hugged to me in a bedroom. It was so bad that I thought she was going to go through a window. Meanwhile her shy sister never even flinched at the noise... Thought it was just one of those odd animal things, but Rainy slowly started getting nervous about thunderstorms, cars backfiring, and gun shots. We didn't live in the greatest area at this time and those popping and banging noises were part of our normal everyday life.
It was all so bizarre that we went to the vet to get her eyesight and hearing checked. Then we started playing around with counter conditioning with CDs, rescue remedy, calming collars, extra exercise, melatonin, thundershirt, half a dozen herbal blends, TTouch, anything I could think of to help her be more comfortable. You always hear about dogs who are scared of things, but they hide in a closet or can have some level of avoidance to cope in some other way. That's not how we roll over here. Anxiety and fear are awful things that I don't want any of my animals to ever have to live with on a constant basis. My job is to take care of all the scary things.
Things became even worse and now Rainy was phobic of the car. I started to wonder if she could have a heart attack from being so stressed and fearful during car rides. We went back to our vet to discuss some options. The first thing we tried was Amitriptyline, since that is what worked best with our shy little girl. It had no effect other than causing the munchies. We upped the dose and still nothing.
After 4 months we switched to buspirone with high hopes. No improvement... Clomicalm caused no improvement. Next we tried Fluoxetine. On the Fluoxetine things kept getting worse and worse. Rainy was scared to come back inside. I would have to go get her in the yard and bring her back into the house. She was too nervous to go up the stairs. We consulted with our vet and we decided to up the Fluoxetine and give her another couple months to see if it would help. Her car fear had escalated so much that we also added in Alprazolam until we could get the long term med correct. We were told that we could give her up to 3 times the normal dose to see if that would help her. Unfortunately all that did was make her stumbly and really uncoordinated. The fear, shaking, drool, and panic were still all there.
Everything came to a head the day I was putting on her harness so we could go for a hike. Reaching under her belly set Rainy off. Luckily I was wearing a very loose hoodie at the time. It was all fear based but a total 180 degrees from who my dog was. This is the dog who was painfully slow and gentle taking treats when she first came home. She would never dream of putting her teeth on or through any human. Starting that night I weaned her off the Fluoxetine, my gut said that it was just making her worse.
Another consult with our vet and it was suggested that we look into the University of Pennsylvania's behaviorist department. There just wasn't much more our vet could do for us. I called for a price quote and sadly this was just not in our budget. I started thinking about possibly rehoming my baby. Or considering that the responsible most kind thing would be to help her to the rainbow bridge. She was existing in a living hell. Her quality of life was nonexistent. We had to be careful about how we touched her. I had to put her away when people or kids came to visit. The list was endless. She always was in a hunched guarded position. She looked like a green horse, just saddled for the first time, who has that hump in their back. Her body language screamed tense and jumpy.
In a crazy last ditch effort we tried .6mg of Soloxine twice a day. Within 24 hours she was running back inside the house with her sister. Rainy was going up and down the stairs a little easier. I started wondering if I was imagining it. Her body language was a little more relaxed but she was still tense. I upped her to a pill and a half twice a day, which would be .9mg. A CRAZY HIGH dose of Soloxine. Within another 24 hours I had my baby back! She was relaxed, running, playing, loving life again. Still nervous in the car but now 2mg of Alprazolam worked great to relax her in the car. Her eyes stayed soft, no shaking, not one bit of being tense, and she would even lay down in the car!
When we ran bloodwork at the vet her numbers were borderline too high so we cut her back to .8mg of Soloxine twice a day. Rainy still retained all the great benefits. Our vet doesn't understand why the Soloxine worked, but it did. I was informed that there are giant risks to keeping her on this high dose of thyroid medicine, but I would rather her time left with us be the best for Rainy. If I have the heartbreak of losing her years before I would have otherwise, it's worth it to me. That would be my heartbreak, not Rainy's.
The main thing that changed with the giant Soloxine dose was her food intake. Rainy started really eating like a horse to keep the pounds on! Every woman's dream... First time the vet suggested that she was a little too skinny, I was mortified! Rainy had a glazed donut for dessert that night.
We couldn't even go to a baseball game in 60 degree weather
About a year after we started the Soloxine I noticed Rainy no longer had an outer coat and an undercoat. It was just all fluffy undercoat. She's always had a very heavy coat for a greyhound and disliked the heat in any way. The spring of 2013 hit her hard. It was March and I needed to have the AC on and cranked down to 65 degrees. I don't even want to think back about my electric bill... Rainy would trot out for a quick pee in the yard, only a 45 second trip, and she would pant for hours inside in front of a fan. Eventually I started hosing her off and letting her come back inside dripping wet. She would plop in front of the fan and dry off while only panting for an hour. It eventually got bad enough that she would lay in bed at night and pant and pant and pant... She couldn't sleep and pant so she would stay awake. I ignored it the best I could. Since I tend to be a crazy worry wart, I convinced myself that she was just getting older and having a harder time with the heat. I started thinking about shaving her to help with the heat, but people don't shave double coated dogs. It's supposed to make them even hotter.
Crazy fuzz at GIG 2012 (I don't remember who took this picture, but they have much better photography skills than I do!)
Here's a video of her crazy wolf coat. Just ignore my irritating voice!
Miserable all the time
Finally we went to a friends house for the weekend and the first things that came out of peoples' mouths were "What's wrong with Rainy?" I went out to Petsmart that day, bought clippers, and shaved her. The poor pup looked like a wood chipper chewed her up and spit her out! None of us should have been allowed to have clippers! Even though she looked hysterical, Rainy bounced inside and crashed on a dog bed for 8 straight hours. I've never seen this dog sleep so soundly. She beyond exhausted from all the panting.
Last picture before the big shave
I'm slowly perfecting my shaving skills so she no longer looks likes she lost a fight with a lawn mower. She's a happy bouncy 10 year old pup. Everyone recoils in horror about the dose of soloxine that she's on. So much that it's causing crazy hair growth as a side effect. I probably should try to get her off the Soloxine and onto one of the newer anxiety meds to see if they would help her.
Naked and Happy on a Fall hike
Everytime I start seriously considering trying another medicine a little voice in the back of my head starts talking. I wasted over a year of Rainy's life. She was miserable, terrified, and on guard all the time. That wasn't fair. I feel so guilty that I didn't insist on trying the Soloxine earlier. I still am having a hard time forgiving myself for not advocating correctly for my little girl. Am I willing to risk a relapse for 2-3 months to see if another anxiety medicine will work? The answer is simple. I would rather her only live for another year and have a shortened life, than to have to live one more single day in that Hell. She worked hard at the track and was a pretty decent racer, is the perfect family member, and she deserves the best retirement I can provide.
Naked and Happy on a Spring hike
I'm not sure dogs have a sense of time for a life span. Having her pass earlier will only hurt me. I can't sacrifice her comfort in order to keep her around longer. That would be too selfish of me. Of course this is a worst case scenario. I'm banking on her living at least til 15! Of course the greyhound community is shocked that I am shaving my greyhound, but I'm an advocate for my dog. What works for us may not work for another, but I will always do whatever works for my dogs.
Very abused naked greyhound!
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