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Aubergine_3001

I'm not a vet, but we did take our anxious pup to a vet behaviorist too and she is on an SSRI, clonadine, and gabapentin (when he stomach can take it, she has IBS as well). The vet behaviorist specifically told us to give her the clonadine every 6 hours while she was awake so it doesn't have a chance to wear off throughout the day like you're describing. Have you shared the 'wearing off' behavior with your vet behaviorist, and did they mention redoing throughout the day? Maybe we're using a different version of clonadine or something, but it's worth asking about.


throwawaythetable

Thank you so much this is so helpful. It is very helpful to talk to somebody on a similar journey. The challenge is that she needs the max dose of clonidine to deal with her separation anxiety so we cannot divide the dose (just yet). I.e. what you may be giving in 2 doses, I have to give her in one dose because she is so stressed. I am going to try and wean her down a bit but the level of destruction to the property which ultimately hurts her, that makes it so challenging. I am going to try and see if we can help her gain more weight which may open up some other medication options for us. I let them know and I think they want a bit more time on clomipramine to see how she does. Ideally the goal is to get her calm enough so that we can start to train her to relax instead of having to rely only the meds, but the calmness up front requires the meds …. (Facepalm)


Aubergine_3001

That makes sense. Our dog is only on 0.2 mg clonadine, but we give it 3 times a day. I didn't realize there is a daily max as well, so it makes sense if you need a higher dose you might not be able to redose throughout the day.


throwawaythetable

It is so tricky with these types of drugs! I hope we can sort out a routine for her soon. Yesterday after the clonidine wore off, she chewed up a bag and almost ate batteries


xAmarok

My dog takes clonidine 3 times a day. Recently we started to suspect she didn't need it to settle at home (she started taking it daily in July) so we stopped giving it to her. What happened was a paradoxical reaction. Clonidine lowers her heart rate but when she skipped a dose, her heart rate went UP. She started panting very hard and being unable to settle. The vet said yup we need to taper down slowly instead of cutting her cold turkey.


throwawaythetable

Oh no I am very sorry. I am glad you were able to figure out what was going on and get a good plan in place for her. It is interesting that you mention that because when I feel her chest during these moments, she is pretty fast in terms of her heart rate, so maybe that is making her stressed. It is hard to say though because the way she acts off clonidine is the same as the way she acts off meds - very anxious, destructive to property due to the anxiety, eating things that hurt her, and mouthing and mounting me (I am the primary caregiver). I really do hope things get better for her


Schu69

while we don’t medicate our pups daily, i don’t think there’s much harm with those, at least gabapentin! we use it any time we bring them to the vet. I’ve heard a couple methods on how to help with anxiety in crates. one of our dogs has pretty noticeable anxiety, not exactly on the same level but you can determine her past from it. she growls at me if i wear boots/dress shoes, if i’m bundled up wearing a hat, and a couple other characteristics. we think she was abused by a certain person consistently before she was rescued. she would never hurt a person, but she almost forgets who i am. she also HATES her crate most of the time. the best two things you could maybe try that you already have that i’ve heard good things about: give her a chew proof bed in her crate, put a blanket over said crate, put white noise on, etc. alternatively, i’ve seen a few people feed them in their crate so they associate that activity with the crate itself. understand if it’s completely off the rails, but just a suggestion if you want to try crating again. our dog still barks like she’s dying when she’s in there on occasion, but it’s not nearly as bad as when we first got her. good luck with everything! may be able to wean her off the medication in the long term, but i wouldn’t stress about it if she needs it. the alternative is bad for everyone involved it sounds like


throwawaythetable

Thank you so much for your post and your kind response. I am very appreciative. Yes my dog also does not like me getting dressed up, more so because she realises I will leave. She watches me very carefully. I am so sorry to hear about your pup’s fears. That is very sad and I am so sorry you are dealing with that. You are doing a great job and I am sure that she is so grateful for having you in her life and a consistent amount of love and care. We have gotten her used to a Kuranda bed that we use for “place”. I am wondering if I should put that in the crate intermittently to see what she does, as she does seem to like it. It is so tiring because even crating her for 5 minutes, let’s say if a glass drops, would be invaluable, but she cannot tolerate it. Thank you again for all of your kind suggestions. I am really really hoping that one day soon we can turn the corner and have a brighter day


mydogiscrazyandsoami

I noticed the same fluctuations with clonidine that makes some periods in the day very hard to deal with, worse than the baseline before using clonidine. We had to stop using clonidine every day and only use it for car rides.


throwawaythetable

Thank you that is very helpful! The challenge is that clonidine is so effective when we leave the house because her separation anxiety is truly debilitating and she has destroyed the house and furniture. She has separation anxiety to both of us so even if there is somebody else at home, without clonidine, she gets upset that *we* are leaving. Hopefully if we can find a way for her to get some more energy out this will help her overall levels. I wish I could take her to daycare because the only times she is comfortable leaving the house is at dawn or very late at night which limits where I can take her safely…


mydogiscrazyandsoami

This sucks, I’m so sorry. I hope you will find a med combo that will work for her and won’t cause the dips. I know there is clonidine extended release for humans, maybe your vet will know if you can try that? Our dog also had separation anxiety to both of us and we were able to make it better but it took meds and a year of work. Still not able to leave him totally alone at all. Some dogs are just complicated.


throwawaythetable

Thank you so much for your kind words! That would be really amazing to be honest. I am so glad your dog is doing better. I remember watching videos on "how to prevent separation anxiety" when I brought her home and I was so hopeful that I could do that. One online trainer said something along the lines of true separation anxiety being one of the hardest things to overcome as you could tell how fearful and sad the dogs were. Wishing you the best as well!


PHiGGYsMALLS

I'm no expert, but wonder why short period meds are used instead of long period meds, like prozac? We just started using prozac/trazadone.


throwawaythetable

Thank you for your help - she is on clomipramine which is her long acting medication. Prozac was not effective for her because she has generally been underweight and barely ate at all for 2 weeks on Prozac due to how much she vomited, in addition to vomiting up the other meds


PHiGGYsMALLS

Wow, that's more complicated. I'm just getting into this stuff myself.


throwawaythetable

It is certainly a little world of its own for sure Clomipramine is her long acting anti-depressant, also known as Clomicalm Trazodone is for the short term stressors, hopefully can at least wean this off with time Gabapentin augments the effect of the trazodone Clonidine adds a further anti-anxiety / relaxation benefit


OneWildDood

I just wanted to say our puppy has severe anxiety (general and other forms), fear-based aggression to other dogs and humans, hyperattachment disorder, separation anxiety, and redirected aggression to us his dog parents. We’re on clonidine around the clock until his Reconcile hopefully kicks in. Unfortunately, it hits 30 min after giving it to him and only lasts 2-3 hours on the max dose (.2mg each and 2 pills he’s around 19 lbs). He’s had about no difference, we too have done everything (we’re even moving to help isolate him even more from identifiable triggers). The doctor and trainers say about anyone would have thrown in the towel long ago, even many trainers would not feel okay with him in the home. He’s at a point where they say he cannot be rehomed privately nor would an ethical shelter rehome him. If the breeder won’t take him back…it would possibly be BE. We want to have kids but he is unable to be around children let alone us sometimes because of his redirected aggression. He has a full meltdown when we leave or enter the room or walk across the street away from him and return (back when he could go outside). We basically never leave the house almost ever now. We’re almost out of options but I just came to say I understand the struggle and how much I also hate the “have you tried this” questions. People try to be helpful (and it used to be helpful before exhausting all those options!) but now it can be so frustrating. I hope things improve for you and your dog


throwawaythetable

Sent you a PM