Big change from living in a barn…..

 

He was at the Vet last Wednesday and his weight was slightly down – .3 of a kg. So, being still thin, we have talked to his amazing foster home and adding in canned food again to his meals.

We want and need him to keep going up and his foster is doing a fabulous job with him.

 

Not only was he seen for the licking on his legs – I had asked his foster mama re: if any pattern was noted for I suspected that this could be behavioural over, or in addition to possible allergies, yet he had begun to have some sudden diarrhea.

 

The Vet agreed that based upon where he was licking when he was doing it was likely behavioural over possible allergies at this time.

 

These dogs have had a lot of decompressing to do, so much stimulation with sights, smells, and noises – no matter how much exposure has been attempted to be slowly done, it has been a lot for him and Mr. Lewis.

 

So, we placed him on a low short-term dose of Trazodone to ease any stress/worry.

 

His foster continues to work with him learning to not only like yet love himself and to appropriately self-soothe, self-comfort, etc.

 

It is too easy to create SA behaviours, and we are not doing these dogs any favours by not doing right by them. We do not feel sorry for them, we do not spend 24/7 with them, we do not enable them, we work to help them reach their full potential and make them the best dogs they can be.

 

AND they are really fantastic dogs!

 

We do not want the licking behaviour to become behaviourally ingrained, and then a habit.

 

He is dewormed monthly and so parasitic causes as to his diarrhea were believed to not be the case. We did ask his wonderful foster to bring in a sample if they could – when the stool is very liquidy, that is hard to do.

 

He was placed on Metronidazole plus Forti Flora(an amazing probiotic), and his stools are back to normal. Yay!

 

We are also adding some omegas to his diet as his coat was a bit dry and flakey in spots when he was seen.

 

So……..we feel comfortable again with him moving forward in making his own special announcement. Which he will do shortly!

 

Thanks to his incredible foster mama for the fun photo! He is learning to be a dog!!!