Seriously. We need to talk about psilocybin for dogs because apparently people are giving psychedelics to pets. Major, major yikes. The potential uses, though, by trained professionals may be a real game changer for dogs with fear, trauma, or socialization issues.
I wish I didn’t need to think about training dogs to be careful around crutches, but real life does its thing. I went through our dogs’ repertoire of behaviors and found some that prove helpful to me since I have many weeks / months ahead of me on crutches. Here are some prior dog behaviors that pay off if / when you get hurt. Cute videos, including one of a tiny Clover learning “go to place.” Don’t miss it!
A study done by researchers from the veterinary school at Ohio State University and published in August 2023, looked at shelter dog behavior after adoption at 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, and 180 days. The results look interesting, including how adoptions and data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and such affected outcomes and perspectives.
Most of the time conversations about how dogs respond to noises focus on big, scary, sudden sounds like thunder, fireworks, and gunfire. A paper published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science in November 2021 looks at how common household noises affect dogs and how people often (mis)interpret dogs showing signs of fear and anxiety. For context, other studies reported the prevalence of noise sensitivities in dogs as high as 50%, so it’s an important topic. I recommend you read the whole paper yourself. However, here are the highlights and headlines.
Miss Lilly and I hauled our silly selves across town for her veterinary neurology recheck appointment this morning, in advance of this weekend’s third round of cytarabine injections. It has been 6 weeks since her last neuro exam and 9 weeks since her major adverse vaccine reaction relapse. Here is today’s news.
Monday dawned with a full-blown anxiety attack hovering. Seeking just an hour of quiet, an hour or solace, an hour of something other than work or worry, I headed out to the greenhouse. Big mistake. An unsupervised and steroid-fueled Lilly helped herself to a non-food snack. There went my day.
Monday, we showed you some agility highlights as Lilly recovers from her neurological troubles. Today, we prove that it isn’t always pretty.
At our last veterinary neurology appointment, Lilly got the OK to do agility and other more strenuous tasks so that her brain can start figuring out how to rewire certain movements. I convinced myself that Lilly jumped differently and weaved weirdly, but after looking at old agility videos, it seems more like Lilly exaggerates her movements following her “brain injury.” Videos, ahoy!
Blame it on the steroids and other medications required to treat Lilly’s eningoencephalomyelitis / meningoencephalitis (inflammation of the brain and lining of the brain and spinal cord). Two weeks ago today, Lilly ate 1/2 of a canvass totebag while I was away at a work meeting.
If your dog has never required medications that cause dramatic behavioral side-effects, count yourself lucky. Friday (3/9/12), we had another MAJOR scare with Lilly.
