Separation Anxiety Help

[Nutmeg1]

Hello, all

You may remember when I posted last week about rescuing a chow. This was the one we spent many months trying to catch. Well, I brought him home on Saturday. His name is Tao. He is under a year old, so we think, his teeth are very white, and the vet said she thought he is about 9 months old. He is a handful! He is learning quickly, though, he is VERY smart. My other dogs hate him, of course. I have started him with crate training, and naturally he hates it. He has separation anxiety pretty bad. I have worked with SA many times, but never with a chow. He is in a large crate, not too large, and I can't put anything in it but his Kong, filled with cheese whiz. I started with short perids of time, and it has been lengthened to about three hours. It is amazing how much damage he can do in a crate with nothing in it. He doesn't potty in it, so that is good, but I don't want him to hurt himself. He seems none the worse for wear, and he does not bite on the bars. I don't want him to have free run with SA, there is no telling what would happen. I know it has only beed a few days, but does anyone have any suggestions to make him more comfortable? Has anyone ever used a DAP diffuser? What about something herbal, like Rescue Remedy or Melatonin? He is getting neutered on Thursday, and I know this will help in a lot of ways. He wants to interact with the other dogs, but they are ugly to him. I hope they can learn to live together peacefully. I have decided to foster him for the time being, and I want him to go to a forever home happy and confident. If anyone has any advice let me know. And I know it takes a great deal of patience, I just want to make it easier for him.

[Rogansmommy]

IMO - chows in general do not like to be crated. You could try putting him in a room instead to see if the SA is actually Crate Anxiety. (Don't know if that's a real syndrome, but Rogan definitely had it.) Rogan has the run of the master area (large room, hallway and a large bathroom. He shares the space with Nina, and the cat comes and goes at will. We've had no problem since we gave him that amount of space. (In Rochester, the dogs would hang out in the finished part of the basement while we were at work. Never had a problem either.)

[kiwani]

Re: "What about something herbal, like Rescue Remedy or Melatonin? He is getting neutered on Thursday, and I know this will help in a lot of ways."
---

Separation Anxiety is linked with low levels of serotonin (calming brain chemistry) being out of balance with excitatory stress chemistry. Since melatonin hormone clicks into serotonin by day, melatonin is often recommended.

B-complex 50, is also recommended to lower stress, (Vit. B-6 is needed to form serotonin) and Vitamin C to help the adrenals. There are various herbal calmers for high-strung dogs, besides the ones you've mentioned, but I wouldn't use any of those before the surgery.

Also, consider increasing tryptophan foods (ex.- brown rice, cottage cheese, turkey, etc.), to reduce hyperactivity, lower stress. The body needs vitamin B6 to form tryptophan too, which also helps form serotonin. Lower the amounts of copper rich foods, which negatively affect serotonin. Exercise is also important for ridding excess copper.

I wouldn't use the cheese whiz product either, because there are too many additives in processed foods affecting behavior, including sugar and salt.

The B-complex plays a large and important role in the body as well, and would help his recovery from surgery. There are some older posts on serotonin in the archives, as well, if you're interested.

Best wishes.

[3blackchows]

Hi Meg:
I'm glad you gave him a place to call home.
My kids are free to roam. I have never crated, I have put then in a safe area w/ baby gates & the cat is free to join if he likes when I am gone. Once home they have the house & typically all 3 are at my heels. My kids all have their own beds. When given a special treat (pig ear or frosty paws) they naturally go to their beds or "areas" to enjoy their treat. They seem to automatically gravitate to their beds, which I also put in the "safe area" so they wud know it belonged to them. Maybe Tao was confimed at 1 time & had a bad experience. To help w/ SA, maybe you could wear an old t-shirt for a day to get your scent on it & leave it w/ him when you go. I know this sounds weird, but I always leave the disney channel on when I go. It kind of lets them know I'm going & also is a constant noise that drowns out scary noises to them as pups. You ask why the disney channel? I guess maybe because the noises are not as harsh as if I had left CNN. I know some feel iot's wrong but these are my kids & I think the tones on disney are more soothing.

I'm sure if he ws a "street" dog, he didn't get many meals & missed out on the nutrients he would get from a good food, such as Iams or Eukanuba (spelling?)

Keep up posted, I pray it works out. Sometimes not evenone likes the new kid on the block at first; but you seem to have the patients of an angel. If I may add, you may also want to have him microchipped when gets neutered.

[Nutmeg1]

Thank you for the advice. I think tomorrow I will leave him downstairs and out of the crate. I think the double stress of me leaving and him being confined to a small space may be too much for him. I will put a babygate in front of the stairs to keep him in the living room/kitchen area. I have hardwood and ceramic tile floors throughout, so there is no carpet to destroy like he did upstairs while in the crate. My other dogs are crated so I will not worry about them getting snarky with one another. I am feeding him California Natural chicken and rice. He seems to like it. I am encouraging him to eat a lot, since he needs to gain weight. Under all that fur, he is only skin and bones. I can only imagine what he had been living on. I will let you all know how it goes tomorrow.

[LuLu33]

I too have found that chows don't like to be crated. They do not like to feel trapped. Gates, or a room that he can have some freedom in may work. It's so hard to get through the transition but I hope you can work it out! Good Luck!

[Victory]

I've also found that Chows in general don't like crates, they normally will find their own "den" in the house to call theirs. They'll tolerate crates for travel outside the home but in the home they don't like them, and they can get very stressed over them. Rescues are often worse about this because they were "trapped" to catch them.

Also, chows don't do well with artificial foods, no cheese whiz, only quality peanut butter etc. California Natural is a good food, but don't be surprised if he slows down and eats a bit less of it than they recommend, chows don't eat as much food as other breeds tend to.

Also make sure when he goes into be neutured that only isoflorine gas is used for anthesia, chows don't do well with other kinds.

And the last thing, I think we forgot to tell you; Chows have a very distinctive order that isn't like most other dogs, this sometimes leads to issues with them interacting with other breeds. They tend to get along with Rotties, most pits and some others, but some breeds just don't like the way chows smell, the stiff ruffs and the straight back legs. Give the others time to get used to his differences, beyond just dealing with a new companion.

Bless you for taking him in, I like his name btw, I'm sure he'll grow into it.

Can you get a picture of him, I'd love to see him.

[3blackchows]

Victory: You mention isoflorine gas, do most vets have this?

[Victory]

Victory: You mention isoflorine gas, do most vets have this?

I think most in the US do. But you can always ask. One of the ways you can tell if they are using it is that most animals come out of it reall, really fast. I know they used it on Darkwind to do the endoscope when he was at the U of Minn. Hospital, (no animal will lay still and let some stick a camera down their throat) but he was walking just fine when they brought him back, he was walking fast actually because he had to go potty.

[3blackchows]

Awe... Darkwing must have been thinking..gotta go, gotta go, gotta go rite nNOW X0X0

I spoke to my vet about using this & he said that his experience is that the dogs panic when he puts the mask on them. I said well, cudn't you give him something to calm down? He said he'd check w/ UGA (University of Georgia) vet school & see if ACE or valium cud be used. Did you or they give anything to Darkwind prior to the procedure?

[3blackchows]

Hi Meg:
I forgot to ask how things were going?