Thursday, March 15, 2012

Even the Dog Needs Drugs

The ODD family is a pharmaceutical company's dream come true. Three of the four of us have ADHD and two of us suffer from anxiety. Make that three of us...even our dog has anxiety. Yes, our dog.



TheODDDog is a pound puppy, which means we have no idea what her background is. We got her from the SPCA nine years ago, and all we know is that she was found wandering. Whether she was wandering because she's a little nuts and her owners couldn't handle her or whether she's a little nuts because she ended up wandering, we'll never know. What we do know is that she has severe separation anxiety and needs to be on anti-depressants. Sounds crazy, I know, but our only other option is to let her work herself into such a lather when we go out that she injures herself. The slightest deviation from our regular schedule at home sends her squirrely. If either TheODDDad or I go out, she's frantic for probably half-an-hour despite the fact that the rest of the family is still home. In short, she's as crazy as the rest of us.

So far only Stitch remains unmedicated, but he's only two years old. Ask me again in a few years.

8 comments:

  1. Your dog sounds like one of our cats. Pushie "cries" for her person (our oldest daughter) every time she leaves. Some days will be better than others, and she'll only "cry" for about 30 minutes. Most days though, it will last for over an hour or more. The fact that she is Siamese doesn't help the situation because their meow sounds very much like a baby's cry.

    Thankfully, a 7.5 lb cat can't do too much damage, but holy crow! She can make such a racket! We think she might have brain damage - from trying to push open doors by hitting them with her head at a full run...

    We've had since she was a kitten, so with her, we know it's a true separation anxiety situation.

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    1. That would drive me nuts! Mind you, a 100lb dog pacing the floors and whining incessantly is enough to make you want to scream.

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  2. Ha! You are a better woman than I. I'm COUNTING on our dog (10.5 yo pound puppy) to keep it together. She's just about the only one left...

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    1. LOL! You're lucky, because mine isn't much help. Wish she could figure out how to keep it together.

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  3. Oh no!
    The only thing our dog needs is a good ear medicine every month. He gets dreadful ear infections.

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  4. OMG - mine too, natch. She once was diagnosed with "fear of passageways" ... back when she was our only child. She has OCD, repetitive behaviors (licks her paws) and is scared of everything. She can barely walk up the stairs, but still manages to run like a jaguar and escape everyday. I guess we wouldn't be able to relate to her if she didn't also have her own neuroses! But you're kinder than I - we never splurged for meds for her. She can just have our leftovers (totally kidding, people).

    http://whac-a-mole-life.com

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  5. Fear of passageways??? That's a new one! Sounds like your poor pup needs drugs as badly as mine does. For the record, ours is on drugs because I simply couldn't cope with her howling and whining every time we left the house. Fighting with the kids to get them ready was bad enough without the dog added to the mix. So really, it was put her on drugs or raise mine. ;-)

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