#librela

[mandana-the-service-pup]

Mandana was a star at her vet appointment today. She volunteered for her Librela injection immediately without practice rounds. We spent the rest of the time working on her separation anxiety and she did so much better. She was able to walk out of the room with the vet tech, down the hall, get weighed and walk back without any issues. That’s a huge improvement considering just one appointment ago she would lay down on the floor in protest and not budge if she thought the vet was separating us.

Afterwards we went across the street to the post office to ship a package and she held a really nice down-stay the whole time. The post office employee didn’t even realize she was there which is always a nice compliment.

Before going home we stopped at the private dog park to work on her manners around other dogs. I kept her on a longline and asked permission from the other dog owners. She made a couple of mistakes but did well overall and had a positive experience. I emailed her training center when we got home to set up a private session to work on these specific things.

[mandana-the-service-pup]

Mandana had her monthly vet appointment. She was amazing as always. I’m not feeling well so I decided to do a little training in the waiting room and then wrap up the appointment quickly instead of training with the vet tech for half an hour as we usually do. Mandana was super enthusiastic for her injection. No practice rounds necessary and she waited patiently while I got us checked out.

[mandana-the-service-pup]

Another great vet appointment. We got there 30 minutes early so we could hangout in the parking lot and practice being calm. She did well in the waiting room. I like to keep her stationed on a bench so as not to get an unpleasant surprise from dogs rounding the corner. She took her Librela injection like a champ. We did a little warm up with her chin rest but honestly she didn’t even need it. She was really eager to lay her head on the towel to opt in to the restrain-free injection. After that we practiced having the vet use some of her cooperative care cues to check her mouth, ears, paws, etc.

For the rest of the appointment we introduced having the vet walk her away from me. This is definitely the biggest hurdle we have at the vet. She will immediately lay on the floor & refuse to move so I had to break down the behavior a lot. I controlled the clicker & the vet delivered the treats. I started by rewarding her for just looking at the vet. We then moved on to walking together with the vet holding the leash. The last thing we practiced was the vet holding the leash while orienting herself towards the door and I would mark when Mandana would start to step towards the vet.

I’m really grateful to have a fear-free vet and hour long visits for extra training. We don’t stay the whole hour but it’s a lot better than feeling rushed to finish within the shorter appointment slots. We are going to start scheduling appointments with her vet tech who is also fear-free. She is generally more available and it will be good to practice our cooperative care skills with different people.

[mandana-the-service-pup]

Vet Appointment: Librela #3

Today is a bad health day. I had to skip this weeks Methotrexate injection for various reasons and I’m really feeling it. I’m in pain and so exhausted I went to the vet appointment in pajamas and Mandana did a medical alert as soon as I walked in. Shortly after that a reactive yellow lab slipped his collar in the lobby and accosted Mandana. We’ve been through this many times before and nearly 100% of the time I’m able to manage the situation so that I’m dealing with the dog and not Mandana but that wasn’t in the cards today.

I was so exhausted and already shaking before I even went inside. I had been hanging out in the parking lot for a bit so I saw the lab had excitement/reactivity. As soon as I walked in I put Mandana up on a bench for her safety until we could check in and the tech was literally coming to take us to a private room when the dog slipped it’s collar and charged us.

It happened in a split second. I knew the vet tech was right next to me and the owner was immediately aware of the dog getting loose so I focused on controlling Mandana’s head and pivoting myself between them. It wasn’t enough to keep them physically apart in the initial moment and for a few seconds before we pivoted Mandana had her head and paw on the dogs shoulder. I feel bad for making Mandana feel like she had no control/safety over her own body as I physically controlled her head in that moment and turned us away. It’s not usually how I would handle that kind of situation but I had very little energy to utilize and no idea if that lab would escalate things especially if I tried to intervene directly.

In Mandana’s defense she handled it really well. She didn’t growl, have her hackles up or anything like that. The only way it could have been better is if her body language was looser and she didn’t try to assert herself over the other dog but considering he charged her she had every right to create space & safety for herself. She literally recovered in 2 seconds and was immediately responsive to cues with a happy loose wag while the dog was still pulling and barking towards her. As soon as the lab was back on leash we walked to our exam room and I took this video bc I was impressed with her recovery from such an intense situation. (It’s a tight pant but the interaction JUST happened. She’s got a nice tail wag & body movement off camera and this is her expression for “excited but focused and ready to train/work”)

She immediately started to use her chin rest to volunteer for injections even with a new vet tech and in a room she’s never been in before. The vet tech was great and besides following Fear Free protocols it was clear she was also fluent in positive reinforcement training. We used the rest of the appointment to work on Mandana’s leash pulling from separation anxiety and despite the rough start to the visit we made a lot of progress. I stopped by Taco Bell on the way home and got her a cheese roll as a special reward for her awesome behavior. She’s a lot of dog but her personality makes it work 🫶

[mandana-the-service-pup]

[mandana-the-service-pup]

Morning appointments are hard but we did it. We met with the neurologist to discuss Mandana’s back pain and our testing/treatment options. The neurologist doesn’t think this is a neurological issue but there are a few scary things that would need to be ruled out. We decided to meet with their orthopedic surgeon tomorrow in hopes that he might have some alternative ideas on what could be causing the pain and what tests should be run. We will still do the MRI but the orthopedic surgeon might want other parts of her body scanned so we want to make sure we cover all of our bases to avoid having to do anasthesia multiple times.

Afterwards we went to a nice park. Unfortunately the moment we got there some lady showed up with two off-leash dogs that were wreaking havoc on the whole park. We ate breakfast and waited in the parking lot until things were under control. When they left we had a nice long decompression walk on the longline and then headed home. Time to rest up because we have to do the same thing tomorrow.

[mandana-the-service-pup]

We had another really great appointment with the fear-free vet. We were scheduled for an hour so we had plenty of time for questions & training. We did the Librela injection at the beginning incase she had a negative reaction but she was fine. She has been off LDN for the last two days and has been sore as a result so I’m interested to see what this new medicine does for her.

We are ready to schedule a consultation with the neurologist and work towards getting an MRI. There is also a new Orthopedic specialist that opened in town so we might go to them depending on what the MRI shows. All of this is only possible because our pet insurance has agreed to cover her back pain and our plan pays back 90% of the cost.

We used a chin-rest to allow Mandana to opt-in to the injection. We did several practice rounds and it didn’t take long before the vet was ready to inject. Mandana held completely still for the entire injection without any restraint. It was a really beautiful moment and the vet has deemed her their best Malinois patient (they do the vet care for the city police dogs who are apparently nuts and have to be sedated for every appointment)

While Mandana was a very good girl for her injection and she was doing medical alerts as needed she was also “stressing up” as usual. That’s why I’m glad we got to have an hour long appointment. It gave us time for her to calm down and relax before leaving. I’m really hopeful this new approach will help reduce her stress at appointments. The vet even said I could stay with her during sedations if she ever needs to go under for anything which is a huge relief because that has been a major cause of stress for her in the past.

I also asked about using a dog safe disinfectant on her for my own safety now that I’m officially immunocompromised (she suggested Douxo-Chlorhexidine Spray) and the elbow that had surgery continues to get irritated so she suggested using Solva-Ker Gel to help keep the skin healthy. All-in-all it was a very productive appointment and we have a follow-up in a month.

[delorme-goldberg]

Arthrose bei Hunden und Katzen

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