The month of July 2022 was a rough one for Blitzen.

This month had some serious (temporary) escalations in his behaviors and also a bout of sickness.

For the first couple of weeks after his MRI, we had him on memantine and pregabalin. You might recall from the last Bulletin that his MRI in June did not give us any definitive answers.

He had about a two week period after his MRI where he was really good. We had very few incidents, he seemed to be feeling good. We were hopeful the meds were moving us somewhat in the right direction of him being less easily triggered by things.

Though our test results didn't show any sign of tick-borne illnesses or such, our vet suggested we still test Doxycycline to see if it would help. I was hesitant to try it, but we did. It did not go well.

It seemed to make his less enthusiastic about food and more lethargic. He also started to get a bit crabbier about things like getting his harness on again.

About a week in on the doxycycline, I was working with him for his breakfast as I always have. I had never had a problem hand feeding and training with him for meals. On this morning, he would not take food from me. He then got very growly and snappy. So I set his food down to let him eat the rest of he wanted it. He got pretty upset even with me across the room.

The next day he threw up his breakfast. He got very defensive over it and was guarding anyone from getting near. He had never in the past approached me when upset, but this day he did. I had to quickly get a gate up between us and leave him alone for a while to calm down. It took a while.

We discontinued the doxy and started him on Rimadyl.

He got pretty upset with one of the other dogs the next day and with me when I tried to move him away.

The following day, I tried to set his bowl down and feed him without interacting. He got very defensive of his bowl and although I was across the room, he pursued me and was lunging and snarling at me. I managed to get an ex-pen up between us but it took several minutes to calm him down enough that I could leave the room and leave him alone for a while.

This was a huge escalation in his behavior. Prior to this, he could be growly and snappy but would always back off if we gave him space.

Needless to say, it was pretty upsetting. We kept him separated from everyone for the rest of the day.

By evening, he was feeling better and back to his normal snuggly self.

That was in early July.

In mid-July, Blitzen started coughing. Turns out one of our boarding dogs brought kennel cough with him. He had not been coughing when he arrived to stay with us but was coughing before he left. And passed kennel cough on to Blitzen, Zooka and one of our other boarding dogs.

We kept them separated from anyone else while they recovered. Blitzen did not need any meds, just lots of rest. Zooka ended up with pneumonia too and at the ER one Saturday night. But everyone rested and recovered.

He did not eat well for a few days when he had kennel cough, so it was hard getting him to eat and to get his medication in him.

By the end of July, he finally seemed to be feeling better and eating well again. We dropped the memantine from his meds and kept going with pregabalin and Rimadyl.

July was a rough month for all of us.

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