[Dailydrool] Separation anxiety alternatives & Belvedere's surgery

[Pam McQuade]

There are several ways to handle separation anxiety, though I am not certain 
just how well they deal with the more serious form that includes chewing 
things up.

One alternative, which did not work well for our Belvedere but has worked 
for other Droolers, is the DAP plug-in or collar. This is a pheronome (hope 
I spelled that right) that smells like mom to the dogs. Fortunately, it's 
not something that humans find stinky. I suspect this probably works better 
on dogs who spent more time with mama than our Belvedere, who was a pet-shop 
dog who landed in rescue. But it is available online at Fosters & Smith and 
other pet sites. Hunt about a bit for the least expensive one.

Another thing you can do, which did work for our Belvedere, is follow the 
standard behavioral protocol for separation anxiety. You can find this 
online by keying in "canine separation anxiety." There are plenty of sites 
that will describe it to you. It requires you to leave the dog for 
increasing lengths of time, until he is used to the fact that you are not 
deserting him. It takes a fair amount of time to institute, but it can work 
quite well. Our Belvedere is usually fine, unless he is left for long 
periods of time or we do not take him out as soon as we return.

On the surgery front, Belvedere has been home for an hour and a half. I took 
him in early, and the vet got to him quite quickly. We had the punch biopsy 
done because it was less expensive; the vet feels that he got a very good 
sample, and we should get a clear result from it. He could not tell what it 
was just by looking at the sample. We're all hoping it's just an infection. 
Bel is on some more antibiotics. He's been gimping about a little and is 
rather tired, but otherwise fine. We hope to have the results from the 
biopsy back by Monday.

Thanks for all the support we've gotten. Keep that drool heading in the 
direction of the biopsy, that it turns out to be nothing serious.
Pam, food slave to all the Dashing Bassets