[Dailydrool] Anxiety and weight gain

[Kylie Zink]

Hi Everyone!

My husband and I adopted our first basset from rescue in February of this
year. About a week later, she was hospitalized for almost 2 weeks due to
liver failure. She is since doing very well, but is heartworm positive and
will be undergoing treatments in about a month.

Since her hospitalization, she has developed separation anxiety. When she
even thinks we are getting ready to leave, she has a fit and whines and
jumps all over us. During the day she will not go in her crate, and when put
in there, whines and barks and hypersalivates. About once a week she will
also poop in her cage out of anxiety. We only leave her in there for a few
hours at a time. I have tried a D.A.P. diffuser right next to her cage, a
pheremone collar, Richard's Organic Dog Calm, putting my old clothes with my
scent on them in the cage, leaving toys filled with food and treats, leaving
the TV or radio on, and we are now currently trying the medication Anxitane
(Only done the anxitane for just shy of 2 weeks). Nothing seems to help.
Does anyone have any other suggestions with this? She has no problem going
in her crate for bed time, and in fact she'll run right on in there when we
tell her it's "night night time", so I don't think it's the crate at all. If
we were to leave her out of the crate she would do the same thing, and since
she is so young, and still potty training, and still chewing on household
objects, leaving her out is not a good option for us at this time.

We are also having problems with getting her to gain weight. She is a small
basset, and currently weighs 30 pounds. You can still, however, see the
outline of her ribs. We would like to be able to put another 5-10 pounds
(10lbs max) on her. We currently feed her Nutro's large breed lamb and rice
formula, about 1 and 1/2 cups twice daily (maybe just a touch less than
that). However, with her anxiety, we can only sometimes get her to eat once
a day. The appetite is definitely there, but she gets too caught up in her
anxiety sometimes. I ran the satin balls recipe by her vet, and she was too
nevous about feeding her raw meat and eggs (and after taking microbiology
this quarter at school, I completely agree). Does anyone have any other
suggestions on this issue as well?

Any advice on these matters would be greatly appreciated by both me and
Ethel, thanks to all!
Kylie and Ethel
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