I feel bad for Barney...
Here he is Summer 07, so a year and a half ago: 
And here he is 2 months ago at Christmas, looking 'good' for how how he's been looking lately. Doesn't he look sad? And it's not just because I'm torturing him posing with stuffies (he's used to that!).  |
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| How old is he? Trying to figure out why. Maybe he he is just getting more mature.
Wish I could help. |
| He's almost 4 1/2. He was born Sept 04. |
| Other than the fact that it looks like he has been chewing at his feet a lot - which COULD imply an allergy, its hard to tell that he isn't just leery about the singing stuffies. |
I know...I couldn't find a good recent picture of him, so it had to include his harem of Christmas sheepie stuffies 
That's the thing...he DOES chew on himself a lot, still, which I think has a lot to do with it, but I guess just from seeing older pictures of him it made me realize he isn't looking up to par. It's like when you see something every day you don't notice it... |
| I think barney needs a furgirl. Who doesn't smile when there's a special lady around? I'll send Yuksters right over.
Hope he starts coming around soon for ya! |
| maybe he'll cheer up come the spring? |
| I would guess he's just outgrowing puppyhood coupled with adjusting to the new baby. Sounds like he's trying to be a good boy. |
| Maybe chewing on himself does have a lot to do with it. If he's uncomfortable most of the time...
Poor Barney. Hope he feels better soon. These guys really wear their feelings on their sleeves, I know mine does. |
| Licking feet can also indicate foot pain such as arthritis, but I'm thing emotional problems. New baby, he's not the center of attention now and he's having trouble coping. I also noticed more than normal stain around the face......I assume from licking his feet. I hope it doesn't mean upset tummy.
They guy needs some outdoor time, time to run and be dog time. Poor guy, hard to be second fiddle when you were the concert master. How about some new games, new challenges for him? |
SheepieBoss wrote: Licking feet can also indicate foot pain such as arthritis, but I'm thing emotional problems. New baby, he's not the center of attention now and he's having trouble coping. I also noticed more than normal stain around the face......I assume from licking his feet. I hope it doesn't mean upset tummy.
They guy needs some outdoor time, time to run and be dog time. Poor guy, hard to be second fiddle when you were the concert master. How about some new games, new challenges for him? He doesn't like to run! We try and he MIGHT bring back the ball once or twice and then he's done. He doesn't even really want to go on walks anymore, especially after he collapsed last summer. Hmmm, I might start filling his kong again. I'll need to think of low cal treats to put in there. All this started before the baby, though, so it can't be JUST because of her. Luckily his licking doesn't seem to affect his tummy (nothing does!). |
| its okay steph...i thought the exact same thing with panda....
here is december of '07 
and dec of '08 
when i really look at the difference, it makes me want to cry...Im just thankful though, that she is healthy....but she does seem a little sadder too.... |
| If its not an insensitive question,what made her black pigmentation fade to pink? |
| Darcy, our two sad pups were meant for each other...
I think it's funny that we used silly Christmas-decorated sheepie pictures as our 'bad' picture...hmmm, maybe I'm sensing the problem!  |
| Not to make light of the situation, because I've seen that look from Belle and it happens when she feels pushed aside in favor of the younger critters and I immediately grovel and set aside special one on one time with her and that snaps her out of it.
That said: am I the only one who's beginning to sense a trend here? (Thanks, Darcy - I think you just provided the clue) Happy before... Stick hats or x-mas decorations in their face and not so happy anymore... 
Perhaps they're not sad (well, maybe that too) so much as EMBARRASSED. Below is what proper sheepdog Christmas attire is like: it has to be snazzy, it must have pizazz, make your canine buddys stand up and take notice (or flee for their lives - that works too) But most of all it should involve SHOPPING and time alone with special person. Well, mainly shopping. Before: 
Shopping: 
After: 
Sassy. Simple. C'mon, Darcy. This has got to be right up your alley. Here is your challenge (both of you): get them decked out for Valentine's day in a way that doesn't make them look like you're trying to put them on an icefloe and wave goodbye. Perhaps a small pictorial competition for happiest V-day pic...? Kristine |
Sending Bries sexy outfit over to Panda for Valentines day. Show Barney the photo of the luv bug might spark the boy up 
Barney might just be slowing down because of his hips, might be more painfull then you imagine. Dogs are quite stoic and hide it well, they seem to not want to do anything and slow down, like what you posted in another thread like walking up steps to go to bed. Going down steps is easier, making the climb a lot harder for them. If it is winter over there then he will be feeling it even more, also I believe Winter Blues happens a bit too, humans get it so why not dogs as well? Cheer up Panda and Barney life is great with your families and know you are both loved from the otherside of the world.  |
| New baby might have something to do with it. Even though Barney was sad before the baby arrived, I'm sure he could sense what was going on.
My sister's airedale had a lot of change when Mommy was pregnant. He wasn't allowed in the baby room at first, he couldn't play with Mommy like he used to, lots of people coming over NOT to see him...She started setting aside special time every day for him. It's made a huge difference in his attitude. |
I love airedales. Not that I've met one in person, but I just love the way they look. It all started with that Jumbone commercial 
Yeah, I've been trying to give him some extra me-only time every day now, which obviously he loves. I think part of his sadness too is that since he's been chewing on himself so much (for the past year now), we've been yelling at him a lot (Barney, stop chewing on yourself...) so I'm trying to figure out how to get him to stop chewing without yelling at him. |
| can you refresh my memory - why is he chewing so much? |
| We're not sure. We and the vet assume it's allergies. He's always licked himself to some degree, but when we moved to our new house 9/07 he really started licking/chewing and I figured maybe it was a combination of construction dust in the neighborhood/our house, some new materials in the house that he might be allergic to or maybe some new plants in the neighborhood. We've tried all sorts of things to stop (medications, food changes, etc.) but the only thing that ever gets him to stop are steroids. |
| Oh, poor sad Barns! I agree with Lisa - his hips may be hurting him more than he lets on. Is he on any pain/anti-inflammatory meds for his HD? Maybe he's chewing himself more just because of the pain?
I'm sure he loves the extra mommy time! |
barney1 wrote: I so I'm trying to figure out how to get him to stop chewing without yelling at him.
To do that you have to relieve the reason he's chewing. Any clues from your vet? Allergies can be hard just because it can be hard to pin them down (oh, Jaci...?) If it's neurotic (usually boredom/stress) that can be overcome. Any particular part of his body he chews? If it's joint related, x-ray and consider pain meds (you already know he's relatively severely dysplastic, yes? Is he already on any pain meds for that?) I think Susan already mentioned that possibility (chewing due to pain). If he's chewing on himself because he feels pretty miserable and then gets chastised for doing something that in his mind helps alleviate his misery, I can understand the glum expression. Hopefully you can solve or at least manage the chewing issue and that'll be a start towards a return of the happy fuzzy face. Kristine |
| there is an allergy test. I know we have to go 4 houirs to get it and since we seem to have solved out problems when we started feeding raw, I haven't done it (I do knoweven a biscuit with cooked chicken sets off Marleys allergies).
If you haven't had the test I would think it is the place to start. |
| No, we haven't given him an allergy test. I'll look into it. Hopefully we won't have to go all the way to Virginia Tech or someplace to get it done.
The places he licks/chews most often are his food pads, the back of his left hind leg and his general groin area. He's not on any pain meds right now. He's given glucosamine with his meals. I agree--I hate telling him to stop chewing on himself when I know he's only doing it because he feels crummy, but he's chewing himself raw, as well as leaving brown spots on our carpet from where he chews. I don't usually actually 'yell' at him, but just try and get his attention and refocus his activities elsewhere, but doesn't always work and sometimes I do yell, or at least speak loudly. |
| I had both mine to the vet this morning cause they were chewing their feet - happens periodically. they can get dermititis on their feet (wet conditions usually) the vet gives them a shot and some anitbiotic pills and they clear up very quickly. |
barney1 wrote: I agree--I hate telling him to stop chewing on himself when I know he's only doing it because he feels crummy, but he's chewing himself raw, as well as leaving brown spots on our carpet from where he chews. I don't usually actually 'yell' at him, but just try and get his attention and refocus his activities elsewhere, but doesn't always work and sometimes I do yell, or at least speak loudly.
Oh, I absolutely understand. The only way to get anyone to stop itching is to take away the reason for the itch. If you've ever had poison ivy...oh, never mind. Brrrr! 
Kristine |
| I really hope Barney feels better soon. Both him and Panda do look so sad. |
| Maybe his acidic saliva is partially causing the irritation ?
In which case it would be a vicious cycle. |
| I have no words of wisdom, but I sure hope Barney perks up soon. I was thinking new baby blues, like several others.
COME ON BARNEY --- SMILE |
We've got to try to identify what's causing the itching or we have no hope of fixing the problem with either treatment or by preventing exposure. It can be things other than allergies... fleas, mites, infection, yeast or much more serious things like lymphoma (didn't know that one until recently  ).
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm ... 11&aid=423 Steroids are often a quick fix for itching but we need to be aware of some serious side effects of long term use because they suppress the immune system. So it's important to do testing to try to determine the actual cause of itching. For allergy testing, it's cheapest to do it right the first time around. The closest vet that would do dermal testing was at MSU but it's 3 hours away so we went with RAST or blood testing. I feel it was a waste of time and money for us. Panda had some improvement with shots using this method of allergy testing but Darby had no improvement at all during the August-Winter period.
We repeated RAST testing on Darby after about 2 1/2 years of allergy shots because the mfr. recommended it and we were told to add cat epithelium and American Elm... that the reason the shots weren't working is because these things needed to be added to the serum. We declined because it made absolutely no sense... cats and elm are more prevalent from August through snowfall??? 
A new vet joined the practice we use and she was willing to do dermal testing. She suggested a different company so we went with Greer this time and did both intradermal and blood testing in October of last year. http://www.greerlabs.com/vet/vet.index.php http://www.greerlabs.com/vet/documents/ ... rkbook.pdf And yup... I've got pictures . http://oesusa.com/DermalTest101508.htm I left a camera with the vet on the day of testing and asked her to take pictures when testing was completed. Actually a good thing because we were able to identify one additional wheal that appeared a couple of days after treatment. And guess what it was... ragweed. Now THAT makes sense and was one of the allergens I felt might be the cause of Darby's seasonal allergies. Now we have to wait and see if there will be improvement with the shots. Poor Pandi had some level of response to just about everything
We're only about 23 shots into the treatment of all 3 dogs (Darby, Panda and Emma) but this time there are some side effects to the shots... hoping this means we identified the triggers. We're going slow with raising the dosages too. Instead of reaching 1.0ml in 5 shots, we are only at +/- 0.50ml of the first vial strength. If there's a reaction meaning itching, wheals, lethargy, etc., we maintain the level until there are no side effects. We've had itching, licking, wheals and a hot spot so far. And yup, one of Darby's feet are stained due to licking but this approach will give us the best chance at long term control. I've got one dog that's almost 10 who has had reactions to indoor house paint last year. Her ears quickly became very painful and she was scratching like crazy. We had to do a very short course of steroids because of her suffering. It happened again a month or two later and that's when we identified the cause. We will now remove her from the house for a few days the next time we paint. Avoidance... antihistamines/fatty acids/etc... immunotherapy... steroids as a last resort for long term treatment if all else fails. We'll have to see how things go. Best wishes to Barney  |
| Oh bless he does look sad. Summer will sit and lick her feet, underneath pads. She has made them sore but usually a wash will clear them. I think they worry as well. Last night I was convinced Summer wasn't feeling well, she had that look which said go away and leave me alone. I think she was just tired
Hope you get sorted |
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