# Tail tucked, hiding, trying to escape, panting- allergy? Anxiety?



## Tgrayy7 (Oct 2, 2021)

My almost two year old vizsla has consistently been having these symptoms and sometimes freezes in position or hides in the closet. First we thought it was good related. We took him to the vet and changed his protein 4 times chicken to beef, beef to lamb, lamb to now salmon. He continued this and it got worse once we switched from his original flea and tick medicine Nextguard to Simparica Trio. He was having these shaking and panting and tail tucking episodes a lot more frequent. We then tried a topical Parastar plus once the pill version of simpatico wore off thinking he is severely allergic to the oral flea and tick medicine. It has now been almost 90 days since we put it on him. He is still having these symptoms. It may be anxiety related. It does not affect his level of activity and doesn’t happen if he is stimulated outside. There are noises that seem to be triggers such as a text message ding on the cell phone or opening the fridge. It happens not just at our house but his grandparents house as well. Has anyone experience this issues due to flea and tick medicine or anxiety related issue?
I have included his allegedly test results as well just for reference. Hi


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Without them being able to talk to us, somethings are just trial and error to figure out. I’m not sure how bad the fleas and ticks are in your area. But if you can get by with something natural, I would consider it at this point.
It also helps if you get a notepad. Write down what goes on during the day, and when these episodes happen. It may help you keep track of the triggers.
I fostered and adopted a severe separation anxiety dog. Because of his anxiety he did have triggers to different noises. I.e. phone alerts, kitchen timers, the microwave the dishwasher. He was fine with me washing clothes, but the dryer bothered him. It took me a while to figure out all of his triggers.
I was never able to cure him, but did keep him off anxiety meds. What helped him be able to relax, was taking him out to the field to hunt, creeks and paths to run. We did weekly obedience classes for a year. And I took him to every store that allowed dogs to practice his obedience.
Him having exercised his body and mind. Made it to where he could relax during some of his triggers. Although truthfully he was probably tired and just slept through them. With him boredom, equaled high anxiety. If we had real bad weather for more than one day, I knew I had to spend at least an hour in the store with him, or go to in obedience class.
If Ranger would not have had anxiety issues, he would’ve been the perfect dog. He was the kind of dog, that made you want to help him have a better life.


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## Bob Engelhardt (Feb 14, 2012)

As was TR's focus, my feeling is that this is a psychological problem. It being an allergy seems unlikely to me. But since he has seen a vet, was it the vet's idea that it is an allergy? Is this something that the vet has seen as an allergy?

Unless there's real good reason to diagnose as allergy, I would go the behavior modification/desensitization route that TR used.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

When you say freezes, are you talking about some type of seizure? If I’ve missed read, and that is the case. Please disregard my previous post. Dogs can become very scared and confused after a seizure. If that’s what’s going on with your dog, yes I would pull him off all flea and tick meds. Have your vet refer him to a specialist.

What makes be think it’s not seizure or epileptic related. It this statement.
“It does not affect his level of activity and doesn’t happen if he is stimulated outside”


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## Tgrayy7 (Oct 2, 2021)

texasred said:


> Without them being able to talk to us, somethings are just trial and error to figure out. I’m not sure how bad the fleas and ticks are in your area. But if you can get by with something natural, I would consider it at this point.
> It also helps if you get a notepad. Write down what goes on during the day, and when these episodes happen. It may help you keep track of the triggers.
> I fostered and adopted a severe separation anxiety dog. Because of his anxiety he did have triggers to different noises. I.e. phone alerts, kitchen timers, the microwave the dishwasher. He was fine with me washing clothes, but the dryer bothered him. It took me a while to figure out all of his triggers.
> I was never able to cure him, but did keep him off anxiety meds. What helped him be able to relax, was taking him out to the field to hunt, creeks and paths to run. We did weekly obedience classes for a year. And I took him to every store that allowed dogs to practice his obedience.
> ...


Thank you. This is helpful and good to know that others have experienced this type of anxiety. We will try the notepad idea to help identify the triggers. As for a natural flea and tick, is there anything that you recommend?


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## Tgrayy7 (Oct 2, 2021)

Bob Engelhardt said:


> As was TR's focus, my feeling is that this is a psychological problem. It being an allergy seems unlikely to me. But since he has seen a vet, was it the vet's idea that it is an allergy? Is this something that the vet has seen as an allergy?
> 
> Unless there's real good reason to diagnose as allergy, I would go the behavior modification/desensitization route that TR used.


The vet doesn’t seem to know why this is happening. Because the behavior seemed to get worse with the flea and tick meds that’s why we initially thought it was the meds but he’s been off of them now for a while and still having these panic attacks. Do you recommend anything for desensitization?


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## Tgrayy7 (Oct 2, 2021)

texasred said:


> When you say freezes, are you talking about some type of seizure? If I’ve missed read, and that is the case. Please disregard my previous post. Dogs can become very scared and confused after a seizure. If that’s what’s going on with your dog, yes I would pull him off all flea and tick meds. Have your vet refer him to a specialist.
> 
> What makes be think it’s not seizure or epileptic related. It this statement.
> “It does not affect his level of activity and doesn’t happen if he is stimulated outside”


Yes, so he freezes like in the first picture where he’ll put his legs up and just not move which is really odd and then outside he’ll typically play but sometimes he’ll just go and sit in a chair for an hour just kind of frozen there.


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## Gabica (Jan 20, 2018)

on the natural tick prevention, i use the natural oil infused collar (only natural pet) and spray them with a natural oil based mixture too (making sure that has some additional oils, like geranium). in fact i use now on myself both the collar (around my neck) and the spray (around my ankle and up till my knees) when we go for our off leash activities, touching wood it has worked so far (we have a lot of white tail deer in the area, so ticks are very common). not sure about fleas, my vizslas swim so often, that i have never been worried about fleas with them.

has your vet done any other bloodwork too? great to see the allergy ones, but maybe a full panel with all the other attributes would be helpful? just an idea, in case there is an other type of imbalance somewhere else in his system.


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## Tgrayy7 (Oct 2, 2021)

Okay thank you! Yes we have a ton of deer in the area too so ticks are bad but he loves swimming also so luckily haven’t dealt with any fleas. We ran a few blood Panels also and they all came back normal.


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

Ellie is going through a scardy cat phase where things like the garbage truck freak her out. All day its driving around the neighborhood with its squeeky brakes and boom-boom when it picks up and emptys the garbage cans. She can't relax and have fun outside at all, even in the woods far away. If the noise can be heard, the tail is tucked and she's ultra sensitive to every noise. We can't have fun at all on garbage days. I was hoping it was a phase , i guess we'll see being your boy is 2 years old and starting with these "trigger" type scardy-cat episodes. Unfortunately I don't have any suggestions for you as it is something we are dealing with around certian things. I've tried walking her and watching the garbage truck. She is generally ok watching it although with the tucked tail and worrisome look. Seems these dogs can be very sensitive.


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## Tgrayy7 (Oct 2, 2021)

It does! Thank you for sharing. We experience it quite frequently when our phone text messages go off so I’ve been trying to play different tones and let him see the phone so maybe he’ll figure out that it won’t hurt him but not so much luck so far. Luckily that only spooks him for a little while until he is distracted by something else. Cooking in the kitchen and the noise of the pots and pans seems to be a trigger also. Once I’m done cooking and we sit down to eat he normally just lays down under the table and seems to calm down a bit.


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## Vivian (Jun 29, 2020)

Neurologic Event Potential and Bravecto, Credelio, Nexgard, Simparica


FDA fact sheet about potential neurologic adverse events in dogs and cats when treated with the flea and tick drugs Bravecto, Credelio, Nexgard, or Simparica.




www.fda.gov





My daughters weim almost died from a huge systemic reaction after having simparica the first time. Lots of info on web about neuro toxins they receive from flea and tick meds. He recovered fully.


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## Tgrayy7 (Oct 2, 2021)

Vivian said:


> Neurologic Event Potential and Bravecto, Credelio, Nexgard, Simparica
> 
> 
> FDA fact sheet about potential neurologic adverse events in dogs and cats when treated with the flea and tick drugs Bravecto, Credelio, Nexgard, or Simparica.
> ...


wow! Thank you for sending. I’ve been going crazy with thinking it started with the flea and tick meds versus anxiety. He did not act like this before the meds though so I’m really hoping it wears off. It’s awful. Do you know about how long it took forhim to recover?


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## Vivian (Jun 29, 2020)

Tgrayy7 said:


> wow! Thank you for sending. I’ve been going crazy with thinking it started with the flea and tick meds versus anxiety. He did not act like this before the meds though so I’m really hoping it wears off. It’s awful. Do you know about how long it took forhim to recover?


I don’t remember how long. Explore seeing an integrative vet in your area. Meaning holistic and regular western med There are tinctures that help with detox. Some vets also include Chinese medicine.


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## anna wright (Dec 12, 2021)

Tgrayy7 said:


> My almost two year old vizsla has consistently been having these symptoms and sometimes freezes in position or hides in the closet. First we thought it was good related. We took him to the vet and changed his protein 4 times chicken to beef, beef to lamb, lamb to now salmon. He continued this and it got worse once we switched from his original flea and tick medicine Nextguard to Simparica Trio. He was having these shaking and panting and tail tucking episodes a lot more frequent. We then tried a topical Parastar plus once the pill version of simpatico wore off thinking he is severely allergic to the oral flea and tick medicine. It has now been almost 90 days since we put it on him. He is still having these symptoms. It may be anxiety related. It does not affect his level of activity and doesn’t happen if he is stimulated outside. There are noises that seem to be triggers such as a text message ding on the cell phone or opening the fridge. It happens not just at our house but his grandparents house as well. Has anyone experience this issues due to flea and tick medicine or anxiety related issue?
> I have included his allegedly test results as well just for reference. Hi
> 
> View attachment 103712
> ...


I see this message is 2 mo old. You might gotten resolution since, perhaps. IBut if not, it just came to my mind to ask: who is with him when your are not? Who else spend time with him, in your absence? If you really trust that person with your dog. His behaviour might interpreted like he gained some negative experience of which you are not aware. When this behaviour occured?


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