Five months ago, I adopted a GSD from an owner who had had her since she was a puppy. She’s having two challenges that suggest that she’s probably been out of balance most of her life. I believe she may need classical homeopathic treatment. I don’t know about a conventional vet visit. I’m hoping I can avoid that if possible. I’m posting here for feedback and if warranted, homeopathy advice and/or referrals.
1. Maya, 6 years old, female.
2. Neutered.
3. GSD.
4. 60 lbs.
5. BEAM: She is very fearful of thunder and lightening. We also get buzzed occasionally by military planes flying very low over our mountains, and that stresses her a lot, too. She is aggressive with other dogs, and was re-homed because she fought with the previous owner’s fiancé’s dog. This situation occurred for a number of months, so those behaviors got practiced. She reacts strongly to seeing dogs and other animals on TV, jumping up and barking. Her barking tone is deep, but often her tail wags just a little (not raised high). Three times she has charged at neighbors with their dogs when they walk by while barking aggressively and getting right up to intimidate them, so I have to manage her closely when we are outside as I have no fence. She is affectionate with me and bonded closely as GSD’s do, and quickly. Her mood is good. She continues to get more affectionate. She’s a good communicator and lets me know when she wants something by nudging me, then leading me to where she wants something (food, potty, water, outside, etc). Her appetite and energy are suboptimal as of the past month or so (see below). She seems to be fatiguing faster when I throw balls for her. If I let her, she used to chase balls until her tongue was hanging on the ground, but lately she lies down for breaks. I am retired, so she is rarely alone, gets a lot of attention, love, play and exercise. She gets an average of 3 ball throwing sessions every day (her favorite activity). We sit outside and enjoy the mountain environment. I go for walks a few days a week with a neighbor who she adores. I almost always take her with me when I go out, which she loves. I’ve just finished making a snuffle mat for her. The last two months, she has started running exuberantly about the way a puppy does when it’s super happy and wanting to discharge some energy. It’s adorable and I play stalk her, which eggs her on. I do allow her to get on my bed, and she’s choosing to lie next to me on the bed more often.
6. 80% raw, 5-10% cooked meat or stews, 5% vegetable (ie, kale and blueberries, canned pumpkin, etc.), 10% commercial canned. Previously, she was fed kibble (Purina).
7. Vaccinated according to conventional recommendations, which means over-vaccinated right on schedule whenever a vaccine was due.
8. First problem:
Appetite. Previous owner tells me he “had trouble getting her to eat [since] she was a puppy,” but she would also go through periods of about 6 months where she would eat well. Vets could never find an explanation, so it was chalked it up to anxiety because he took her on the road with him for his job, which he felt destabilized her. Vet put her intermittently on fluoxetine and once on trazodone. I weaned her off of the fluoxetine she was on when I got her. She does have some separation anxiety on the very rare occasion she stays home alone, but I have seen absolutely no evidence of anxiety that would warrant anxiety medication. She has a stable routine with me. She was eating great the first few months she was here (at a time when you’d think her stress would be higher with a new owner), and she took readily to raw. However, in the last month, she has regressed again and been refusing her food more. There does seem to be some kind of cyclical thing going on that goes back to her being young. She’s more apt to reject raw right now, so sometimes I can entice her by cooking the meat or adding flavor enhancers (a slight dusting of Italian sheep cheese or a few drops of bacon fat). She’s more likely to reject the raw at her first morning meal. She will occasionally vomit yellow bile in the morning. This, too, is a lifelong pattern. If I feed her between 6-7 am, it usually keeps vomiting at bay, but not 100%. I try to give her a snack close to bedtime to help her get through the night. After a tiring ball chasing session, she will occasionally start eating grass or some greenery. It appears to be like she is self-medicating for an uncomfortable stomach. Lately she is also chewing on wood twigs, although she’s not swallowing them.
Second problem:
Itching. She was itching up a storm when I got her. She scratched all over, both with her paws and her mouth. She also licked her paws. Her previous owner thinks that she has allergies, but he also told me she seems to itch more in the Winter. We are humid here (and where she came from), so I don’t think it’s dry skin, and it hasn’t gotten cold yet either. When I got Maya, I took her to a nearby holistic vet. One of the vet’s specialties is flower essences, and she does a bit of non-classical homeopathy, too. We put her on a blend of flower essences and gave her two doses of thuja. I wanted to wait a few months and see how she did before deciding whether I needed to get her a classical homeopathic consult. Her itching was definitely getting better, her energy was good. Then, quite suddenly, the itching came back again two weeks ago with a vengeance. Same type of itching as before. For the first time since I got her, I pulled three ticks out of her that she picked up when we visited the flatlands (we live in the NC mountains). Since those bites occurred right before the itching came back, I’ve been wondering if tick bites could act as an immune trigger and reverse the progress she had made. I have not been able to identify specific food allergies. She gets a variety of proteins, including turkey, lamb, beef, chicken, salmon, white fish, sardines, tuna, eggs and pork. I’ve not seen a pattern to a particular protein intolerance. The only supplement I've been giving her is Moxxor. I think I should probably give her probiotics, but I don't know what brand or how much. I don’t have other ideas for what could account for her rather rapid reversal. Nothing changed with respect to our routine or socially. Although we did go through the hurricane (our power was out for almost 5 days and we couldn't go outside much, but otherwise, not too remarkable for us), her appetite had changed prior to that, and her itching didn’t start until a few weeks after the hurricane when we went to a lower elevation where she picked up the ticks.
I have one set of labs that were run in January of 2024. a few months before I got her.
I’d like to know if there’s something I should try or whether she should get a homeopathic consult given the longstanding nature of these challenges. We live in the North Carolina mountains if there’s someone to take her to in NC or eastern TN in person. I can also work with someone virtually, of course. Thank you!
1. Maya, 6 years old, female.
2. Neutered.
3. GSD.
4. 60 lbs.
5. BEAM: She is very fearful of thunder and lightening. We also get buzzed occasionally by military planes flying very low over our mountains, and that stresses her a lot, too. She is aggressive with other dogs, and was re-homed because she fought with the previous owner’s fiancé’s dog. This situation occurred for a number of months, so those behaviors got practiced. She reacts strongly to seeing dogs and other animals on TV, jumping up and barking. Her barking tone is deep, but often her tail wags just a little (not raised high). Three times she has charged at neighbors with their dogs when they walk by while barking aggressively and getting right up to intimidate them, so I have to manage her closely when we are outside as I have no fence. She is affectionate with me and bonded closely as GSD’s do, and quickly. Her mood is good. She continues to get more affectionate. She’s a good communicator and lets me know when she wants something by nudging me, then leading me to where she wants something (food, potty, water, outside, etc). Her appetite and energy are suboptimal as of the past month or so (see below). She seems to be fatiguing faster when I throw balls for her. If I let her, she used to chase balls until her tongue was hanging on the ground, but lately she lies down for breaks. I am retired, so she is rarely alone, gets a lot of attention, love, play and exercise. She gets an average of 3 ball throwing sessions every day (her favorite activity). We sit outside and enjoy the mountain environment. I go for walks a few days a week with a neighbor who she adores. I almost always take her with me when I go out, which she loves. I’ve just finished making a snuffle mat for her. The last two months, she has started running exuberantly about the way a puppy does when it’s super happy and wanting to discharge some energy. It’s adorable and I play stalk her, which eggs her on. I do allow her to get on my bed, and she’s choosing to lie next to me on the bed more often.
6. 80% raw, 5-10% cooked meat or stews, 5% vegetable (ie, kale and blueberries, canned pumpkin, etc.), 10% commercial canned. Previously, she was fed kibble (Purina).
7. Vaccinated according to conventional recommendations, which means over-vaccinated right on schedule whenever a vaccine was due.
8. First problem:
Appetite. Previous owner tells me he “had trouble getting her to eat [since] she was a puppy,” but she would also go through periods of about 6 months where she would eat well. Vets could never find an explanation, so it was chalked it up to anxiety because he took her on the road with him for his job, which he felt destabilized her. Vet put her intermittently on fluoxetine and once on trazodone. I weaned her off of the fluoxetine she was on when I got her. She does have some separation anxiety on the very rare occasion she stays home alone, but I have seen absolutely no evidence of anxiety that would warrant anxiety medication. She has a stable routine with me. She was eating great the first few months she was here (at a time when you’d think her stress would be higher with a new owner), and she took readily to raw. However, in the last month, she has regressed again and been refusing her food more. There does seem to be some kind of cyclical thing going on that goes back to her being young. She’s more apt to reject raw right now, so sometimes I can entice her by cooking the meat or adding flavor enhancers (a slight dusting of Italian sheep cheese or a few drops of bacon fat). She’s more likely to reject the raw at her first morning meal. She will occasionally vomit yellow bile in the morning. This, too, is a lifelong pattern. If I feed her between 6-7 am, it usually keeps vomiting at bay, but not 100%. I try to give her a snack close to bedtime to help her get through the night. After a tiring ball chasing session, she will occasionally start eating grass or some greenery. It appears to be like she is self-medicating for an uncomfortable stomach. Lately she is also chewing on wood twigs, although she’s not swallowing them.
Second problem:
Itching. She was itching up a storm when I got her. She scratched all over, both with her paws and her mouth. She also licked her paws. Her previous owner thinks that she has allergies, but he also told me she seems to itch more in the Winter. We are humid here (and where she came from), so I don’t think it’s dry skin, and it hasn’t gotten cold yet either. When I got Maya, I took her to a nearby holistic vet. One of the vet’s specialties is flower essences, and she does a bit of non-classical homeopathy, too. We put her on a blend of flower essences and gave her two doses of thuja. I wanted to wait a few months and see how she did before deciding whether I needed to get her a classical homeopathic consult. Her itching was definitely getting better, her energy was good. Then, quite suddenly, the itching came back again two weeks ago with a vengeance. Same type of itching as before. For the first time since I got her, I pulled three ticks out of her that she picked up when we visited the flatlands (we live in the NC mountains). Since those bites occurred right before the itching came back, I’ve been wondering if tick bites could act as an immune trigger and reverse the progress she had made. I have not been able to identify specific food allergies. She gets a variety of proteins, including turkey, lamb, beef, chicken, salmon, white fish, sardines, tuna, eggs and pork. I’ve not seen a pattern to a particular protein intolerance. The only supplement I've been giving her is Moxxor. I think I should probably give her probiotics, but I don't know what brand or how much. I don’t have other ideas for what could account for her rather rapid reversal. Nothing changed with respect to our routine or socially. Although we did go through the hurricane (our power was out for almost 5 days and we couldn't go outside much, but otherwise, not too remarkable for us), her appetite had changed prior to that, and her itching didn’t start until a few weeks after the hurricane when we went to a lower elevation where she picked up the ticks.
I have one set of labs that were run in January of 2024. a few months before I got her.
I’d like to know if there’s something I should try or whether she should get a homeopathic consult given the longstanding nature of these challenges. We live in the North Carolina mountains if there’s someone to take her to in NC or eastern TN in person. I can also work with someone virtually, of course. Thank you!
