On 9/11/09, we posted about a sound sensitivity issue that our white Mini Schnauzer, Ivie had developed. (Please see previous blog).We've had many, many suggestions from all over the world about a) what could cause this, and b) what to do about it . . . Suggestions far too numerous to mention in detail, but the top items were:
1) Have her thyroid checked.
2) Have her hearing checked.
3) Have her teeth checked for cracks, decay, etc.
4) Have her checked by a chiropractor / acupuncturist.
5) Work with her on a behavior level, desensitize her to the sound.
Actually, the behavior suggestion was the most commonly received one. Many people said that their dogs developed sensitivity to various sounds, from electronic camera flashes to thunder and they were able to work with them through behavior to help them. However, our concern was that if there was a physical cause, teaching her to not exhibit the pain wouldn't be a good thing.
So, we attempted to look for a physical cause before going the behavior route.
Our first step was to have her thyroid checked. As suggested by several readers, we wanted not just a simple screening, but a full thyroid panel. Blood was taken and sent to Michigan State. A week or so later, the results came back, and although most levels were in the normal range, her free T3 panel was very low. The specialist said that she would not consider Ivie to have hypothyroidism with her particular values, but our regular vet and we decided it was still a good thing to treat it as such since thyroid issues can be a bit "abnormal".
We started her on Thyrosin and were hopeful that we'd see improvement shortly. Unfortunately, after several weeks it seemed that this had no effect at all on her sound sensitivity. (We are still glad we had this done, because it revealed another issue that we would not have known about otherwise). She's due to get her blood retested on 11/11/09 just to be sure all the values are now in the normal range.
Our next step was to have her hearing checked. If, in fact, she was becoming deaf as several readers suggested, certain normal sounds could be very frightening, we supposed. We made an appointment with a veterinary hearing specialist who also happens to be a neurologist for a Baer test.
When we arrived for the Baer test and began speaking with the doctor, she told us that the Baer test only tells if the dog can hear or not; it's commonly used with puppies that are suspected of being deaf to determine if they are truly unable to hear. The test would not tell us if she was having sensitivity to a particular range of frequencies. Since we were already there, she proceeded to do a series of neurological tests on her - lying her on her back and looking in her eyes, poking and prodding her in various places, having me walk and jog with her to see if she had any gait issues. Aside from a general soreness in her shoulders, she detected nothing unusual. She recommended that we may want to try some acupuncture and/or Chinese medicine remedies, which we still may do, but haven't as of this writing.
Our third effort involved finding a vet who could take dental x-rays, as ours does not. At first we thought we would need to drive to Gainesville to the veterinary college, but a little more digging brought us to a clinic in Largo that specializes in canine dentistry. We met with Ashley B. Oakes, DVM, of Tampa Bay Veterinary Specialists in Largo, Florida, and she did a full exam in preparation for the x-rays. Dr. Oakes did not particularly care for the position of Ivie's upper front tooth, which was slightly behind the teeth on either side of it. Although she did not think this tooth could be the cause of the problem, she felt that it could bother Ivie at some point since it was hitting the lower teeth awkwardly when she closed her mouth. So, since Ivie was going to be sedated for the x-rays anyway, we decided to have the tooth extracted and have her teeth cleaned at the same time. No cracks or injured teeth were found.
Surprisingly, after her visit to the dentist, Ivie did seem to be slightly more tolerant of sounds, at least for a little while. Unfortunately, it seems to be getting worse now, which makes us believe it may now be behavioral since she got used to having that reaction.
Our next step will be to work on the behavior itself, having done as much as we can to eliminate physical causes. We've bought a referee's whistle, and plan on practicing flyball in the backyard and lightly whistling and treating her (with baby food, one of her favorite treats) at the same time.
If anyone has any other ideas on how to change this behavior, please feel free to comment. Thanks!!
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