new meds for thirteen

I don't think I've mentioned this recently but Thirteen's pacing has gotten worse again. For the past week she's been pacing until she drops -- for 10, 12, even 20 hours once -- then collapsing, sleeping for a day, then getting up and pacing again. I've been walking her more to try and tire her out, but heck, if she can pace for 12 hours straight then a 45 minute walk isn't going to slow her down.

Dr. Broussard has been suggesting senile dementia for a while, but I never gave it much consideration before. But this time there seems to be a clear correlation with emotional factors. Specifically, my taking that job. Suddenly Thirteen is alone for 5-8 hours every day, and suddenly she's super-agitated all the time. So I broke down and got a prescription for anti-old-age-craziness medication. It's called Selegiline and they didn't give me a booklet, but I looked it up online and it's mainly used to treat Parkinson's disease.

The bad news is that it takes 3 to 6 weeks to see any effect. The other, more serious bad news is there are some pretty nasty side effects. Like vomiting, diarrhea, extreme lethargy or extreme agitation (I thought she already had that last one). I'm supposed to start Thirteen on a half dose and slowly bring her up to the full dose if she doesn't have these side effects. We decided to wait until Saturday to start the drug, so that if she has a reaction she won't be all alone throwing up or worse in the house until I get back from work. And the vet also told me not to give Thirteen any of the other painkillers from before (tramadol and buprenorphine) in combination with selegiline. I wouldn't have anyway because the former didn't help and we used up the latter. But I appreciate the warning. The web page also had a big long list of foods that you can't eat while on this drug; luckily I'm pretty sure none of them are in Thirteen's food.

I don't feel great about giving Thirteen this drug, but something has to be done. We'll try it and see if it helps or just turns her into a zombie.

On the bright side, I've finally adjusted emotionally to the idea of bringing a new dog into the house, and just saw a dog on the Independent Animal Rescue website that looks like she might be a perfect fit. They describe her as "Extremely lazy, sleeps all day but loves to go on walks. Laid back and sweet. Timid at first." That sounds like Thirteen's twin! I wrote them an email this evening. Cross your fingers for us!