Things are getting out of control. In my head, at least. You might have noticed I took down the post about Romi because I thought it was mean. I don’t take back what I said, I do think she’s being disrespectful to her girlfriend and I don’t think that being bipolar is an excuse for bad behavior. I do however think it can be part of a reason behind such behavior. But I took it down, because if it IS from a massive manic episode, the last thing she needs are people calling her bitch. When all is said and done, I hope she finds balance and that she’s not as horrible a person as the show makes her look.
Now, onto my own bipolar issues. I’m losing it. I can feel it.
It doesn’t help that Willow, my girl corgi isn’t sleeping well at night because we just gave her some flea medicine which, weirdly enough only seemed to make them angry. So at night she acts like they’re attacking her and we’ve had to make her sleep with a cone on her head so she won’t bite herself.
Thursday night, for the first night in a long time, I actually felt sleepy and like I might be able to get to bed before 2:00 am. But an hour later, Willow woke me up crying that she had the cone on her head. So I woke up and stumbled around in the dark to take off her cone. Hoping that she was tired enough to just sleep through the night.
Thirty minutes later and I hear her running around the room, biting at her leg and snorting. (she’s a chubby corgi and she snorts a lot) I again, stumble through the dark, not wanting to wake up my sleeping wife and put the cone back on and spray her down with cedar and tea tree oil. (Supposedly natural flea repellents) if they are, they’re not working.
This went on all night long. I’m a light sleeper and the slightest whimper from one of my dogs has me wide awake, checking on them. By 7:00 am, it was time for Remi to get up and finally, Willow was worn out enough to sleep. Which meant, I could finally sleep. Sort of. I got a few hours of shut eye that morning and by the time I got out of bed, I saw that my day was half gone. I felt defeated.
Friday night, was a repeat with Willow. And before you wonder how could we let her suffer with fleas, let me tell you, we’ve put flea medicine on her, used all the natural remedies, given her multiple baths, changed the sheets, vacuumed, cleaned, EVERYTHING!! And our other dog, isn’t having a bad time with fleas at all. So I have no idea why she’s having such a bad time this summer.
So night 2 of being up with Willow all night.Then last night, she seemed like she was going to be fine. She was sleeping peacefully by 11:00 pm. Which was good news since I felt the onset of a migraine coming on. By 2:30 am she was up, crying, running around. My migraine was full blown. I was in bed with an ice pack. Luckily, Remi, who usually sleeps through everything woke up and tried to soothe her back to sleep. But it didn’t work. Willow had something like a doggy panic attack! She was running around, crying, biting at herself. We were both up trying to figure out how to help her. We took her outside to get some fresh air. Sprayed her down with tea tree and neem oil. Wrapped her up in her thunder coat, put her cone back on her, gave her rescue remedy. I laid on the couch with another ice pack, all this running around had caused my migraine to kick into full gear. I was throwing up and crying. It was now almost 4:00 am and my poor wife had to go to work on the morning. But she didn’t want to leave me and Willow alone, in the mess that we were in.
I pleaded with her and convinced her that I was fine. Willow had finally settled down too, so I laid on the couch in the living room with an ice pack on my forehead, crying, with one dog at my feet and the other by my side.
The morning light was creeping through the windows before I finally made my way back to the bedroom. Said goodbye to Remi who was leaving for work and fell into bed, thankful that Willow and I were going to get some sleep. Finally.
I woke up today and took a mental check of myself. Migraine? Gone. Back? Hurt. Dogs? Sleeping peacefully next to me. Time? 2:00 pm!! Mood? Fucked.
I had ruined another day!! I have so much to do, but I feel like I can’t even think straight. I’m in a haze of blah-ness. Not sleeping well is only amplifying everything a 1000xs. The housework is piling up. The writing is not happening. The gym and working out? Please tell me how to expend energy I don’t have. I can barely sit up right now. To say I feel like shit is an understatement.
Someone wrote a comment a few blogs ago, saying that I was stronger then most for always picking myself up again. Thank you, but I’m not. I don’t feel strong. I feel frustrated and angry at myself. I feel like I’m always back at square one. I feel like I’m going to lose it. And when I say lose it, I mean it. I actually feel like I’m going to have a breakdown. Except that I refuse to. I refuse to give up. …… Or so I keep telling myself.
Are you sure it is fleas? I ask because both of my dogs (husky and rat terrier) have allergies. The symptoms you describe sound the same as what my dogs go through. They’ve both had them so bad that they would dig, and dig and get bacterial infections and have to go on antibiotics. I treat it with Benadryl and about once a year they have to get cortisone shots. I think if one of your babies had fleas, the other would too.
As for your migraine, a medication called Maxalt has worked wonders for my migraines. Maxalt has been a life saver. You only take it as needed and it’s not a narcotic.
Hi Tina,
That’s a good point! I know my little boy had food allergies, so I went grain free organic for both of them and he’s all better. I was even cooking all their food for more then a year, but couldn’t keep up with it and finally found two good, organic, grain free foods. So I don’t “think ” it’s allergies. Although it could be I guess.
I do know for sure she has a patch of fleas near her hoo hoo …. We washed her and put flee meds on her back. 2 days later we discovered the fleas had all migrated to underneath her and in one patch. Poor baby!! We bathed her again ….
But thank you for reminding me of Benadryl, my vet told me we can safely use that as an occasional sedative also … So we might give her one to tonight if she has problems again. We’re treating the problem, but in the mean time, she’s so miserable!!!
Tina, my wife just told me after I read her your comment that she thinks it might be seasonal allergies, because her eyes are all watery too!!
It’s seasonal allergies for both of mine. Benadryl works wonders. Good luck. I hate it when mine are feeling bad, specially my husky because he will “talk” me to death letting me know.
He’s very verbal. I hope you and Willow feel better soon.
I’m sorry you’re suffering from migraines. I do to, and sometimes not sleeping can trigger them. I sometimes take Benadryl myself to help with sleep. I’ve tried Maxalt, and the melt-aways worked but the tablets didn’t. Insurance won’t cover it so I’m trying an Imitrex nasal spray, so if you have a prescription that doesn’t work, maybe try a different form? Good luck with everything. I’m sorry you’re struggling right now.
Sasha I am sorry to hear that you have been feeling this way. Consider giving yourself the gift of forgiveness — leave behind the anger, frustration and disappointment you feel from slipping over the last while. The weight of them can make moving forward seem like walking through the thickest quicksand when you have no energy to begin with. You can’t change how those days panned out anyway, so allow yourself to just forget them and start tomorrow with a truly clean slate. Keep your goals modest and achievable. What is ONE thing you can do tomorrow that would be an improvement over today? Something small where you can see the result immediately may be the way to start so that you get a visual sense of accomplishment and it can serve as a reminder of your success. If that is all you feel you can do that day, that’s perfectly fine. Tomorrow you will build on that success with a new task. Slipping down takes time. So does crawling back up. You can do it. And you will!
A lot of dogs are actually allergic to the protein in beef as well. If any of the food you’re feeding contains beef as a protein source I’d change it to either chicken or fish. And the less ingredients in a food, the better. My staffy used to get horrible hot spots and as soon as I changed his food there was a marked improvement.
Hope everything looks up for you all soon.
Our dog had a serious case of the fleas, nothing we did made it better. Finally, I shaved her. It made my mom cry (dog was fine), but after that all the treatments started workibg. Her coat and undercoat were just too thick for anything to properly penetrate. I left her tail, legs, and neck to head unshaved for her dignigty, but the rest had to go. You and Remi may need to consider that as an option. Post-shaving we gave her an anti-flea bath, as well as oatmeal to sooth the itchy and sore spots.
Your refusal to give up, which is constant, that is your strength. You don’t have to feel strong to be strong, and sometimes when you’re in it… being strong feels overrated. I’m wishing you positivity, and as a small step that even waking up at 2pm doesn’t make you feel like you just threw your whole day away. You’re down a few hours, but there’s still time ifor you. <3
Does Willow per chance have long hair? I had a border collie for the longest time and the fleas just tormented him. I think they liked all of the hiding places in that nice long fur. We tried EVERYTHING to get rid of them! Wash everything, bathe your house in that flee powder, doggie baths, sprays, drops,… You name it. Finally we tried Advantage. It worked great. It not only gets rid of the fleas on your pet, but the ones on the property as well. Awesome!
Hope your migrains get better soon too. I know my mood always falls when I don’t get enough sleep. *fingers crossed that tonight will be a better night*
Tina, thank you!!!! We gave Willow a benadryl last night and she slept like a baby! No itching, no crying, nothing! THANK YOU!!!
And Heather, she has medium length fur, but it is very thick and I think that’s the issue with the fleas.
Elegy, I am NOT shaving her! I read up on shaving corgis and they say it’s a BAD idea. Apparently, it’s not healthy for them and it nev grows back right. But we may shave her underbelly a little, you know, like a sanitary shave?
Anyways, I just wanted to thank EVERYONE for your tips and hints, they really helped a lot!
Elegy ~ http://mycorgi.com/forum/topics/shaving-your-corgi
Fancy that. My dog is double coated, and as I said the shaving did benefit her by ridding her of the fleas, and we did not have complications. Her hair grew back normally. I think that the two factors that helped were that 1) she was/is young (she was somewhere between 2 and 4 at the time), and she’s mostly indoors. I can see why you wouldn’t want to shave either of yours. I’m glad the benedryl worked, and I hope you can get rid of those fleas!
Although we have cats not dogs, they still suffer from fleas. We’ve also found that Advantage works well. Glad to hear that your precious pooch got some sleep, and that you did too.
Hey Sasha,
Fleas are the devil when it comes to pets! Trust me I understand… Here’s hoping the remedies start kicking in soon.
I have a toy fox terrier with a high pedigree. Sometimes the pure breeds do have allergies to fleas and it will result in a secondary infection that could be bacterial or fungal. My little guy was going nuts and I had to take a three pronged approach to clear it. Initially, I used traditional medicine which offered complete relief until I can come up with a natural method that works. Initally, to ease the suffering, I gave him Trifectis (not sure of the spelling) which is a once a month oral tablet that adresses full cycle flea infestation, intestional parasites and heartworm prevention. Also, a course of oral antibiotics to cure the skin infection, and Atopica to address allergies and yeast control which was the primary cause of itching. These are strong drugs and I have no intention of giving them long term,but they did work to get the problems under control until I strike upon a natural solution. Does Willow get frequent ear infections? If so, it might indicate yeast problems that result from the lowered immunity which sometimes results from allergies and the stress they cause. Benedryl is a godsend but it only works to address the allergic response and not the underlying cause. Best of luck as you seek answers for little Miss Willow. Hugs to you both (and Angel and Remi, of course).
I’m sorry that you r having some eff’d up days. Makes me wish i could give you a hug. May peace and blessed energy flow your way
I can totally relate to the dog sleeping mess. Heart did not wake up 3 weeks ago. She was in a coma like state. It was hell. Longest 3 minutes of my life and trust me there is some major competition for that title. Anyhow vet thinks she might have seizers so she sleeps in my room. Like your dog Heart chews, sucks and licks her fleas all damn night and it drives me crazy. So I understand you completely. I’ve been having a hard time w lack of sleep myself. Well having fractured my elbow from Heart knocking me over during one of her frequent fear episodes doesn’t help with restful sleep. Oh the crazy ass craziness of life my friend Sasha I understand. Hang in there. Hugs.
oh no! poor puppy and poor Sasha! I hope things get better soon! my pups have been keeping me up too with allergies. i’ve been using oatmeal shampoo and benadryl. i think sleep def ties into a person’s emotional state. usually if i have to stay up later for whatever reason,it ends with me in tears and a mess the next day. i unfortunately become a weepy emotional mess when i am overtired.
Hi Sash!
Been awhile. Sorry to hear you are not feeling/sleeping well. About your doggie…when you bathe them, have you tried drowning those damn fleas? By submerging the dog’s bodies and not the face in water for a little bit. Then treating the face with your flea stuff. Nothing can breath under water for to long.
Hope you and your dog babies are feeling better Sasha.