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Puzzling Issues!
I have a 7 yr. old femal Chihuahua named Lola. Lola was dumped in a friends truck several years ago and my daughter brought her home to us. She has always been a little high strung but nothing we couldn't deal with. Although she seemed to have a few "anxiety Issues" along the way she decided that I was her master and protector and she was VERY affectionate with me, constantly seeking to be petted and have her stomach rubbed and just a very loving little pet with me. As loving as she has been with me, she was also VERY protective of me. About six months ago she started showing signs that something was wrong with her backend and would cry in pain from time to time and always try to lick her hind legs when this happened. She's been on pain medication by mouth for this and it did seem to help, however as time went on the screaming sounds increased (as if she was in pain). Recently she started showing signs of a possible throat and ear infection. When I tried to pick her up to bring her to a vet to be checked out, she snapped and tried to bite me. This behavior continued until I finally (days later) had to figure a way to corner her into her kennel to get her checked out, which I finally was able to do. Once she arrived at the Vet's office and they tried to check her over she made loud screams (as if in pain) and growled and tried to bite all around her. The doctor immediately put her on Prozac at one tablet a day. They decided to keep her for a week and medicate her for her infections and keep an eye on her behavior and check her for other problems that could possibly be causing the odd behavior. They found nothing. Once we brought her home they asked that I keep her on the Prozac at the same strength until she calmed more then we could decrease to one-half the strength which we did. She is not screaming as much as she first did but she still does it from time to time. I notice this when she seems to hurt her back end. The explanation given for the back end pain was that she may have a possible disc problem on her back end. I decided to bring her back to the vet's office two days ago to try a shot of cortisone to see if there was any improvement with her back end and the shot has shown improvement in Lola. Her back end doesn't look as weak as it did before and when she first gets up after laying down a while, she seems to do this better and faster and doesn't "Yipe" when she does it. She's more playful and energetic and just seems to feel better in general. The one thing I've noticed that she still has a problem with is... Me trying to touch or pet her. She's following me around a lot again and I praise her when she goes outside to potty or does what's asked of her but she still snaps at me when I try to touch or pet her. I'm not sure if there are some "Mental" issues going on here or if it's just strictly a physical/pain issue that coincided with the infecitons that got her down. Any help or similar situation advice would be greatly appreciated.
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