The Long Car Trip Verdict

Did anyone make a guess from a few weeks ago on how Vito's car ride to Missouri went?  My guess before the start of the trip was that Vito would be calm, on extra drugs for 3.5hrs, and then would panic. About a month after we increased Vito's Clorazepate again he started doing better in the car.  So about October to our trip over Christmas Vito had very few anxiety attacks.

It was supposed to be about 8hrs of driving but due to a horrible snow storm, we were stuck in insane traffic for an hour and a half.  I think we counted 19 cars in the ditch?  Vito did phenomenal for 7hrs.  Ate lots of treats, some french fries, even pretended to sleep for a little bit.  And then it started to go downhill.  Never worked up to full panic attack on the ride down, but did get up to some light trembling and moderate panting that last 2.5hrs.

The ride back was the disaster.  Started panicking before we even fully left the driveway.  Major trembling, heavy panting, and looking like he was going to have a heart attack.  Since he already had lots of extra drugs in his system we couldn't do anything until at least several more hours passed and we could give him more drugs.  Also found out that his fancy Sleepy Pod seatbelt harness is no match for a panicking dog.  Vito was able to do terrifying somersaults and needed saving twice before we gave up.
At the 2.5hr mark Adam climbed in the backseat and made Vito sit on his lap, which doesn't really help but made us feel better.  It must have helped a little as at the 3.5hr mark Vito was still trembling and panting but remarkably less.  No longer looked like an imminent heart attack.  We pulled off to get gas and lunch at 4hrs and decided we could pretend 6hrs between dosings was enough to give him more drugs.  It helped.  Vito calmed down quite a bit and was really good for 3hrs, and light anxiety for the last hour.

Since then though his panic attacks have been a regular basis again.  Not every ride at least.  We're at about 50%.  At least things are still going pretty well at work.  Fingers are crossed that things start to die down again and we can get rid of the daily, or twice daily, panic attacks.