Traumatized Animals: Could They Have A Form Of Ptsd?

[Powder]

Feel free to move this if I placed it incorrectly. Sorry for the long, emotional post.

Yesterday, I had the chance to interact with a dog named Annie, the companion of a new co-worker.

Annie was a rescue from a severely abusive first home, where the rescuers believe she was chained to a tree or post in the back yard and severely beaten by an adult male, due to her triggers. She could not tolerate a collar or being on a leash or harness at all; she would start to shake and cry and run in circles trying to escape. She has scars on the bridge of her muzzle where she was hit and cut, and knots all over her spine where she was hit with something heavy.

I dissociated a bit when M. described Annie's symptoms and behavior in my office, because she was describing me, and it came at me unprepared and without warning.

I guess it was just triggering for someone I just met offering a 100% accurate description of what I would act like when triggered. I felt like she was talking about me, not her dog, so it was scary for a second. I felt stripped down for a second. But when I regained composure, I felt sympathy for this dog. And I know that dogs can exhibit trauma, but being non-verbal, the whole thing is just different. They can't tell you what they feel, but they can act on it. And how they act is how I act in flashback or when triggered; and I try so hard to hide this from others.

So when my co-worker and I drove up to Annie's home for a dinner meeting, Annie came to the door along with two other guest doggies. Annie went to me like a moth to a flame. She was so busy studying me that she sort of blocked the doorway in a daze.

Out of the three dogs, I knew she was Annie, because I basically picked the PTSD dog out of the lineup. It was like, which one acts like I feel?

I knew Annie's story of recovery. She can tolerate things now, she wears a collar, and is very calm at home, not fretting, barking, shaking, or running to hide anymore. She took over a year to learn to trust her new owner, who gives her daily meal, walk, cuddle routines and massages to help ease her spirit. Her human, M. calls her "Monkey" as a nickname with deep affection. M. loves her and suffers to see her suffer. Her voice cracks and her shoulders sag when she mentions Annie. She's a supporter who shoulders the pain of the sufferer in her own body, helping it be a shared burden. :cry: She takes some of the weight off of Annie and takes it into herself because she loves her and it's a choice, a sacrifice.

Okay, After the initial bonding and then retreat, Annie came up to me and sat on my left side with that "pet me" body language, and as I petted her, I felt all the places where she is knotted up inside, including her throat, an esophageal spasm, like mine. I felt she gave me her right side. The left side is often the side of the body most brutalized in survivors, and the left side often feels instinctively too vulnerable. I felt fear and love mingle. I was afraid because I knew what I'd find, and I know it too well. I was afraid of how triggered I could be with the body of another survivor, even a dog's body.

Not being one to back down, I massaged her, sticking to her right side, spine, and chin/throat; and she enjoyed it, but sometimes, her eyes looked afraid at the same time as trusting. So familiar. Being touched on her left made her look me in the eye, triggered, like "please don't." In feeling her chin, which dogs like, I felt a spasm floating in her throat. I know that I have esophageal spasms from holding fear in my body. She really got into me doing light massage there to soften that area. (I'm not a massage T. but I am related to several and have experience; but after one flashback in massage, I haven't been back in over 5 years. Don't want to be touched and go in to FB again, too embarrassing.)

I asked her owner if she has trouble with her throat, and found out that it's a huge issue, with Annie choking and gagging, but the vet can't find anything wrong, only the spasm. I didn't have the courage or familiarity to tell the owner about how this is a chronic trauma symptom.

Annie's shoulders were tense where they met her spine, as if they fused from a fracture or just from permanent tension there from hypervigilance (Might need to RUN!).

This dog and I completely bonded, and her owner was surprised how quickly I was giving Annie just what she needed and how completely Annie trusted me to know what was needed for her.

This is not normal for me. I mean, dogs do tend to pick me out of a crowd and come up to me for attention. But not like this.

I'm not a scientist or therapist; I'm just an observer that this dog has very similar body issues to me, and her eyes betrayed the same chronic fear/anxiety mixed with a fervent need to be understood and to try to trust someone who will understand. She kept coming to me for care, and then walking away to isolate, then returning. Like me, she craves the love and care, but can't tolerate the intimacy and vulnerability for very long. It's a strange dance.

Do you believe animals, specifically mammals, can have a form of PTSD?

I guess I do now, but this experience was moving and I can't find words to match the pain of seeing the effects of abuse on this beautiful dog, nor her ability to see me for what/who I am, too.

We both have the broken nose, the spasm in the throat, the trouble eating, the trouble trusting, and the need to isolate from love, the left-side vulnerability, and a deep brokeness that will never be mended.

"She's a good dog," I said.

 

[Born to Run]

Beautiful post Muse :cry: You are very intuitive.

Yes absolutely. Cesar Milan has worked with dogs with ptsd from combat, although I assume that is not the ptsd you describe above, the abusive ptsd. Still the dog was highly triggered and anxious, but not broken soul wise.
I have rescue rabbits since 25 years and have had a lot of animals that were treated very badly. It seems in rabbits there is less physical abuse, but neglect is very common, which probably says a lot about myself. They often have completely withdrawn, and very very slowly I try to give them all the options available to become a whole animal again. Some were locked in cages for years. They suffer in silence alone. It often takes a year or longer to rehabilitate them. I do think that dog-human vs rabbit-human bonding is rather different.
I have spent a lot of time thinking on how to help these animals with issues like we have. How can they release their blockages? The closest to what I found, was soul retrieval as done in shamanic practice. Would you have any ideas on this?

I felt she gave me her right side. The left side is often the side of the body most brutalized in survivors, and the left side often feels instinctively too vulnerable.

I have not heard of this before, very interesting. Do you know why? The heart on the left side? I have noticed in therapy during somatic work a distinct difference between right and left, and never understood. The left is often much less active, and I have labelled it as being right handed and being stronger on that side. I am not physically abused apart from my throat.

 

[InvisibleSun]

Absolutely! When I was a little girl, I had a german shepherd that my grandfather saved after it had almost been beaten to death by her owner. She was 17 when she died and for her entire life she was also highly triggered, flinched at sudden movements and always startled easily. It makes me sad just thinking about it..

 

[Chava]

Typically the animal world manages their trauma/fight/flight energy and carries on, but carrying on unresolved trauma or a burden of traumas (or something like an animal version of PTSD) is certainly possible with domesticated animals because they cannot escape the humans they have to horrid misfortune of living with. They are captive. (traumatic stress problems in something like an elk or wild cat would be extremely unlikely). I've met rescue dogs in continued to shake around people for years, even in loving home for a long time. Very sad.

 

[Go Hungry]

It makes sense that they would have their own version of PTSD. I mean, so much of the illness is physical in nature. Despite what me might like to tell ourselves, we are still animals just like all the other vertebrates on the planet, which great similarities in bodily systems. I mean, the reptilian stem in our brains is called the Reptilian Stem for goodness sake. :hilarious:

So it isn't surprising that they could have trauma responses very similar to those of humans, and among the more intelligent animals it makes sense that they could have triggers just the same as us.

 

[shimmerz]

I have not heard of this before, very interesting. Do you know why? The heart on the left side? I have noticed in therapy during somatic work a distinct difference between right and left, and never understood.

For me Born, it was because my abusers were right handed and I was young and held with my left side facing them.

Yes, I have worked with many many traumatized animals. I pulled a ton of the resources from myself based on a dog that 'found' me years ago and was heavily traumatized. I understood it but didn't have a name for it at the time. Hundreds of dogs later as I was doing animal placement, I could absolutely see how different dogs dealt with their traumas. Your posting is so very touching and so well done Muse. Thank you so much for this.

I think we PTSD'ers are kindred spirits in many ways. I find that traumatized animals usually 'pick me'. I also understand traumatized people much better than 'regular people'. I feel like we have a shared language.

 

[Chava]

Right vs Left (@Muse @Born to Run @shimmerz )....my right side is like a normal adult in therapy, if there are "sides" (usually my whole body has a thing going one, but there are clear differences in my hands). My left hand seems to have all the freeze stuff. Also the arm that feels detached from my body sometimes. Since I notice it mainly when working on stuff in therapy, I assume it's really not perfectly literal, but very possibly a brain hemisphere thing (though pushing away or certain gestures have meaning within themselves...but it all happens in my left hand....baby trauma, adult trauma...it mostly gets stuck on the left side, sometimes the right side can help out in a more organized way). But I was also smacked in the head from the left side plenty of times. Anyway, I'd have no idea how it is for dogs.

@shimmerz (as for relating to traumatized animals and people)...my pets have all been shelter animals...and my very few close friends have had really similar backgrounds to mine (just different details). I never knew this upon meeting them. But it's like we were on the same wavelength right away. Usually semi-intense, hyper-sensitive, quirky and unconcerned with social conventions because we're simply no good at them or don't care, usually very early trauma.

 

[Deleted member 29899]

I had to stop reading your post because it was too upsetting. But YES, pets can have PTSD. It took us about 5 years to rehabilitate our poor 'rescue' dog. She really was messed up in the head from being abused. We loved her for five years until she finally understood that we were not going to hit her on the head if we were unhappy with something she's done. It was so sad to see her duck and flinch or run, for those five years. Heartbreaking. The poor thing. But she became the best dog in the entire world. She lived for 17 yrs and if there's something beyond this life, I hope she will be waiting for me with her ear to ear smile and wet nose!
People who abuse or torture animals are sick and evil and have something missing in their soul.

 

[joeylittle]

Mice are still used as the first phase in a lot of neurological studies; the research being done right now into fear extinction, which is the action in the brain that happens when a trauma is processed - those studies just passed through the mice phase. They "teach" the mice a fear response, then adjust what they want to adjust in terms of a way to fix it (in this case, cannabis), and see if the fear response goes away.

I know when we talk about animals, it's extra-unpleasant to think about research animals...or that they are being given what amounts to a 'dose of PTSD' - but that's how it works sometimes. In this case, the mice recovered completely.

I've spent a lot of time with horses. They are prey animals, so their flight response is pretty active. But seeing a horse that has been abused - how they behave afterwards, and how they are triggered by the presence of their abuser, or the thing they were abused with - and at the sight of it/them, not whether or not those things are active in that moment - anyway, it absolutely looks like PTSD to me. And rehab is slow, but totally possible in most cases.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Someone should brain scan traumatized animals who exhibit ptsd symptoms. (And not mice who have been given a dose of ptsd, I mean animals with a known abuse history.) I bet we could learn a lot.

 

[Born to Run]

People who abuse or torture animals are sick and evil and have something missing in their soul.

So are our perpetrators. Soul thieves.

I think we PTSD'ers are kindred spirits in many ways. I find that traumatized animals usually 'pick me'. I also understand traumatized people much better than 'regular people'. I feel like we have a shared language.

Yes, this is true for me too. When I have a place free for a new rabbit, when another has died, and look for a new one I can just go by the picture. I will look at all shelters' websites and I sense through the picture of a specific animal an immediate connection, almost at the soul level. Then I go to the shelter and they say you maybe want to look at the rabbit first and I always say no, because I know I have to bring that one to my home for whatever reason.

 

[Powder]

Thank you. It was really hard to post this for some reason. It makes me feel pretty vulnerable admitting that I relate to an abused dog I guess because it's another trigger from childhood. I completely agree it could be hard to think about or read about.

Thank you who posted and mentioned caring for survivor-animals. I feel huge respect for your doing that. It is a lot of work, but they are so worth it. I'd actually like to help with this in my next town, as well as helping those with PTSD get a service or therapy animal. How worthy is that? I think it's very healing for both parties if done right and if the person is ready.