How Dr. Joshi Helped Ziggy Find Freedom From Pain
- Lizzy Smith
- Sep 29
- 3 min read
September is Animal Pain Awareness Month, and I wanted to share something a little personal - because I know how easy it is to miss the signs!
My dog Ziggy is a 5.5-year-old pittie mix that I rescued as a homeless stray when she was just a puppy. She is the love of my life! From the start, she was sweet, silly, and full of love. She never showed aggression, but being a COVID puppy, she missed out on proper socialization. When she turned one, the reactivity and anxiety started to show…and I thought it was all behavioral. I figured I just had a “nervous dog,” right?
By the time she was three, things became overwhelming. Walks were stressful. Vet visits were terrifying - for both of us. The “solutions” we’d been given up to that point weren’t really solutions at all - sedation to just get her in and out, a towel over her head, rushing through the visit by giving her shots through our car window... None of it was helping her feel safe - or healthy. And they made us feel like an inconvenience. How would I know that Ziggy was ever getting proper care if these “professionals” couldn’t even give us a solid plan to visit them?
Then we met Dr. Joshi at Wagnolia. Cue the hallelujah choir.
Instead of treating Ziggy like a “problem dog,” she looked at her whole body. She found pain points I didn’t even know existed - places Ziggy had been silently hurting by testing her mobility, checking focused x-rays of these areas, and taking wellness labs. That pain was feeding her fear, her reactivity, and her constant state of defense.
With the right plan - behavior medicine + pain management that targeted the source - Ziggy finally had space to breathe! She wasn’t bracing herself against the world anymore. She could relax. She could trust. And I got my happy, goofy, comfortable baby girl back.
Today, Ziggy isn’t scared of the world. She’s not on guard 24/7. She’s simply comfortable in her own body!
And for me? That means a freedom I didn’t think we’d ever have together.
Why I'm Sharing This
If you’ve ever thought, “That’s just my dog’s personality” or “They’re just anxious/reactive,” I encourage you to pause and ask: could there be pain underneath it all?
Because pain in pets doesn’t always look like limping. Sometimes it looks like:
Hiding or avoiding touch
Reactivity or irritability
Changes in appetite or sleep
Anxiety that seems “out of nowhere”
Holistic wellness really does mean the whole body tip to tail!
So in honor of Animal Pain Awareness Month, I just want to say - trust your gut, ask the deeper questions, and don’t settle for quick fixes that only mask the problem. The right vet, the right care plan, and the right attention to pain can change everything, for your pet and for you.
If you’ve noticed changes in your pet’s comfort or behavior, book an appointment with Wagnolia! You might just find, like Ziggy and I did, that relief was possible all along!
Note from Dr. Joshi
Ziggy is one of my favorite success stories - she came in reactive to the point of aggressive; her mom was struggling to take her on walks without her reacting towards other animals and people. On her first visit, Ziggy’s mom asked if she could leave with a prescription for Prozac. As much as I wanted Prozac to be the quick fix, I knew I couldn’t prescribe it without first fully evaluating Ziggy. We scheduled her for a sedated exam, where I was able to take time and perform her exam without Ziggy being scared of me and vice versa. Her mom and I were able to speak openly and without feeling rushed by Ziggy’s fear. We continued to check in with regular telehealth calls and were able to treat both Ziggy’s pain and anxiety (she has benefited from Prozac, but it wouldn’t have worked without treating the underlying pain). Her mom also spent countless hours practicing behavioral management exercises that we came upon together during our telehealth conversations. Ultimately, Ziggy couldn’t tell us what was going on, but with patience and a holistic approach, she is now living her best life.
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