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SANDPOINT, Idaho (CNN) -- Felony charges were dropped Thursday against the mother of five children who held police at bay for five days holed up in their rural Idaho home surrounded by vicious dogs.

"The judge decided that there was not enough evidence to sustain the felony charge of injury to a child and ordered that dismissed," said Bryce Powell, attorney for the mother, Joann McGuckin. "But he allowed the prosecutor to amend it to a misdemeanor."

McGuckin, 46, was charged with felonious neglect for failing to provide her family with food or electric power.

A five-day standoff began in late May after the children released more than two dozen vicious dogs on deputies who tried to take them into protective custody after their mother was arrested. The children's father, Michael McGuckin, died May 12.

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Powell said McGuckin was lured out of her home just before the standoff began with the promise she would be able to place a phone call to seek some help for her family from social services offices.

Neighbors said the children were afraid their family would be split up if they gave themselves up to police.

The children -- who range in age from 8 to 16 -- have been in state custody since the standoff ended peacefully.

A videotape revealed the family's house was covered with feces and trash and contained five weapons.

Earlier this month, prosecutor Phil Robinson described conditions at the house as "abominable." He said dog feces covered the basement and was matted into clothing on the bedroom floor, and there was food rotting in some sinks.

"I wouldn't put my dog in that house," Robinson said.

Powell said the family's fortunes turned sour after the father died after several years of suffering with multiple sclerosis.

"This is a family that was affluent, who were doing well and had slipped into poverty," he said.