Do YOU have a dog on valium or similar meds?

[Nezzy]

i am going to ask my vet about Rx something for our last rescue dog. He was abused by his first owner, and although he can be very loving, he is OVERLY reactive to any noise and he will go outside and bark at every little thing.( we have a dog door and a total of 5 small dogs. They are kenneled at night and if i step out, but while i am here, they are allowed outside unless they drive me crazy)

He can be nippy when i do things he does not like, but i can deal with that. I was going to foster him until the breeder could get him back, but hubby fell in love with the little demon, and so he has been ours for a few years. We have taken him to a trainer, and he is very good in public, but he is protective of our home.

I just wanted to know if Meds have helped take the edge off your dog? i don’t care if he sleeps a lot more, i just want a mellow pup. i think he has anxiety issues. he is due for his annual exam at the end of this month.

[RacetrackReject]

I’ve known a few dogs on prozac and it worked well for them.

[french_fry]

My friend’s rescue is a different dog on a low dose of Prozac (? I think.) She developed severe separation anxiety after they adopted her - she could Houdini her way out of metal crates and destroy the house or would hurt herself trying.

That being said, they also did a lot of patient training and proactive management. I don’t think the meds would have worked on their own.

[cloudyandcallie]

When I adopted a few strays, one of my aussies developed ulcers. The vet put her on prozac for a few months and everything got back to normal. No side effects and no problems. And no more throwing up blood.

[Rescuer]

Not me - but a friend of mine has an Airedale that started having anxiety issues while my friend was pregnant. They medicated the dog for the remainder of my friend’s pregnancy and weaned the dog off the meds after baby was born. Seemed to be fine once baby was born with no meds. But now that baby is mobile and moving about the house, the dogs anxiety has come back and they have been managing her successfully with a half dose of what they were giving her during the pregnancy.

Now - this is a dog that was always high energy - never really gets good exercise (unfortunately my friend is one who talked a big game to the breeder about being a “runner” but that running happens ohhhhhh maybe once a year - so she got the more active dog in the litter when it really wasn’t a good match).

So this poor dog is being medicated (I believe) because of her owner’s laziness. If the dog had a regular routine of even daily walks (it doesn’t even get those) I think the issues could largely be managed without meds. We’ve dog sat for them before and when her dog is on the same schedule as our dogs, she was perfectly well behaved, quiet in the house, slept regularly and was not the nuissance she is at her owner’s home.

***Please understand I’m not saying that that is the issue/solution for your dog - I just wanted to fully disclose the situation of my friends medicated dog. The medication did ultimately take the edge off her anxious behaviours.

[Rescuer]

duplicate post

[flashyfawn]

I have a dog who is on Prozac and amitriptyline. She is 10 now and started on the meds when she was roughly 2 yrs old, I think. Honestly at this point she would probably be okay without the meds but I had done really extensive training with her before we began medication and the training only got her to a certain point, so we’re just not ready to mess with what is working. She has no side effects at all from the meds and my understanding is that if the dog seems tired, they’re on the wrong dose or the wrong drug. They didn’t change her personality at all except to bring out the good parts.

She was very fear aggressive and would have what I can only describe as a panic attack, where she would completely flip out on anyone or anything and then run to me trembling in fear. It was like she had no control over her behavior at all, which is kind of a problem for a dog that weighs 100 lbs. She was rarely totally calm in the house and it wasn’t until we got her on the meds that I realized how anxious she always had been. I wouldn’t say she is a normal dog, she isn’t very tolerant of other dogs and doesn’t ever seek out attention from strangers. But the good thing now is that she has no problem being around strangers or other dogs, if that makes sense. She just doesn’t want to be best friends with anyone else and I’m okay with that. Normal daily things (sounds, etc) do not bother her and she is a lovely, easy dog to live with now. Anyone who meets her for the first time now would think I’m exaggerating about what her issues used to be.

I was seriously thinking of euthanasia because it was getting to the point where she wasn’t safe to be around and the two other dogs I had at the time stopped trusting her (and they had grown up in a house full of foster dogs, so they knew what was normal behavior and she wasn’t it.) The medication absolutely saved her life. I would suggest working with a veterinary behaviorist if you can, there aren’t many of them and it’s not cheap, but it’s what I did and I am so glad. I still check in with her a couple times a year and she still prescribes my dog’s meds. Regular vets can do that also, but it’s not going to be their specialty so (IMO) they might not be as good with dosing and exactly which drug to use.

But the biggest thing, really, is just to realize that if you put the dog on meds, you still have a ton of work to do. The meds will (hopefully) just allow the training to sink in. It’s still a process and you’ll still have bad days but over time you realize that the bad days are fewer and they really aren’t so bad anymore. My dog went on to compete and earn an obedience title, which I NEVER thought was even a remote possibility. Once you get the anxiety out of the way, it’s amazing what you find underneath.

[Nezzy]

thanks everyone. we work with him constantly. We got him a few years ago, and it’s exhausting. i love him, but seriously, i need something to help him.

[tarynls]

I have a rescue that takes Prozac and trazodone. We saw a our regular vet, then local behaviorist. Don’t waste your time, Go straight to the university if you can. Univ of Pennsylvania’s vet behavior department was a godsend for us.

[Beckham03]

I’ve written some pretty long posts on my anxiety dog and what we have been through and tried. Came very close to putting her down. She is almost 15 now! Hopefully you can search for them.

[arapaloosa_lady]

I would be hesitant using valium for a “nippy” dog. It can decrease bite inhibition… which is definitely not the desired effect! There are other medications that can be used in combination with a lot of exercise & training.

[SarahandSam]

My dachshund Aengus is on Prozac, and our trainer today said he’s her Prozac poster child. He was very fearful, reactive, and timid when we got him a year and a half ago. He’s a whole different dog now–still has his neuroses, but he has been kicking butt at agility and nosework and is much happier and more confident.

[Bensmom]

and I’ll be the only dissenting voice – we tried Prozac for my Lakie’s thunder phobia, and mild separation anxiety, and it was not the right fit for him. He lost his appetite, slept constantly, and once he’d been on it a couple of weeks, he was losing weight. And his reaction to thunder storms did not improve at all.

I’ve used xanax for thunder a couple of times, and it helps some, if I get it in him before the storm starts, but doesn’t calm him to where he doesn’t care.

Summer t-storm season in Florida is rough, and I’m not sure what I will do as we get later in the spring and summer. As we got into Fall this year, storms dropped off, and we handle them now by simply holding him on the couch – his thunder shirt stops some of the pacing, but nothing works as well as just holding him.

He’s an odd bird, though. He doesn’t get afraid like wants to hide afraid, but instead, he wants to kick the storm’s butt. He is totally believing that his barking and pacing makes the storm go away every time.

I hated having him on a medicine that he took all the time for an anxiety that only happened on a random schedule. I’ve had several vets say that I should try the Prozac and Xanax together, but again, I hate to put him on something that really changed his personality the way the Prozac did for a random event like storms. I may feel differently when we go through a whole summer, though. I adopted him last year in July, so we didn’t do an entire storm season.

I’ve thought about taking him to UF’s behavioral vet program, but haven’t yet. I’ve also thought about an app with sounds to help them get used to it, but when I’ve watched him recently, once his triggers get going, and especially if his triggers stack upon each other, he can be hard to get back to normal, and for instance, last evening had a bad adrenaline hangover and I hate to get him worked up and keep it that way for a long period of time.

I will have to find something that works, because we have the town fireworks display right over our home on the 4th of July and he will have a complete mental breakdown if he has to deal with that.

Good luck – I think trying the meds is totally worth it. I just wish it had been a miracle cure for Opie. :sigh:

[tarynls]

Bensmom - Absolutely try U of FL’s behavior dept. Our dog is on an unconventional mix of meds - we found out through trial and error what worked and what didn’t - for example, Xanax and any benzodiazepines had a paradoxical reaction… she became even more anxious and hyper. Not all drugs work the same in all dogs.

We just adjusted the dose of one of our girl’s medications and we are thinking about doing a trial of clonidine for events that would cause her additional stress (trips to the vet, etc.). Our dog is one that needs meds all the time, but just for stressful events, it might be worth looking into. It is a human blood pressure drug, inexpensive. The anti-anxiety effect in dogs is supposed to be fast acting and short lived, so it might be perfect for pre-storm calming. As far as I know, it hasn’t been used much in dogs so your regular vet wouldn’t necessarily be aware of it. Try the behavior dept. Good luck!

[RaeHughes]

OP - my very timid BC bitch is on Clomicalm - it is a different form of anti-anxiety medication. (Google to find country-specific brand name.) Prozac and Valium just made her timidity and anxiety worse - she knew she was worried but her brain was not working well enough to use any of her trained coping strategies.

After the one time she has escaped being chased by thunder and lightning, we took 3.5 hours to find her. She was only recognising me - she was that scared/anxious. I had her in the kennel just wondering what was I going to do now, when I had the vet out for the cows. He took one look at her, listened to what had happened and my concerns about her “fragility” and put her straight onto Clomicalm.

The poor bitch slept for about 20 hours - just waking up to go to the loo and come back into another nice possie to sleep. This BC is a food fiend and she couldn’t even be bothered to eat. (I have to seriously wonder how often she was actually getting a decent night/day sleep!) The next day - although still timid - her anxiety levels seemed to have dropped considerably and the “coping strategies” worked better.

I tried to wean her off it … that simply didn’t work as she became anxious about being anxious. (Animal behaviourist’s opinion.) So we just leave her on it - sometimes skipping a day but topping up if we have any “new” or “different” activities just to give her a coping edge. (Such as taking her for a long walk without her older companions.)

The vets like to see her every 6 months for a general check - well, not after the 1st time, in the clinic 'cause of the mess that she made in her distress. Now, I co-ordinate one of the large animal vets seeing her at home when they come out to the farm. Her notes are annotated and I get another 6 months supply. It is supposed to shorten their life expectancy - however, I am going for quality over quantity.

After that, it seemed to give

[Beckham03]

Chlomiprimine is chlomicalm. My dog was on it and the last time my vet called it in they said it was going to be $800. My vet at work is friends with the behaviorist and she was recommending a combination of Trazadone and Amitryptiline instead due to cost. Now that’s she’s almost 15 and deaf, we maintain her on just trazadone. Benzodiazepines made her sooo crazy. So hyper, which can be an adverse reaction. We had to use Ace during times of high stress…deer gun season, etc. now that she’s deaf, those problems don’t pop up as much.