Anxiety medication

[Kyoko]

Charlie has been prescribed with 20 mg od Fluoxetine. I never have experienced with psychotpotic medication for my dogs, so I am super scared and worried. I have not given her one yet.

I thought I will give it to her when I get home so I can monitor her for several hours, instead of going home on my lunch, give it to her, and leave the house.

I am wondering if any of your doodles are on fluoxetine, or similar medication? If so what was your experience..?

[Jolene, Sassparilla & Josie]

My furbaby has anxiety too so I will be anxious to hear how it works?  She also has a heart murmur they claim is from the anxiety but we've never gone any further than talking (with the vet)?  We are kinda at a wait and see (she just turned two)?  My human daughter has Aspergers/ADHD/ODD and cannot function without her meds, I was VERY apprehensive about giving her "drugs" until she came home the first day from school (at the age of 5) and said mommy mommy my brain works and showed me a perfectly colored picture (I still get chocked up thinking about it).  Previously all her pcitures were just massive lines/scribbles across the page.  I wish you the best of luck.

[Kyoko]

Thank you.... I will keep you posted. I did give her one this afternoon.... let's see how that goes...

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Jolene,

I remember your earlier posts about your dog with anxiety.  I hope you do find a way to make her more comfortable.  I truly believe, they suffer

[Jolene, Sassparilla & Josie]

Thanks Joanne.  You know your names put a smile on my face everytime I see them.  My sister is a Joanne and her last dog was a Spud!  She was an awesome golden retriever.  She was named in conjunction with her son Tate! lol 

Thankfully, she "appears" to be doing better than early on, we've seemed to stiffle the destruction and my daughter is usually home by noon - 1pm (that coudl be why?).  She still panics when I'm out of sight (at least when I'm home) but I've noticed she does the same thing when our other dog is out of sight too?  My daughter not so much??  I'm curious if when they are home together without us if she still is as anxious?  My mother said they don't seem to make as much noise?  We used to give them full roaming of the house but they were getting into mom's things so we've isolated them to the back room and backyard.  I've snuck home and found them playing together in the backyard (chasing and wrestling but ALWAYS with a stuffed toy in her mouth), they are quite a hoot.  I still want to run a video camera and see how they do when I'm gone?  Her constant heavy panting keeps me aware that she is stressed no matter what we are doing? 

Our next vet follow up in December we will review her current conditions.  I think our vet wanted to wait until she hit two before discussing meds further?  I'll be curious to see where we go from here, in the meantime we pretty much plan our lives events around the dogs which is perfectly fine with me.  I absolutely adore my furbabies. Ü

I wish we had lakes closer to home, if so we'd be there in the boat playing all the time, she loves the water!

Thank you again.

[Kyoko]

She makes me smile, too!

[Kyoko]

Today is day 4 since she started on her meds. I know that it takes few day and/or up to a couple of weeks to begin seeing the effects. So far, she has not have any side effects.  I am so glad since I was freaking out of major side effects such as lethargy, seizure, etc... She went back to the lake for the first time in 3 months today, since her hip is well now. We walked through the part of the beach with these drifted woods, and she did not pay attention/care about them. Normally, she would have been very nervous about them....

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Kyoko!

I don't know anything about this medication. I hope someone can give you some feedback.  If this one is not for her, know there are other great meds out there that can improve her quality of life. I certainly she learns to love life and enjoy  :)

I wish I would get notifications from this group, especially since I started the group, but I dont.  Glad I caught this going past the front page.

I'll be honest with you, we noticed in a few days. Yes, it took the full month to get the total benefit, but some great changes took place early on.

My thoughts and wishes are with you..I get it. I've known Charlie a long time and sympathize with what you are going through. You know I do.

Please, keep me updated and informed.  I dont want to miss your updates.

Know I am here to support you.

[Kyoko]

:-)

[Kyoko]

So, did you visit the lake yet? The leaves are beginning to change color and it is beautiful...

[Kyoko]

Day 6 ---- We went to the big park this afternoon. Charlie has not been here for sometimes because of her hip injury. Because it was only 4:00pm, not too many people were there. But we came across 2 small dogs and some walkers, and bikers.

Charlie just looked at them. No lunging, barking. I did " Look at that " game, and said "yes" and gave her kibbles for her head turns. Responded well.

It felt really strange to me....I started to wonder if she was feeling groggy, or in La-la- land, or not. I forgot to ask vet if Fluoxetine was stimulant or seditives.....While it is nice to see her not lunging and getting all upset, it almost like she lost a spunk.

[Kyoko]

Day 11 - I began noticing the lack of appetite for her. Today, I added some left over fish to her dry kibbles to invite her to eat. She tried real hard to just pick out the fish, ate some kibbles in the process, but left about 1/3 cup of kibbles in the bowl. She did pretty well at the lake yesterday. Seems that she is able to pay attention to me to play "Look At That" game when the trigger is there and I have treat.

[Lauria Orr]

I just now saw this, and wish I had seen it earlier!  My Beagle Lucy had anxiety pretty badly and the vet did suggest Fluoxetine. I thought that sounded familiar...it is Prozac.  She did great on it.  Somehow I remember it being 10mg, but I may be wrong.  My neighbor rescued a dog who had been severely abused, and was highly anxious.  Lucy was never abused, she was just anxious.  My neighbor's dog is on Zoloft and doing great on that. I hope Charlie is doing well, and would love to see an update! My Goldendoodle Melody does have some anxiety as well, and the Vet has suggested one of these meds for her.  We have not gone that route yet.