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..?

[Kyoko]

Its been about 2 months since Charlie has been on medication. Yesterday ( Thanksgiving ) we had some company. At frst, she barked at people, for about 5 miniutes, and just ignored the company. she mostly retrieved herself to one of the bedroom, but really did not bother anyone nor bothered by anyone. At the end, when one of my daughters' boyfriend was leaving, she let him pet her on the face/ head and allowed him to kiss her on the head. This would never happened before....My daughter does not know that Charlie is on mediction, so she was so happy and thought Charlie really liked her boyfriend!! LOL

[Lauria Orr]

Hi Kyoko,

This is such good news!  How liberating for you both!  I am so glad you posted this.  I have wondered how things were going and am really pleased!  Happy Holidays!

Lauria

[Kyoko]

Happy Holiday to you, too...

 I sometime feels like she has lost a bit of her "Spunk", but you can have it all..., right?

[Lauria Orr]

Hi Kyoko,

That is always the draw back.  I think it is worth it, if it is just a little of the spunk that has been changed. You don't want her to suffer and anxiety can cause suffering.  On the other hand, you don't want a complete personality change. I hope it is minimal.

[Kyoko]

We had some snow here in Pittsburgh. Charlie loves snow!!!

We have been going to the park during my lunch so that she can strengthen her leg muscle that weakened from her hip injury. Until now, she did not want to run around much, as I said she seemed to lost her "spunk".

But not in snow!! She looks more like she spunky self, chasing snow balls and dusts.

Also as she runs around, her legs are getting stronger!! I am thinking that she may have looked to loose her spunk because of her injury, too...

[Stella]

I took Chase to the vet and she prescribed Fluoxetine (Prozac) for him,starting with a low dose to see how he does. I will give him his first dose tomorrow morning. I had to go to a human pharmacy to collect the medication, and the pharmacist said it could take up to three months to see any effect. How long did it take with Charlie before you noticed a change? What dose is she on?

[Kyoko]

She is on 20 mg. Also she is only 42 lb. Usually, psychotropic medication takes few weeks to take effects, at least in human, and this was also told to me by her vet. I began seeing some changes with in a week, though. 

I just read back this journal, and I wrote on day 4, that she was not fearful of strange looking drifted wood and its huge root sticking up in the air.

How much dies Chase weight? the dosage may vary depend on the weight, too.

I, too have to go to the people pharmacy to get the meds....The girl at the pharmacy was not very helpful..... even though I told her this was for a dog, she continue to state the side effects like "head ache" which Charlie cannot tell me that she is experiencing. Because I was super nervous about this, I felt irritated!!

She is doing fine now. yes, still time to time she does bark at the kids cross the street, etc... but much easier to re-focus.....

[Stella]

Chase is 50lb and we are starting him on 10mg. I am really hoping that this is going to help him.

[Kyoko]

I hope so, too.. Keep us posted.

[Lauria Orr]

We got our meds at Costco for a really reasonable price, when we were giving our Beagle, Lucy anti-depressants for anxiety. 

[Kyoko]

Over 3 months on medication.  I am so proud of Charlie and so happy that she can hike with us and does not have to lunge, bark, and show other aggressive behaviors. So happy that she feels OK for strange people and dogs to walk by her, literally a foot away from her. I cannot imagine how stressful the life was for her....

[Stella]

So glad to see that the medication is working well for Charlie. After three weeks on 10mg there has been no improvement in Chase. I spoke to the vet and she wanted to increase it to 15, but the pharmacy could only issue 10 or 20mg capsules, so we are going up to 20mg. I hope this helps, since I moved house he is becoming destructive and has chewed on my furniture, something he has never done before. The vet said this is the largest dose she will prescribe for him and if this doesn't work she wants to change to Amitryptalline (sorry, don't know how to spell it!) which I don't want because it is a sedative. So, I am really hoping that the increased dose of Fluoxetine works.