Clomicalm medication

[Diana Erhart]

My Charlie is almost 12 years old.  He has always been a “nervous Nellie” and it has gotten progressively worse over the years.  We have moved several times in the past few years and each time he seems to get more anxious.  Our new vet (we have seen her for about 8 months now) thinks we should start Charlie on Clomicalm.  I am ok with trying the medication as I have had a prescription for the “doggie Prozac” that I would give him when it would thunderstorm, etc., as needed.  My only concern is that Charlie has had 4 or 5 seizures in his lifetime, with 2 being in the past year.  The clomicalm information says that seizures could be a side effect.  This does concern me, but these last 2 seizures seem to have been caused by his anxiousness.  I will definitely be discussing these concerns with our vet tomorrow but in the mean time was wondering if anyone in this group uses clomicalm with a doodle who has had a seizure in the past, but not enough seizures to be considered having a seizure disorder.  Also, if you have any experience with this drug at all, I would appreciate your thoughts about it.  Thank you....

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Diana, I have no experience with this, but you might also post your question in the Seizure Group. 

 

[Diana Erhart]

Done, thank you Karen!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I did a search last night for Clomicalm and two older posts came up where it was mentioned, but I was having computer issues and wasn't able to link to them. They didn't give much info. 

[Sebastian and Chester's Mom]

I have no personal experience with Clomicalm.  I do have a very anxious dog who is currently on a combination of four different daily anti-anxiety meds.  One of the four meds that he takes is also used as an anticonvulsant.

In addition to our regular vet, we see a veterinarian who specializes in behavior.  She was able to work with us to find the right combination of meds for him.  It did take us some time and trial-and-error.  He was a bit of a difficult case.

Here is a directory of board-certified Veterinary Behaviorists.  There aren’t very many, and chances are, there won’t be one near you.  However, some do offer remote consultations.  The last time I checked, the clinic in Austin, Texas did.

http://www.dacvb.org/about/member-directory/

If that doesn’t seem like a good option to you, I would ask around to see if there were any vets in your area who either specialize in, or at least take special interest in, either neurology or behavior cases.  They may have a more in-depth knowledge of a wider range of anti-anxiety meds, and may be able to help you find the right one for your sweet boy.

[Diana Erhart]

Thank you very much for that information. I will definitely check out the link. I am conflicted because sometimes he is very calm, then other times he is an anxious mess having a panic attack. Today he is being calm, so I am second guessing this. Four days ago he had a major panic attack. Was your dog like that too?

[Sebastian and Chester's Mom]

Chester (the “little” guy in my picture) was definitely like that.  He had times where he seemed like a normal, happy, emotionally happy dog, and then times when his panic and fear were absolutely heartbreaking.  With him, I definitely think that there is a genetic component to his anxiety, but there were two distinct events (and one not-so-distinct event) that made his anxiety worse.

The first event was when we were out walking one day and were charged by a friendly off-lead dog.  Chester thought the dog was attacking us, and had a really hard time bouncing back from the trauma.  That was the event that prompted me to take him to our behavior specialist.

About six months after the charging dog event, we moved, which caused his Separation Anxiety to worsen.  We tweaked his meds, which helped for about six months.  Then, he suddenly worsened.  I don’t really know what happened.  I left him on Sunday afternoon, and he was fine.  I came home Sunday evening, he was fine.  Monday morning, he refused to go into his crate, then screamed bloody murder when I managed to trick him into going into his crate and left for work.  We spent the next month tweaking his meds which helped, but didn’t quite do the trick. I brought in a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist to help me figure out the rest.  It has been a little over a year since our last appointment with her, and Chester seems like a completely different dog.  I am still careful to try and avoid situations I know will be stressful for him, but I am no longer walking on eggshells.