Ok, so is this a good thing, or a bad thing? According to the DailyMail out of the UK, "A dog version of the anti-depressant Prozac has been approved for sale to British pet owners."
Prozac, for dogs. Interestingly, I used to say Carmie needed some doggie Prozac, when she would not allow her lick granuloma to heal. Then, we put a sock on it and I stopped talking about doggie Prozac. When my daughter was having trouble with Twiggy, her Greyhound, dealing with separation anxiety, I started thinking about doggie prozac again...knowing, of course, that there wasn't any such thing.
I know there were and are medications you can give your pet, for separation anxiety, but most of us would choose behavior modification, wouldn't we? Or, would we (should we?) resort to the help of drugs?
According to the UK story, "Trials [of the drug] involving more than 660 mentally-disturbed pets in Europe and the US produced improvements in behaviour within eight weeks." Eili Lilly, maker of the drug, cites research showing "that as many as 8 per cent of dogs suffer from canine compulsive disorder."
I guess that descriptive phrase: Canine Compulsive Disorder, is as good as any in identifying the issues pet owners deal with when their dogs (especially dogs, I think) suffer from separation anxiety. They note in the article that this involves dogs that chew destructively and urinate or defecate inappropriately around the house, when you're gone. Some might also vomit, pace, drool, or worse. (I don't know what the 'worse' is...they didn't go into detail.)
So, I ask again - is Doggie Prozac a good thing or not? Would you consider this for your dog? I admit that, in the early days of Carmie's lick granuloma, I would have considered it. Not so much now. Now, I'd get to the root of the problem (we were home with her all the time, so it wasn't separation anxiety - I'm now wondering if it didn't start as an allergy and just blossom into the problem it became; after we put the sock on it, she never bothered it again)...
I'm in favor of behavior modification, and bringing in experts that can help with that, which the article does say should be part of a pet parent's approach. But, in reality, as the article notes, "Cats and dogs can be very susceptible to their owner's feeling and if they sense that they are unhappy they can become agitated or depressed." I guess, I believe that, and in believing it, would give the idea of doggie Prozac some thought - but only for a limited amount of time.
What are your thoughts? I wonder what Andrea Arden, BlogPaws Saturday morning keynote, thinks of this. Hmm....
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