Tomorrow

Oh yeah, regular vet. There's just no way a behaviorist is going to happen, or it at least wouldn't be able to happen any time in the relatively near future. But, we'll give this a shot and see where we end up.

Okay, even if these drugs end up doing nothing, today was still not a waste!

First of all, I paid a grand total of $10 lol. There was no charge for coming in which was awesome and I don't know if they were just being cool since I'm a former employee or what. But I took up almost an hour of their time!

And then I was written a script for the meds so that I could get them filled somewhere less expensive. Which is where the $10 comes in. But $10 for 3 months of meds? I'll take that. I was expecting to spend at least $100 today (and I was not looking forward to it).

Anyway the vet thought Juno sounded like a great candidate for Prozac. Which, I'd be surprised if someone thought otherwise. She helped start up a rescue organization where they almost exclusively take in the "unadoptable," animals with behavioral/medical problems. So a lot of the dogs they get in end up being put on Prozac and she told me most of the time, they end up seeing an incredible difference in them. I kind of forgot about the rescue work she does, so that made me more comfortable talking to her about this because she does have experience with dogs on these medications - extensive experience like a behaviorist, no, but probably much more than most general practice vets do.

She gave me a lot of suggestions too, most of which I knew but it helps to hear, ya know? Told me to work on Look At That (not in those terms but that's basically what she described), but to also work on attention games so that I can get her focus on me. She wants me to do hand targeting games. Go to parks and just sit on a bench and wait for the world to pass by so we can work on that. And my new rule for people is no talk, no touch, no eye contact (sounds like a Cesar thing? lol). People can have treats in their hand held down for her to take IF she chooses to come up to them, but otherwise they are to totally ignore her existence. No petting from above, only from the side or under her chin. And she thinks it might help too if she wears her Thundershirt when we go out.

I'm supposed to let her know in about a month how things are going.

Phew! That was long. It's a lot to take in and it's gonna be a lot of work, but hopefully we get some results.

If you want I would totally be willing to show you what I did with Frodo and his people issues!

Um, your dog was a total stud the other day, so YEAH I would like to know how that was achieved.

Yay! Keep us posted on how it goes. Also, $10 is freaking awesome!

Yes... as a PSA tangent, Target has a list of medications on a $4 and $10 list that anyone should be able to ask for at the pharmacy or download (I keep one on my desk). Anytime you (general you) get a prescription for anything for your dog, check it out, it can save you a lot of money.

Fluoxitine is $12 per 45 pills at Burnsville Target!

Yes, a lot of antidepressants/anti-anxiety drugs are on their cheap list, probably because so many people are on them long term and so many of them are available in generic now. Depending on the exact size you get, they can be incredibly inexpensive.

ETA: It's weird, though, because there are very specific quantities that are on the $4 and $10 list. Like, I think for most sizes of fluoxetine (going off memory here) I think #30 is $4 and #90 is $10. They will NOT offer you that information (surprise, surprise) and it also makes a difference whether you get capsules or tablets - information which they will also not offer you. You should ask about it, it could save you a little bit at least (every little bit helps.)

That is actually where I got it filled and it was $10 for 90! I got the 20mg capsules if that makes a difference.

I have never had my pet's meds filled at a "real" pharmacy so I was like... uhh can I seriously just drop this off for my dog? :lol-sign: Target just sounded like the most convenient option at the time, turns out it was a pretty economical one too!

Good luck. I hope it helps. I've been teetering back and forth as to whether or not to try drugs with Bamm and I'm discussing it with my vet. They want to run some tests and talk to my behaviorist which I'm fine with.