Prozac Dog Nation

[Sweet72947]

^^Agrees with all the above. We have an older dog at FOHA (8 years old, came from shelter in Mason County WV that was closing) who was returned the day after he was adopted because the owners left for two hours to go out to eat and came back to their house to find the whole lower level destroyed (we didn't know he had this issue, he just came straight to us from another shelter). The man showed us pictures, and the level of distruction was unbeleivable. I can't imagine the stress that dog must have gone through to disembowel a house like he did. If medication can help a dog like that, then I'm all for it!

[shadowfacedanes]

When I teched at one clinic, there was a black lab named Dimples who had, quite possibly, the worse anxiety about storms I had ever seen. Luckily her owners lived less than a mile from the clinic, because she was a constant patient.

Every time a storm would come, thirty minutes to an hour prior, Dimples would begin panicking.

The owners bought a crate for her, she destroyed it and got out, at the cost of great bodily damage. Numerous lacerations, tears, etc.

Another occurrence, Dimples went through the plate glass window, nearly severing her jugular. I discovered her while I was leaving work, standing in the middle of rush hour traffic, neck severed, dazed and bleeding. I picked her up and rushed her back to the clinic.

These are only two of the literally dozens of times we saw Dimples for anxiety related traumas.

Sadly, during another storm, Dimples escaped (once again THROUGH a window) and was struck and killed on the road.

This was many years ago before "Doggie Prozac" was available. But I bet it could've saved her life.

If anyone still finds this a laughable matter, I question where your compassion is, because until you've seen a dog with this much anxiety, you have no clue, and should not be so quick to laugh....it's truly heartbreaking.

Wow Bo... if it helps any, I thought it was funny.

[Bofinger]

To clarify...The post is not making fun of depression. The commentary is a statement on society, how easy it is to get medication without the underlying issue being examined. Sometimes the medication has so many side effects it ends up being worse than the original issue. There needs to be a balance between the two. Mom suffers from chronic pain which causes depression, they go hand in hand (what a couple), so this statement is made from experience. She went to more doctors then I can count and all of them were ready to give a prescription for narcotics, which doesn't help nerve pain, but no one would listen. She was looked at as a sum of parts and not a whole. Finally, she did end up at a pain mgmt. center who did listen and they got her the right medication. The medication does have a lot of side effects (like she walks downstairs to get me a milkbone and by the time she gets there she forgets to give it to me) but it is necessary and the pros do outweigh the cons. All I'm saying is it's so easy to write a prescription without delving into the issues.