Anxiety medication cost

[anxiousdoggo]

Question for people whose dogs are on anxiety medication (fluoxetine/trazodone/etc).

Ddog is highly strung and a bit reactive at the best of times. She'd been doing really well with training and a solid routine, but a big move (rural to town, different country) has really unsettled her and she's worse than she ever was at the moment. It's getting impossible to walk her and new environments/other dogs/too much stimuli massively stress her out. I had a few meetings with a dog trainer who suggested medication, to bring her down to a level where she can at least take things in and be receptive to training because at the moment she's just so stressed she can't even hear you or look at you sometimes.

I was wondering what people's experience was with this kind of medication for their dogs, and also what the cost is. I stupidly hadn't taken out pet insurance in the UK yet and all these issues have cropped up almost immediately after the move.

Ours isn't on anything prescription but we do use Zylkene which you can get from sites like Amazon.

I pay £15 for 20 capsules as he doesn't need it all the time, though you can buy in bulk and get a bigger discount.

It really helps and takes the edge off him enough so he can settle - we use ours for separation anxiety and it's made the world of difference.

The medication suggested by your trainer is pretty hardcore and does have side effects which need to be considered. It needs to be prescribed by a vet ideally with discussion with a vet behaviourist or qualified behaviourist who has discussed the dog with a vet themselves (not a trainer it is actually illegal for a trainer to suggest specific medication to a client).

@fairylightsandwaxmelts she's been taking something similar for about six weeks now (Yucalm) but it doesn't seem to make any difference and she's just getting worse all the time.

@PollyRoulllson She advised me to see a vet about it all, but she told me about how it had helped other dogs she'd trained and gave a few examples. I am worried about side effects, but then I also worry that me being reluctant about medication is harming her too in a way, iyswim?

@anxiousdoggo ah okay - yes, it doesn't help for all cases, especially not severe ones. I'm sorry it hasn't seemed to help your girl :(

Have you read up on the bucket theory? Basically, all dogs have a bucket, and if the bucket gets too full, it overflows and they can't cope.

Things that can cause buckets to overflow - reactivity, stimuli, stress, new experiences, new people, new dogs, loud noises etc.
Things that help the bucket empty - rest, sleep, calm, walks, exercise, mental stimulation, brain work etc.

As your dogs bucket appears to fill up on walks (rather than empty) I would be tempted not to walk her at all for a few days to allow it to empty at home. Do lots of calming activities - allow her to sleep as much as she wants, brain games, scent work, feeding out of kongs etc.

Obviously, get veterinary advice but I would be doing lots of calm activity and not be tempted to walk her just because you feel you need to. Scent work and brain games will tire her out just as much :)

I had a fear aggressive large breed in the 90’s who was put on fluoxetine by a veterinary behaviourist, as part of a comprehensive behavioural programme. Back then we used to have fetch it from the local pharmacy ourselves, via veterinary prescription, as vets weren’t allowed to keep it in stock, but having a dog on another ‘human’ prescription medicine at the moment, that is dispensed by our vets, so things may have changed. Back then it was about £150 for 28 days, iirc, but I have no idea what a similar med would cost now.

He was completely unable to engage when confronted with his triggers before he went on it, which is why we had to go down that route, essentially it was trying the fluoxetine + behavioural programme or euthanasia. (We had already tried working with a qualified behaviourist without meds, unsuccessfully.)

We had weekly behavioural sessions with the supervising vet, then daily exercises to carry out at home. It definitely helped. There was no way we would have made the progress we did without it, but it wasn’t a ‘cure’ and it involved a huge (and expensive) commitment to a massive behavioural modification programme.

Our boy was both dog and people reactive and very big and strong and he never reached a point where he liked unknown people or dogs (although he did love other dogs brought into our family) but he went from uncontrollable to being able to walk calmly past and ignore the things that used to trigger him and we were able to gradually introduce him to people and dogs that we needed him to be comfortable around and he would then accept and be friends with them.

He didn’t remain on the fluoxetine long-term, it was specifically part of the behavioural programme and he was carefully weaned off it when he had made sufficient progress. We then used the behavioural management techniques we had learned, plus environmental management to manage him from there (ie he was always muzzled in public and we had a kennel and run for him at home for when people he didn’t know were coming to the house).

It’s definitely not something to be taken lightly. It’s a huge commitment and imo should only be used if you are working with a highly qualified behaviourist, preferably a veterinary behaviourist or both in collaboration.

Sorry, I forgot to say - as fairylightsandwaxmelts said, keeping him under threshold was really important. Even when he was at his best we didn’t take him to busy places or walk him around other dogs, we stuck to friend’s land or remote areas and we moved to live semi-rurally, which made things easier.

We did a lot of fun training, heelwork to music, brain and trick training etc to keep him busy and content and he was such a calm happy boy at home. He came on holiday with us every year, but only to my family’s holiday home, out of season, in a remote area, where we could let him run on the beach without another soul in sight.

It was the right decision for us/him, but we were young, with no children and he really was our life for those 7 years. We completely changed our lives to help him and accommodate his needs. If we had a similar dog now, we wouldn’t be able to make that same commitment, as our life is very different.

@fairylightsandwaxmelts thank you - I try and keep her calm at home and have been doing some scentwork with her in the garden, all her food is puzzles and lickimats. At the moment she's only getting a walk once every two or three days, as it seems like every walk the reactivity is so high. I think her bucket must be about the size of a thimble!

@PermanentlyDizzy Thank you for sharing your story. I'm so worried about her at the moment. I know it's something people say a lot, but she is honestly a different dog in the house. I can cope with her never being off lead and with her never being the friendliest dog in the world, but I need to be able to take her for a walk without it being a horrible and stressful experience for us both.

@anxiousdoggo that sounds really positive with lots of calm at home.

Don't feel pressured to walk her constantly - lots of dogs really do struggle with it and as long as you have a garden, she's fine being in her own safe area at home :)