[angiesample]

Is this safe? My sister in law has a doberman/lab mix with severe seperation anxiety. She has done everything she could think of and taken her to multiple vets. He was a rescue, they actually found him tied to a fence an elementary school parking lot he had mange and the vet thought he was probably used for dogs being trained to fight he was one of the dogs these fighting dogs would attack, its so sad. So we understand why he gets so upset. Its been 3 years and they recently took him to a behaviorist, they prescribed prozac. I have another friend and her dog is on prozac too. Is this safe, any long term effects?? It has made a huge difference, shes worried about long term effects. Any thoughts?

[Sophie45]

My old roommate had a dog that had horrible separation anxiety, and also tried everything to help him, so I understand how hard it can be.

Have they tried some herbal remedies, such as Bach's Rescue Remedy? There are a lot of herbal medications that might be helpful to try before going to prescription drugs (but definitely do your research: some of these herbs are very potent and have their own side effects or can be harmful in high doses).

If that is not an option or doesn't help, and they have really tried EVERYTHING, and the vet felt comfortable in prescribing it, then it might be a good thing, even if there are some potential side effects in the future.

Think about it as a quality of life issue: if they continue to do nothing, this dog is going to suffer every single time they leave him alone, OR they can give him meds to relax him, making the separation less traumatic and making his overall life more pleasant, with a potential risk of causing side effects in the future-but certainly no guarantees that it will ever cause any problems.

I definitely am not a big medication proponent, but really if nothing else is helping this poor dog-why let him continue to suffer like that?