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Anxious 10 year old - Prozac? Concerned


Lunamoth
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Hi everyone,

 

I have a BC, Holly, who is turning 10 later this month. She's always been a stable handler oriented girl who LIVES for agility and trick training, but in the last year, she's changed dramatically. She is disinterested in even high value treats when training longer than a few minutes and is increasingly sensitive to corrections and shuts down quickly. She has taken to hiding underneath a chair in the back of the house and behind cabinets and under the desk, when she used to lay down at my side whenever home. She is constantly lip licking and is more sensitive to noises than I've ever seen her. The vet checked her out yesterday and her physical health, vision, and hearing are all great. She's a healthy 10 year old, but is so tense and anxious and suggested starting her on prozac.

 

Does anyone have dogs on prozac? Has it helped and how has it changed your dog? Any other suggestions to help Holly relax?

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Did the vet do blood work? Check for tick-borne diseases or other diseases/conditions known to have a neurological effect?

 

Has anything changed in your environment? Lifestyle?

 

I am not against using anti-anxiety meds, but I think I'd dig a little deeper to look for a cause before going to the meds. At 10, she's still in middle age, and any time there's a change in behavior, especially a sudden or dramatic one, I'd want to do some serious searching for possible causes before masking/altering it with meds.

 

J.

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I agree it is important to rule out physical/medical causes. Quinn had a bunch of behavior changes when he was nine. Things like separation anxiety that included howling, destructive chewing, and acting very uncharacteristically protective of the house. I felt a little stupid insisting we do tests for what sounded like a badly trained dog. Except Quinn was a very well trained and nicely mannered dog who underwent a personality change. The vet ran some labs and his B 12 came back low which can cause behavior issues (in people too, I learned).

 

He gets shots every other week, his level returned to normal and the weird behaviors went away. Over the past weekend, he barked at a small plane flying overhead which was new and made me think, huh. I will probably have his level checked soon just to see if anything has changed.

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