My vet has been recommending Prozac for my (aptly-named) housecat, Kamikaze for about 8 years now. She suffers horribly from some sort of allergy, and without monthly cortisone will scratch til she's covered in blood. So yes, there are disposition issues, anger and paranoia, but it's based on her life--the allergies, and the monthly visits to the vet she hates. I got around the latter by learning to give her the shots myself, and by ordering the cat pheremone Feliway, which is on the way. All this to say, everywhere I look there are environmental triggers behind mental suffering, but that's just me. And you have to look.

Puppies on prozac?
Ok, now that's officially crazy!
To me this is a perfect example of drugs over nurture. Instead of doing the right thing and caring for the puppy by treating it right (which may involve a basement visit for it's own comfort and safety like you say), they are using drugs as a quick "fix" solution. Sound like a metaphor for the mental health system at large? Does to me!
In this case drugs are being used to suppress what I'd call natural behaviour. Dogs have incredibly sensitive hearing, of course bloody loud bangs are going to send them a bit mental!
~Shiv

FP,

You probably know about this but I thought I'd mention it anyway, sometimes you can give your dog or cat benedryl for allergies. My vet recommended this and gave me a dosage. It works for my dog, combined with shaving the fur off of the sore places and giving antibiotics...sorry Philip, I know this is not a pet list.

As for pet prozac, I know someone (yes another f*cking anecdote from Sally) who recently had to have her dog "put down" because he became vicious and attacked her. A few months before this the happened the dog had been put on Reconcile for destructive behavior, a year before his owner had been diagnosed with MS, and was less active. Could the dog's problems have been caused by his owner's physical inability to walk him, which resulted in him have less energy? It seems likely to me. Did the reconcile contribute to the dog attacking the owner? Again, it seems likely to me.

Dogs can't explain what is going on in their heads. They can't explain whether they really feel better or worse on Prozac. Something about it just seems very wrong.

I agree about environmental triggers. My question is what to do when the triggers are all around you, hidden in everyday life, in situations other people think are totally normal and which you can't escape except by becoming a hermit?

I don't know if I ever mentioned this to you or not, but in the wake of getting laid off, I had to put Dude on a mood stabilizer - clomipramine, I think it was? He was suffering from significant separation anxiety that never eased and was chewing destructively. He chewed up my car, he chewed up the door frame of my house, he chewed on a mullioned window so badly that there were shards of glass on the floor. It calmed him down enough that I hope he was able to enjoy the last year or two of his life, but regardless, I didn't have much choice. His anxiety, partly related to abandonment, partly related to his deafness, partly related to what the vet thought was epilepsy, made him dangerous to himself because he just didn't know any better and Bitter Apple didn't help.

Some dogs and cats truly do have issues like OCD. I don't see any reason why they shouldn't receive treatment, but it's the same issue as we have with humans: what is pathology and what is being human/canine/feline?

Nothing new. This has been going on for at least a decade, and is a valid treatment in some instances.

Of course dogs and cats get neuroses just like humans do and I would say it's nearly always because their owners aren't responding to the cues the pets are giving them. One thing that would help a lot of dogs is the same thing that I was recommending for people -- exercise!! It takes a lot to keep most dogs properly exercised and their mood benefits significantly from it -- and without it mood deteriorates often noticeably. Let's change what the owners are doing, not give the dog a pill. A pill is not a substitute for a good long therapeutic walk and never will be. Nor for proper handling by the owner. This is such a cop out. I'm sorry. And there are lessons here for the human model too.

an interesting twist to reading this thread is to replace the word "dog" or "cat" with "child" or kid".
when you re-read the comments that way;it appears this is how many children get placed on psych meds too.

as far as fireworks and the 4th? all pets freak out, a day inside the house or garage is the only remedy that needs, certainly not Reconcile!

My dog once lunged at a police officer. My dog just has no respect for authority. Do you think he has oppositional defiant disorder?

This isn't a joke, nor is it simply a problem with pet owners. There are real, neurologically-based obsessive/compulsive disorders that show up in dogs and cats. Some Bull Terriers, for example, will spin (chase their tails) until they die.

If you want to do some reading, http://btneuro.org is a good place to start.

Well it had to happen. Where there's a market. .