Do Dogs Need Prozac?

Wondering if dogs need Prozac is the same as wondering if people need it. This is a controversial issue that, of course, leads to extreme and conflicting positions. Trying to find a middle ground, from My Animals we tell you some details about it.

Prozac or not Prozac, that’s the question

Let us start from the basis that difficult situations can arise, both in people and in animals, which determine that professionals try to find a solution with a battery of treatments, including the use of psychiatric medication.

Then there are those who decide to cover their problems, and in these cases those of their pets, with pills.

And there are also those who suppose that the causes must be sought to find the solutions and that, to achieve this, it is not useful to mask things with this type of drug.

Considerations on the use of psychiatric medication in dogs

The truth is that the fluoxetine, better known as Prozac, the antidepressant selective inhibitor class Serotonin Reuptake, it has been used for years by veterinarians to treat behavioral problems in cats and domestic dogs.

But the debate on how to act in the face of these behavioral inconveniences of pets, which, in many cases, are generated by man, is not closed at all.

And it ranges from animal defense associations that are opposed to trying to chemically change the behaviors of furry animals that make their owners uncomfortable, and that could be resolved -for example-with the simple fact of allowing them to exercise properly, to those who advise its use if the diagnosis is adequate and is accompanied by other treatments.

Many justify its use, furthermore, because it has made it possible to save animals with serious behavioral disorders (damage, aggressiveness, etc.) from slaughter or abandonment.

In which cases is Prozac used in dogs

The point is that many point out that the use of Prozac and other psychiatric medicines in dogs has yielded positive results in cases of:

• Psychodermatosis
• Obsessive compulsive disorders
• Aggressiveness
• Trauma
• Stress
• Separation anxiety

• Fears and phobias
• Inadequate elimination (urinating or defecating in inappropriate places)

How to be sure that dogs need Prozac?

But the main issue here is that the dog cannot explain to the ethologist or veterinarian what is really happening to him. And if it is difficult enough for professionals to find out what happens to their human patients, the question becomes more complicated when it is people who have to explain what happens to their pets. All this without forgetting the small detail that it is very likely that the owners themselves are the causes of the furry behavior problem.

In addition, the dogs can not tell the specialist that produces the effects of medication they are taking. So, while its owner interprets that the result is positive, since the animal is calmer, perhaps the dog is feeling something else, but does not have the possibility to communicate it.

Obviously, there are many studies that still need to be done on the subject to know how beneficial psychiatric medication is in pets.

What is clear is that, also in these cases, under no circumstances give Prozac or another psychiatric drug to your furry without the proper medical prescription.

A debate that will remain open

The debate over the so-called happiness drug, the one that increases serotonin levels in the brain, will surely continue with greater or lesser intensity over time.

Ideally, we don’t have to wonder if humans and dogs need Prozac to deal with day-to-day life.

As long as underlying problems are not solved, the use or not of this drug is only a question of form.