[Dailydrool] Prozac

[Pam McQuade]

I am all for using such drugs, when necessary. They can make a huge 
difference. But I'd like to warn that not every case is as drastic a change 
as Lilie's.

Our Abner will probably be on Prozac for his whole life. Though some dogs 
can get off it and be calm, we went that route, and he became quirkily 
aggressive again. The Prozac does help, no question.

But what seems to have really helped, in his case, was getting rid of some 
of his back pain. Three years ago he had back surgery for a slipped disc. I 
always sort of thought he was still in pain, but I didn't know how to handle 
it.

When Abs had another surgery recently, I mentioned this to the surgeon, who 
suggested that we try glucosamine and chondroitin. Since starting that, Abs 
has made a huge improvement. On muggy days, like yesterday, he may be a bit 
testy, but in general he's become my sweet Abner again. I have made great 
headway in dealing with some of his behavioral issues.

I don't think I trust him enough to take him off the Prozac (last time I 
did, a few months later he bit my foot and put me in the hospital for three 
days), but I am so pleased to see how much happier he is.

All I'm saying here is that you can't use Prozac as a simple problem solver 
in all cases. Make sure there is not another cause for the aggression--like 
pain. Work with all the tools you can find: a behaviorist, specialists, and 
so on. That better living through pharma may include a few other things you 
hadn't thought about. In our case it was a nutraceutical.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets