In this article: FDA-approved psychopharmaceuticals for dogs

Prozac for Pets?

Used with behavior modification, pharmaceuticals for pets can save lives.

By Steve Dale

Drugs such as Prozac are being used on pets.

To say that Hazel, a Weimaraner, didn't want to be left alone is an understatement. Whenever Laura Rodgers left the house, panic-stricken Hazel bent the wire bars on her crate and ripped her blanket to shreds. Rodgers, of West Newbury, Mass., made attempts to offer Hazel freedom without confinement, but she'd return home to find "Hurricane Hazel" had blown through her home.

Desperate, Rodgers decided to not leave her dog alone. "Once, I had to leave her inside the car as I ran an errand," she says. "I returned to find she had flipped out and pretty much destroyed the car."

Her veterinarian suggested Benadryl to sedate Hazel; friends offered all sorts of advice. Nothing worked until she sought help from Nicholas Dodman, director of the Animal Behavior Clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton, Mass. His recipe for solving Hazel's severe separation anxiety featured one-part behavior modification and one-part Clomicalm, a psychopharmaceutical drug.

Rodgers says behavior modification -- such as ignoring her frenetic dog when she returned home until the dog calmed down, as well as exercises to foster Hazel's independence -- worked in tandem with the drug.

Clomicalm is one of three psycho-pharmaceutical drugs approved specifically for dogs (see sidebar). Various other drugs similar to Prozac and Valium also are being used for pets.

Dodman, a veterinary behaviorist and author of a textbook on psychotropic drugs for pets, says, "I realized in the 1990s what Prozac and other drugs can do for animals. I get Christmas cards telling me, 'If it wasn't for you prescribing a drug, my pet wouldn't be alive today.' "

Even with expert advice and drugs, it took time and patience to see a change in Hazel. Today, Rodgers says, "Hazel is altogether different, a well-adjusted dog."

According to veterinary behaviorist Gary Landsberg of Thornhill, Ontario, Canada, the drugs vets used in the past sedated animals, so people would refer to them as doggy downers.

"At best, those old drugs with tranquilizing effects masked symptoms," adds veterinary behaviorist Karen Overall of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. "Newer drugs affect brain chemistry and ease anxiety, which can make learning possible." That learning is implemented with behavior modification.

"I have no doubt these three drugs have been enormously helpful to veterinarians," Landsberg says. "They're manufactured in prescribed doses."

An additional assortment of drugs is used on pets with a wide variety of anxiety and compulsive disorders, as well as aggression. These drugs generally fall into several classes: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (such as Prozac), tricyclic antidepressants (such as Amitriptyline) and benzodiazepines (such as Valium). Some of them take longer to kick in than others, Overall says, but they typically don't have side effects.

"The good news is that there is qualified help if you have, say, an aggressive dog or a cat peeing outside the litter box," Landsberg says. "Of course, drugs aren't always the first line of treatment; sometimes behavior modification alone makes the most sense."

But then, sometimes no amount of behavior changing will matter. For example, Dodman, author of The Well-Adjusted Dog, points out that cats who compulsively chew on and ingest fabric can experience a gastrointestinal obstruction. "In general, there's little behavior modification that will help [for this compulsive behavior that is known as pica]," Dodman says. "Prozac, however, can ultimately save the cat's life."

If your pet is having a behavior issue, Landsberg recommends seeing your vet to rule out a physical explanation. Many veterinarians can help, but others prefer to refer complex cases to a member of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior or the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists. After all, it wasn't only the drug that saved Hazel's life, it was the veterinary behaviorist who offered the advice.