“My German Shepherd is extremely anxious. She used to pace all the time and get up every time someone would stand. Just a small 20 mg dose fixed all of these problems.”
“One of my 3 cats is aggressive to the others. Fluoxetine, 10mg, 1xday, calms and relaxes him without sedating him. He isn't so uptight now and everyone is much happier!”
“I have a male Whippet who’s currently 6 YO. He has suffered from separation and other forms of anxiety his whole life. I just tried to work around it, until early this year. He suddenly came down with a sound phobia, where sounds in his home that never bothered him before, suddenly terrified him and gave him shaking/panting fits on and off, all day. I had thought about doing something like prozac in the past, but… this sealed the deal. He couldn’t live like this.
Here’s where I think things can go wrong with this drug… The official claims I saw online and what the Vet said, was that it usually takes a few weeks to kick in. I had seen a few people say it took longer and they can get way worse in the ‘loading period’, before they get better. I asked the Vet about this, and he said he had not heard of that. Well, he got way worse, and after three weeks, just stayed that way. My heart sank of course. I think this is probably where a lot of people give up and take them off it. That can be a big mistake. Luckily I talked with a few people online who had gone through using it, and they prompted me to stick with it. They said their dog got way more paranoid at first, and it took 8 weeks or 3 months, to really see positive results. There were times I never thought he’d get better and he was so bad, I honestly thought he’d gone insane. But sure enough, by about 8 weeks he started getting better, and it kicked in fully by 3 months.
So my advice… Stick with it for at least 3 months. Make sure you give the exact same amount at the same time, each day. Do not miss any, or mess with the dosage. It has to be the same. If you don’t do that, they will go through withdrawal, or go into the loading period all over again if you increase it. They may also really lose their appetite. I had a very hard time getting him to eat for about a month.
Right now he’s on 25 mg and can take up to 35. He still reacts to sounds, but the fear has gone from 10 to about 2-3. He will also take treats, even after hearing a noise, and you can work with him on training. I also tried gabapentin for a while alongside the prozac, but I read bad things about long term use, and I don’t really think it helped all that much.
So stick with it and just be prepared for a tough period in the beginning. Good luck.”
“Our Great Dane was prescribed this for some of his neurotic tendencies, his anxiety and his inability to not be so high-strung. Allivet offered this prescription at a much better value than the veterinarian’s office and you get the convenience of home delivery, with auto refills.”
