Two and a half -year -old rescue dog Mabel is sweet and happy when her owner, veterinarian Amy Lee, is at home.
But when Dr. Lee is gone, Mabel can be a completely different animal.
“She would not eat if I wasn’t at home. She would bark, she would be moaned, she would cry. Sometimes she wouldn’t do not a toilet,” said Dr. Lee.
“When we went abroad recently, for the first time in her life, she escaped the garden because there was a dog sitter with her and not our family.”
Veterinarian Amy Lee thinks her rescue mabel is “the best dog in the world”. ((Lever: Dr. Amy Lee))
Now, Mabel is one of the many dogs on a medicine called Fluoxetine – a kind of antidepressant that is sold under the Prozac brand name.
For Dr. Lee, being able to prescribe fluoxetine for dogs such as that of her “an outcome”.
“Without medication, Mabel would simply not be able to cope.“
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Although Dr. Lee feels comfortable when offering anxiety medicines to dogs such as Mabel in her clinic in Blacktown, NSW, she said it was not suitable for every animal.
Dr. Lee takes dog owners through an hour of consultation about the history and behavior of their pet before they decide whether they should prescribe medication.
But this is not standard in the vet, with some vets who only get an appointment of 15 minutes to make the decision.
This creates causes some of the industry about how many dogs of anti-anxiety medicines are as a first-line treatment.
Ten times increase in behavioral problems
A study that is viewed into millions of medical records of dogs From 2010 to 2020, a 10-fold increase in behavioral problems and an increase in antidepressants found in the US.
Dr. Lee says she has seen an increase in dogs in her clinic with behavioral problems such as aggression, separation anxiety and problematic behavior.
“Sometimes it feels like almost every second dog walking through the door has a kind of behavioral care,”
she said.
Although Australia-wide data on the use of drug therapies for animals is not recorded by groups such as the Australian Veterinary Association, there are indications that its use is increasing.
Australian Pet Pharmacy Yourpetpa mentioned Fluoxetine on its website as his third “best -selling” recipe medication.
But Paul McGreevy, a veterinarian and a researcher of animal behavior at the University of Sydney, Said the real problem for the dogs was the management because of their owners.
“The danger is that pets owners demand a medicine to solve a problem when the problem actually is them,” he said.
Puppy school can be useful, but behavioral chains Michelle Rassool says it is not enough. ((Flickr: Puppy school/Halans/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0))
Dogs, he noticed, have different needs and want people, on which we have difficulty responding, and instead we expect “the dogs to adapt to our way of life”.
“If you want a dog, you expect Doggy to do things and expect it to have dog needs,” said Professor McGreevy.
Puppy school alone will not ‘cut the mustard’
Michelle Rassool, a behavioral vet who works both in general practice and a behavioral clinic, said that many owners were careful with their dog’s behavior when they came to her.
“The average person gets a dog to have a friend, and they are normally not competent in behavioral change,” she said.
“People must be aware that there are several options to intervene in behavior.
“In my hands, medication is rarely the first intervention and it should never be prescribed in itself.“
Instead, Dr. suggested Rassool positive behavioral training, changes in the environment and changes to what the owners of their dog expect could all help create a better dog owner relationship.
‘Does the dog get enough exercise? Are they fulfilled?
“If we have a dog that is worried that we are left alone, we not only give medication and let it alone.
“Our goals are always to use medicines to make a change and then look at weaning or reducing where we can.”
Dr. Rassool said that long -term training had to take place to give dogs the best chance not to develop behavioral problems.
“Going to a few weeks of puppies school is not going to cut the mustard,” she said.
“Most people have to continue to – minimal – a weekly training session for the first year of that dog because there is so much development change.”
Positive behavioral training must be used on negative methods. ((ABC News: Danielle Bonica))
Dr. Lee noted that the use of positive reinforcement, instead of negative, was also extremely important to ensure that the behavior did not get worse.
‘If you have a dog and you use a combination of punishment and positive [reinforcement]Or if you only use punishment, you actually have an aggression in your dog, “she said.
“[Negative reinforcement] Will work for a while because the dog does not want to be punished, but because they do not solve the underlying emotions, it will ultimately make the behavior worse. “
Avoiding the kennel
The balance between the right training and getting medication can live or be dead for dogs.
“Behavioral problems are the biggest murderer of young dogs,” said Professor McGreevy.
“Younger than three years are behavioral problems that let them kill – on roads or more often due to euthanasia, because they do not fit into our world.“
“Is that because they are not becoming medicinal correctly? Very crackable. But is it possible that they were managed inappropriate?”
Navigating through the fine line when medication is suitable is something that Dr. Lee is very aware of is in her clinic.
“I have a patient I am now treating – Stannis – and he is one of my favorites, because when he used to come in … he could have been euthanized somewhere in a pound because he was unmanageable,” she said.
Now, although Stannis probably needs constant anxiety medication, his owners have also done considerable behavioral work, and according to Dr. Lee “His quality of life is so great”.
“Those are the cases that make your heart so full because you see people who believe in their dogs and do the work.”
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