CLOMICALM....have any of you used it???

[maddensmom]

Pooch had his annual vet visit today. His blood panels came back a little abnormal, and with these results amoung other behaviors, my vet has decided that Pooch has an anxiety disorder. Basicly he's driving himself nuts worrying about me, and its affecting his health. He prescribed Clomicalm, an anti-anxiety medicine. He said Pooch would have to take it for 6-9 months and then be weaned off of it. He has a dog on this medicine and said he has prescribed it to a few others with great results. I was wondering if any of you have used it or know anything about it. Thank you so much for any info you can provide. I want to do whats best for Pooch and I really trust my vet, he's great. I would feel better with some other input though.

 

[plebayo]

It depends what sort of behaviors he's showing.

My dog has seperation anxiety and she chewed through 3 door jams, a kennel [ripped the metal windows out] and did all of this while taking clomicalm.

The best thing for seperation anxiety is training and tons of exercise. As my dog has gotten older she's gotten better, and she's great now that we have another dog and cat around. However, I had to spend a lot of time working with her on crate training, training her to be more confident and independant as well as give her lots of exercise so she would be too tired to be so worried.

Clomicalm may work for you, but you should also consider retraining your dog.

 

[maddensmom]

He's very well trained. Its sort of like seperation anxiety, but not like that. Essentialy he's driving himself nuts worrying about me. He is super over protective of me and its getting worse all the time. We are concerned about having children and what not because we don't know how he will react. He's great with my brothers and sisters when they are here, but more and more he's picking out certain people (mostly large male friends) that he just dosen't want around me. He's my baby and I want to do whats best for him. I don't know how to safely "retrain" him for this sort of behavior. If you have any advice it would be very appriciated.

 

[plebayo]

Hmmm I think it would be wise just to make it a point when he goes into "protective mode" or gets worried/scared [because essentially he's being insecure and protective] to either make him lay down, or kennel him up. But also be sure the behavior stops, or that you have his full attention and when you tell him to stop, he stops. He doesn't have to like the people, but he needs to learn to tolerate them. I would work on taking him to local markets and stuff, and work on him listening to you. It might be worth while too seeing a behaviorist who could maybe tell you more. I imagine if you decide to have a child, it'll become worse [because dogs know when you're pregnant]. So you want to nip it in the bud.

The clomicalm may help, but he might even benefit from something like prozac even. I would try clomicalm, and if it doesn't seem to help see about prozac, but I would work on him listening to you. I have a similar problem with one of my dogs... it's definitley difficult.

 

[maddensmom]

Thank you so much for your responses. The hardest thing is, he is the absolute smartest dog that I have ever known. He listens perfectly until one of these situations arises. Then he transforms into a dog that I don't even know, and I just can't get him to listen even though he knows the commands. I've tried kenneling during these situations but he just makes himself sick when I do. Any other time I kennel him, he's fine. I really do appriciate your input! Its a difficult situation that I am trying to find the best solution to. I have the first months scrip of colmicalm, but I haven't started it yet b/c I want to check out all of my options first. Thanks again!