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Dave Bakke Column: Prozac helps dog through ruff times

Angie Hamm is used to the eye rolling and the incredulous looks when people find out about her dog.

“What? Your dog is on Prozac?”

Yes, he is.

“And,” Angie says, “when he’s having a really bad day, he gets Valium, too.”

The Food and Drug Administration approved psychotropic drugs for dogs in 1999. In the years since then, prescribing these drugs for pets has become more common. Just because it’s new to me doesn’t mean it’s new. Still, it leads to a lot of quizzical looks.

“I’m used to people reacting like that,” Angie says. She will laugh along with your jokes about “doggie rehab” and “Rover’s little helper.”

I went to visit Spencer, and he seemed like an average dog; friendly, inquisitive. He is not lying on the floor in a stupor, if that’s what you’re thinking.

A few years ago, Jason and Angie Hamm picked Spencer from among the dogs available at the Sangamon County Animal Shelter.

“Since the day we got him, he’s been the sweetest dog,” Angie says.

Everything was great until Angie became pregnant. About three months into her pregnancy, Spencer began exhibiting unusual behavior, for him. He began sleeping in odd places and “fly snapping,” which is the term for a dog snapping at nothing but air.

Doctors thought he was going blind. “We were devastated” at that diagnosis, says Angie.

The Hamms were referred to an animal neurologist in Chicago. But before their appointment, the doctor had some questions. One of those questions was, “Have there been any major changes in the house recently?”

Angie said, yes, she was pregnant. Bingo, said the doc. Your dog isn’t going blind at all. He’s reacting to the pregnancy. The doctor prescribed Valium.

But when the Hamms thought Spencer was going blind, they arranged to take him to Florida to see the ocean once before he lost his sight.

“I was being corny,” Angie says.

After the diagnosis was changed, they went ahead with the trip, as a sort of last fling for Spencer before the baby’s arrival. They found a pet-friendly condo for the dog, and he loved being the center of attention.

But back home, he reverted to odd behavior. The vet put Spencer on Prozac. It helped. Spencer was more like his old self.

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Since their baby, a girl named Avery, was born last year, Spencer has been fine most of the time. He likes the baby and is protective of her. But Spencer still has bad days and cannot afford to miss a dose of his Prozac, which he gets twice a day.

“We get it from Sam’s Club,” Angie says, “and the pharmacists there have some fun with it. They give it to us and ask, ‘Does the patient have any questions?’ We tell them no, but when he does we’ll let them know.”

The FDA first approved Prozac for dogs to deal with separation anxiety, but it can treat other problems. There is Prozac for people (Spencer’s medication) and a special Prozac for dogs. More and more vets are prescribing it.

“They’ve done research on it, and it works for dogs,” says Petersburg veterinarian Dr. James Cline.

I told him it still seems unusual to me, but he explained that it is becoming more common as real-life experiences with animals continue to show that it is effective.

Spencer’s vet, Dr. Margaret Gaut in Williamsville, says Spencer is the only animal at that practice on Prozac. She says it should be a last resort.

“As it becomes more popular,” she says, “I’m concerned that people will use it as an easy out instead of spending time with their pet and making sure there isn’t something else going on.”

She recommends first taking the animal to a vet that specializes in behavioral problems. The closest one to Springfield is in St. Louis.

I told her that sounds just like the advice parents get about their children. Don’t go to the Ritalin first thing, most pediatricians say - try other stuff first.

“That’s right,” she says. “Dogs can have the same kinds of problems that people have.”

You know, Puppy Uppers and Doggie Downers used to be nothing more than one of those fake commercials on “Saturday Night Live.”

It’s no joke anymore. It’s real.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 22nd, 2007 at 12:55 am and is filed under Prozac Top News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.