My Dog is on Prozac

Yep. Never in a million years would I have imagined that my dog of all people (or animals) would be the type of dog that would need to be medicated. My parents’ dog Sophie, a doberman, has been on doggy pills for the longest time, because she’s afraid of lightning. Now my Caesar has joined the club due to his separation anxiety (I keep wanting to call it social anxiety, but I’m the one that has that problem).

Shortly after Destruct-o chewed through his crate, I had to take him to the vet for a bordatella vaccine to be able to board him while we’re on vacation on the mainland. At that appointment, I mentioned to the doctor how the anxiety was getting worse and nothing seemed to be helping, but I was hoping that some extra exercise might do the trick. To my surprise, the vet let me know that exercise probably wouldn’t help, but he’d be happy to prescribe some medication that might.

I was extremely hesitant to start feeding Caesar pills and instead asked about other options. We talked about some methods of desensitizing Caesar to when he’s left alone. I decided to go with that option, since I had briefly read about it online. The vet printed some information, and we were on our way.

Wouldn’t you know, the very next day, my sweet puppy managed to break out of his metal crate (THAT WAS PADLOCKED SHUT) and break a window. I came home from Veronica’s gymnastics class to a house that resembled a crime scene. Broken glass and blood EVERYWHERE. Thankfully, Caesar only had a few minor cuts and nothing serious.

After that, John was fed up and ready to give Caesar away. I think I finally won the argument by comparing my dog away to killing my grandmother. Referring to him as a fourth child didn’t work since apparently no part of him came from John. The only catch was that I had to talk to the vet and get some meds (which it turns out are actually people meds). As much as I was against it, it’s what I had to do. At this point, I couldn’t even keep my dog safe from himself.

I was worried about the cost of a prescription, so I started calling around to pharmacies. For my entire life, my prescriptions have either been paid for by my mom or Tricare, so I really had no clue what to expect. I started with Walgreens. $127 for a month of generic drugs. Swing and a miss. I tried to see if the pharmacy on post could fill it. Strike two! Finally, I looked into my beloved Target. There’s no way they could disappoint, and they didn’t! Only $4 for a month of generic pills.

Caesar’s now been on him medication for about five days and we can absolutely see the difference. It’s so nice to not have to worry about holes in walls or torn up blinds while we’re out of the house. Along with the meds, I’ve been continuing to practice desensitizing him. I’ll pick up the car keys or tell him to go to his box and lock him up even if we have no intent of leaving the house.

I’m hoping to eventually be able to wean him off of the medication, but who knows. This anxiety has developed slowly over time, so I don’t think it’ll be something that will quickly disappear. Either way, $4 a month is a very small price to pay for his sanity as well as mine.