Another success! 5th one in less than 2 weeks after 7 months of hell.

[gloveanlee]

Well, this was our first happy visit and it has left me speechless. My sweet Artemis was finally able to be sweet with 2 total strangers for the first time ever. They filled her up with cheese and turkey treats! It got to the point that she stopped taking the treats. They even had me remove her muzzle and she was an absolute doll leaning up against the staff for her belly rubs. Lunch time is the slowest time so I was hoping that no one else would come in, but a tiny Shih Tzu came in for a surgery and she could hear it but barely reacted to it. As we were getting ready to leave a mini Dachshund came in and she gave it one look and then completely ignored it. I'm shocked.

Until her fluoxetine started working about 2 weeks ago she was a complete nightmare, check out some of my other posts in here. She would instantly become hyper aware as soon as we left the house and go full Cujo if she spotted another human or any dogs/animals. She has now let 4 different people into our home over 4 separate occasions without becoming even close to threshold. She let 2 total strangers give her treats and pet her in the vet clinic she has only been to twice without getting close to threshold, and she even noticed 2 different small dogs in the clinic today without reacting. I can't believe it, small animals are a giant trigger for her due to her unusually high prey drive. Somehow she kept it all together and showed no signs of stress or discomfort with the situation today. Her tail stayed down the whole time while she wagged it which is her most obvious cue that she is approaching her threshold. Even the vet was surprised and she said that she has never seen such a big improvement without heavy sedation in a dog before. My girl wasn't even on her trazodone/gabapentin combo at all!

Since the fluoxetine started working she has become a completely different dog around her normal triggers. It's truly a miracle. It gives me so much hope for her future, I just want her to be happy and stress free for the first time in her life. We are making so much progress but I have to remind myself that we both need to keep taking it slow. She makes me so happy and I am so lucky to be able to share my life with her!! My sweet spoiled little princess. We have so far left to go, but now I know that we are both capable of so much more than the last 7 months. I'm so incredibly proud of her. Thank you all for being the best support and most kind group for us. We couldn't have made it this far without every single one of you.

 

[suomisidney]

@gloveanlee Wow thai is amazing, so happy to hear you’re seeing progress!! How many weeks was she on fluoxetine before you saw improvement? We are about to start and I’m nervous about her anxiety getting worse for awhile on it

 

[gloveanlee]

@suomisidney It was between the 31st and the 32nd dose. It was literally like a switch had been flipped in her brain. One day she was still being reactive towards our friend downstairs in our duplex and the next day she was happy to see him and was letting him pet her and give her treats. She is 85lbs and on 32mg of Reconcile every night. Surprisingly she hasn't had any adverse symptoms during the loading period so I'm hopeful. I feel like we have been extremely lucky though so far though.

I would definitely recommend the Reconcile since it's produced by one company, PRN Pharmacal. I have heard of some people and dogs reacting differently to their new scripts if they receive their fluoxetine from a different company than their last refill. And surprisingly I'm able to get the Reconcile far cheaper than regular fluoxetine, even if I were to use something like GoodRX at a normal pharmacy in my area. Our vet uses Vetsource for anything that they can't dispense right from their clinic so I can get it shipped straight to my home.

 

[suomisidney]

@gloveanlee Interesting!! I was given a script for reconcile and I was kinda shocked by the price since I have friends who say “dog Prozac” only costs them $4 a month. This is really good to know

 

[gloveanlee]

@suomisidney Well, not surprisingly it is way more expensive in my area than others if I go to a regular pharmacy. When I use the link sent to me by my vet it is around $15 a month if I buy 90 of the Reconcile. Normally it's like $30 per month if I don't use their specific link and buy the 90 day straight off of vetsource. Either way I feel like I would rather have consistency even if that means paying more for it. I mean, I have already spent an insane amount of money on toys, training, vet visits and everything else so what's another $15 or $30 a month if it actually helps us when the thousands of dollars I have already spent didn't do a thing.

 

[authormargaretrosefrancis]

@gloveanlee Yay I love to hear it!! My pup has been on fluoxetine for a few months now and it's also been such a game changer for us too. It actually didn't help with the prey drive so I am very impressed by you guys!

 

[gloveanlee]

@authormargaretrosefrancis I'm so happy to hear that y'all are having success too!! I was very nervous that it wouldn't work and we would be stuck trying every single medication available to find one that worked. My girl is a working breed so she is by far the most intelligent dog I have ever had, even if she is extremely stubborn. She also has a very strong need to please me so I found that the only effective high value treat for her is using affection to reward her and saying "oww" or "ouch" to let her know when she is behaving inappropriately. For instance, when she begins to react towards a small dog I will say either "oww" or "ouch" and use our sign for her to sit. Once she sits and stops reacting I will give her a hug and a kiss. It has certainly made for some very interesting and entertaining training sessions I'm sure. But in only a week or so she has learned to self regulate and get my approval of whether or not something is prey. If it's a squirrel or something like that I will do the same thing and once she has calmed down I will tell her "go hunt" and let her track it's scent trail. So far she has done an amazing job determining what is and isn't prey all by herself but I have been very adamant that we first make eye contact and gets my approval before she acts. Cats and skunks and raccoons are tricky though, I'm not sure if she will be able to ever stop wanting to chase those...

 

[touchedbyadream]

@gloveanlee So happy to hear of Artemis’s success! Our dog has been on fluoxetine for 5 weeks now and we haven’t seen much change — hoping we will soon! May I ask how long she was on it until you noticed this shift for her? We have a behaviorist appointment scheduled soon as well.