My dog's separation anxiety is extreme. Is medication the next step?

I would first make sure there is nothing underlying with Corduroy. It seems like there has always been a bit of separation anxiety with him and with his history I would say it is less likely medical. I would talk to your veterinarian about medicine to help Corduroy especially when you are not home. Sometimes getting a second dog does help, while other times it does not. It may be where he may calm down a bit but since his anxiety is getting worse quickly I would recommend doing a trial of medication. While you are trying the medication I would also consult with a behaviorist or a trainer to help with the situation. Your veterinarian should be able to give you names of either a veterinary behaviorist in your area or a trainer that they trust. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

You would need to consult with an in-home professional dog trainer. They can help you the best. If the anxiety is severe then you can talk to your vet about using a medication in conjunction with the re-training. You may also want to consider using some Adaptil (pheromone) products: https://worldtails.securevetsource.com/site/view/198944_HomeDelivery.pml?s=adaptil&hierarchy=&sort=score%20desc

I can understand your frustation here. It sounds like Zuess has severe separation anxiety. You are more likely to break him of this if you use both behavioral modification training along with medical management. Here is a website link with certified behavioralists that you can try out. http://corecaab.org/owners/ There is a link on the bottom right side that says behaviorist directory, click there. I would use the behaviorist long with either Prozac again (at a higher dosage because there is a range here) or I would try another medication altogether such as Clomicalm. I hope this helps and best of luck moving forward with Zuess and his separation anxiety issues. You may want to consider boarding him for those days where you are going to be gone for a long period of time just so that he doesn't destroy the house any further. Poor guy. Best of luck to you. Take care. Separation anxiety link - http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=3144

Hi there and thank you for using Pet Coach to address your concern! Unfortunately, separation anxiety can be quite difficult to address for most dogs. I usually recommend a multi modal approach. I recommend the following non-prescription approach prior to anything prescription: 1. NaturVet Quiet Moments calm chews plus Melatonin (can be found online quite easily. 2. Adaptil pheromone collar 3. Adaptil diffuser 4. Thundershirt In combination with this, I typically recommend providing plenty of toys such as a kong toy filled with peanut butter and some other noise making toys. I have recently recommended a product called the Pet Cube. This allows you to watch him via an app on your phone remotely and you can even control a laser pointer and interact with him while you are away. If this does not work or the behavior worsens, I typically recommend adding in anti-anxiety medications such as Trazodone, Amitriptyline, Clomipramine (clomicalm), etc. in combination with the above recommendations. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Poor Brownie! You're right that this level of anxiety is not normal, and needs to be treated ASAP in order to improve his quality of life and prevent things from getting worse as he gets older. I would strongly recommend getting in touch with a veterinary behaviorist who can evaluate Brownie in person and help you put together a detailed plan to work on his problem - this will likely include training exercises to help build his confidence with being alone, management suggestions to help him be more comfortable while you work on the problem, and anti-anxiety medication to make him feel better in the short term. You can search for a board-certified veterinary behaviorist in your area here: www.dacvb.org

There are a number of other medications that can be tried for Montana, such as Paxil, Zoloft, Clomicalm, diazepam, and lorazepam among others, but only your vet can decide if one of these drugs are appropriate and safe to use in him. You can try using a DAP which is a pheromone diffuser that can help dogs with anxiety. You can try using a Sentry calming collar, which releases pheromones when it comes in contact with his skin. I would discuss with Montana's vet if any other drugs are appropriate for use in him.

Poor Ferdinand! He just loves you sooo much! You can go online and try a calming collar. If this doesn't work then you can try and anti-inside he medicine that can be a prescribed by your veterinarian. I have had really good success with the anti-anxiety medicine and it does not change their personality. Below is a good resource for more information on separation anxiety. I hope he starts to do better! http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=3144