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Old March 25th, 2007, 05:54 AM
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Mental illness in pets?

I visit another BB often that is not really animal-related. Some posters have begun talking about people who medicate their animals for mental illness. Also, recently I saw an ad in a horse magazine that was advertising a product for horses with ADD. Yes, that's right -- Attention Deficit Disorder.

Does anyone have any info on these ideas? Is it common to medicate your pet for a mental illness? How are these diseases diagnosed?
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Old March 26th, 2007, 08:30 PM
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We had Fagan on Amitriptilyne for almost a year while we were trying to figure out the reason he was chewing off all the fur and skin on his inner thighs. I really didn't like it, it changed his personality and made him very logey and he gained a lot of weight. But I can also see that there are some situations where it is needed. Like with the self mutilating, he couldn't tell us why he was doing it and it took a looooong time to figure that out. It was causing him a lot of discomfort and pain and the Ami seemed to calm him down so that he lessened the vigorous way he used to go at the legs. I've known a couple people who have had to do that for their pets, it's no different really than us using it for anxiety or depression, same idea. I'm not sure of anyone who's had to use it long term though or what the effects of that might be.
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Old March 27th, 2007, 01:03 PM
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I would only use them as an absolute last resort. And, even then, I'd be very cautious.
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Old March 28th, 2007, 07:24 PM
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..

Thanks for your replies. I was somewhat skeptical of all of this when I first started reading about it, but now I can see that it may be warranted in some cases.
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Old March 28th, 2007, 09:54 PM
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My previous dog was extremely fearful aggressive. Developed it suddenly at four years old...had no history of any aggression previously and then seemed to "snap" one day. I worked with several behavorists who suspected some kind of mental illness. He was eventually put on Zoloft. It was a very mild dose, so didn't change his personality, but helped a little to calm him. He was an extreme case though! I wouldn't recommend it unless as a last resort. In this case, I had worked with several experts and tried many other things first.
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