Anxiety medications as a long term solution for anxious and reactive dogs with a story about my cat peeing in the house!
Yes, this a dog training account and yes this story about my cat also applies to anxiety meds for dogs.
What inspired this post is this message...
No hate or shame to this person at all!
The message screenshot reads, “We were offered meds (by the vet who tried to clean [blurred name] ears the traditional way, while we do it differently - I ask, if he says no I leave him be today unless it’s important in which case I saw we have to… And he lets me) anyway I understand some dogs need them (less stress is better for everyone especially if something is wrong) but I also think while using them they should also work on not needing them... it’s like crates or muzzles - yes they should be training and comfortable..if you don’t need them awesome”
My gut reaction was just, “no......” and then I remembered that I used to have a similar thought process that anxiety meds should be a temporary solution or a last resort..
This has since changed after expanding my knowledge, adopting 4 pets with anxiety, and working with anxious, reactive, fearful, big feelings dogs.
So, let’s talk about anxiety meds being a long term solution, using a story about my cat Potato peeing in the house!
Backstory:
In November of 2018, I adopted Potato. I was working as a vet tech at that time and the owner of the clinic I worked at brought in three 12-week old kittens born from one of their farm cats. The plan was for them to get spayed, finish their vaccines, and then go to a different farm to be barn cats. But.... I ended up falling in love with Potato.
After some convincing, my husband agreed to me bringing Potato home and my biggest concern at the time was integrating her with Goose and Remi.
Little did I know that the real problem was going to be her peeing in the house!
At first I assumed that I just didn’t do a good enough job with her litter box training so per the instructions of one of the vets I worked with we did “kitty litter box bootcamp.”
This entailed keeping Potato in a bathroom for about a week, if she was reliably using her litter box we could give her supervised time to explore the house and increase that gradually.
She was doing great! Until she wasn’t...
Her “kitty litter box bootcamp” had ended and I thought she was litterbox trained so I started giving her more freedom in the house!
Then I started smelling cat pee in places that weren’t where her litter box was. So, I did the responsible thing and brought her to work with me to get checked out.
We did bloodwork, a urinalysis, and an ultrasound. All came back normal.
Yay! She’s a healthy cat! But WHY IS SHE PEEING IN THE HOUSE!?
It was then that I started suspecting it could be due to stress..
It had been less than a year since we adopted her so maybe she needed more time to adjust.
Which began medication trials! PS - I also did litter box and litter trials before this.
Her doctor at the time wanted to treat for a UTI just in case. So we did a round of antibiotics. That did nothing.
So we moved to a “natural” approach for the stress and anxiety with Zylkene since she was technically still a kitten. That did nothing.
Then we moved to a pharmaceutical approach with amitriptyline, a TCA that has also been used for lower urinary tract disease in cats. And can you guess what happened next!?
It did nothing!
So, I went and did what I do best...
I started googling!
“why is my cat peeing in the house?”
“cats peeing in the house anxiety google scholar”
“anxiety medications for house soiling cats google scholar”
Which led me down a rabbit hole of multiple articles talking about the link between house soiling and anxiety in cats.
Luckily, many veterinary behaviorists have articles and studies you can access!
This is one of the articles I found, printed out, and brought to my vet.
Elimination problems in cats (Proceedings) By Gary Landsberg DVM, DACVB, DECAWBM (companion animals)
Thanks to Gary Landsberg DVM, DACVB, DECAWBM (companion animals) I got my cat a fluoxetine prescription. And within a week of starting the meds Potato stopped peeing in the house.
It was a miracle!
All that hard work I was doing to try and fix the problem didn’t actually fix the problem. Instead, it was the easy route.
But, I still had feelings about long term anxiety medication usage and thought that it “fixed” Potato. So, we weaned her off of the meds and she immediately started peeing in the house again!
*sigh*
I accepted defeat and Potato went back on the fluoxetine. Even though I felt like a failure...
But the reality is, I wasn’t - and still am not - a failure just because my cat (and dogs) needs anxiety meds!
My cat has anxiety. Her brain likely has a chemical imbalance and she needs daily anxiety medication to function at a “normal” level.
She also will need to be on these meds for the rest of her beautiful life. And that is okay!
People often think of anxiety as something that needs to be fixed. There’s a general consensus of, “you use anxiety meds for a certain period of time to “fix” the dog (or cat or human) and then take them off of it.”
The reality is, anxiety is a chronic condition.
Often times with that anxiety there are multiple triggers which will likely create manifestations of anxiety for the rest of their lives. “Just training” is not morally better than managing anxiety with medications with or without training.
Doing “the thing,” helping your dogs and cats and trying your best doesn’t have to = hard work.
So this has me thinking...
What are people worried about with having their cat or dog on anxiety meds for the rest of their life?
What’s the actual fear and concern there? The most obvious is side effects.
When any animal, cat or dog, is on any type of daily medication, they should be having regular check ups with their vet and getting bloodwork done on a regular basis.
In my experience from working as a vet tech, having 3 dogs and a cat on daily anxiety medication, and taking my own mental health medication...
Long-term side effects are quite rare when using the appropriate appropriate dose, medication, and monitoring with regular bloodwork.
But, I wanted to do some research!
After googling, “is it safe for dogs to take anxiety medication long term” this is what I found...
“There are many behavioral drugs, and most are quite safe to use—even with chronic administration—in healthy patients. Medication is prescribed only after a physical examination and, if the medication will be administered for a long period of time, screening blood analysis should be performed. This testing, including CBC, serum biochemistry profile, and urinalysis, is recommended:
Annually for patients receiving behavior drugs for over 1 year
Semiannually for patients over 8 years of age that are receiving behavior drugs, or more frequently if there are concurrent medical issues of concern.”
So, if there’s something that helps them feel better quicker with less “work” and doesn’t impact them negatively, why not use it? The fallacy of putting dogs on meds means we don’t do any training or behavior work is one that I find keeps so many dogs and their guardians from experiencing relief.
This feeds into the opinion that “working” (training for a particular trigger) is morally better than using medication and management. Which is not true!
Training is allowed to be easy! Life with your dog is allowed to be easy!
You CAN take the easy route by using anxiety medication whether it’s daily, chronically, or situationally.
P.S. Enjoyed this article and want a little something extra?
Download our Big Feelings Dog Checklist to get practical, low-key tips you can start using right away to support your dog. It’s full of our favorite simple strategies to help your dog feel safer and more at ease.
