Anxiety meds for pets?

[Geila]

Has anyone treated a pet with anxiety medication? I have a dog that I think might benefit from it and am wondering if we should try it out.

[Teacher Terry]

Yes we had a old dog with dementia that got anxious at night and no one could sleep. Xanax worked great.

[Gardnr]

Has anyone treated a pet with anxiety medication? I have a dog that I think might benefit from it and am wondering if we should try it out.

I have 2 cats who hate to travel in their carrier but sometimes we do have to bring them to the cabin with us. Meds works on 1 of them and she naps. Meds do not work on the other one-he cries all the way up while acting a bit dopey.

[Yppej]

No but I saw them used in My Cat From Hell.

[SteveinMN]

We used them with our super-anxious Bichon. We first tried Children's Benadryl, at the vet's suggestion, cut down to reflect the dog's weight. But that pretty much made the dog a blob on the sofa and then really thirsty (with the inevitable aftereffect). The vet then prescribed "doggie Xanax", which worked. Thing is, it often was difficult to figure out when we might need it. Fourth of July fireworks were a pretty obvious time, but other occasions were not. Thunderstorms freaked out the dog, too, but you don't always get much lead time on those and we didn't want to medicate the dog on the notion that it might thunder in the next n hours. I didn't like that guessing game.

[Geila]

We've tried benadryl and it didn't work for her. The vet gave me a sample of trazodone to try out so we'll see how she does on it. I didn't realize that it would take effect right away. She has high anxiety most of the time and we have a really hard time calming her down so I'm wondering about doing a low dose daily to keep her calm and happy.

[iris lilies]

I don’t have experience with medicating generalized anxiety. My only experience with anxiety treatment was years ago with one of our bulldogs who was terrified of thunderstorms and loud booming noises. Without that going on she was very calm, laid-back, lazy dog. I found timing the storms with medication to be very difficult.

[Teacher Terry]

Josie was anxious every night so a hour before bedtime she got Xanax. She took it for 5 years and lived to be 20 so it didn’t hurt her.

[izzy95]

I've heard that CBD for pets (https://cbdoilarticles.com/cbd-oil-for-cats-dogs-pets-guide/) can help. No experience with it myself tbh, so not sure.

[Tybee]

I have used Valerian with my anxious dogs but it's a real mild effect, not terribly noticeable. I take it too, as their barking makes me anxious.