Has anybody used Prozac for serious anxiety?  If so what can you say about it?

We had my spaniel on prozac then paxil then something else when i was in high school about 18 years ago. They said it was severe depression. It made him into a blah almost catatonic dog with fits of rage. Then he developed doggy dementia and got really bad and attacked my cousin and i think whatever psychiatric medicine he was on at the time was a contributing factor in the attack.I have nothing good to say about giving dogs antidepressants. My sister had a beagle with severe anxiety and it took a combo of retraining and valium. That seemed to work for her beagle.

I hope it works for you

Friend's dog had anxiety issues after they got a new puppy...she was snarling and growling at him a lot. In her case, trazodone did the trick.

Our vet also gave me trazodone for my dog, told me to give to him 1.5 hrs before the vet appointment. It may be the new "drug of choice" these days?

The mechanics of trazodone is that it is a not very effective antidepressant thats older then prozac. While it was almost useless as an antidepressant it turns out it works for insomnia and other issues because of its sedative properties. Hubby has bipolar and ptsd. I do alot of psych med research.

I think medication can be good. But i dont think medication is the answer by itself. And i dont just mean our pets. Yes you can drug your dog or your child or your spouse and things will seem better but really all your doing is masking the problem. Medication is more of a process then a fix.

To put it in people terms... if you have severe anxiety and are given zanax for the immediate you feel better. But without the therapy the zanax its a temporary quick fix that in the long term causes more issues then it has helped. Your dog cant talk but its the same just instead of therapy you go with behavior modification with conditioning exercises.

Totally off topic but medication obsession to make someone or something "normal" seems to be taking over the usa. I dont get whats so wrong about admitting your child or your dog is strange or has issues without jumping to psychiatric medicine. 50 years ago a shy kid was "quirky" now that same shy kid would be diagnosed with a mental illness and given drugs and made to feel like something is wrong with them. The real problems of a country can be summerized by how children and pets are treated.

@lostmaniac:  last paragraph - I could not agree more!! and nuff said.

Wow Lostmaniac, great post! That's really interesting about trazodone vs prozac.
Agreed on the heavy use of meds (and opiates) to as problem-solvers in our country, it's not good...
we are all perhaps being "sold" to by pharma companies...
Anyhow...

For OP... what is your dog very anxious about?
Separation anxiety? Thunderstorms? Strangers? Life in general?
How does it manifest (trembling/shaking/growling&snapping/destroying/pooping in house, etc?)