To help mitigate Lilly’s recent upswing in fears, especially at home, our working theory is that they are based more on her noise sensitivities than first thought. So, enter alprazolam (Xanax), a benzodiazepine. She’ll take .5 mg twice a day. On Friday, our vet called in 6 weeks worth of medicine. It cost me about $26 at our local Walgreens. Once again the whole thing was unusual enough that the pharmacist’s eyes were as big as saucers.
I popped through the drive-thru, told them Lilly’s name, etc. When she returned to told me about the dosage and length of treatment, etc., and she looked completely shocked.
HER: How much does she weigh?
ME: About 35 pounds.
HER: Oh, OK. She’s a big dog, then. Still, she must be really anxious.
ME: Yes, very anxious.
(While I’m thinking that 35 pounds certainly doesn’t qualify as a big dog at our house.)
HER: The thunder must be terrible for her.
ME: Nope. She’s actually not afriad of thunder.
HER: Oh, separation anxiety then?
ME: Nope, not that either. She’s perfectly happy, home alone right now. We’re combining this with clomipramine to deal with severe generalized anxiety and noise sensitivity, along with a complicated behavior modification plan.
HER: (Confused look) Well, good luck!
It wasn’t until a couple hours later, after I’d had lunch, after I’d done some work, while I was fighting the urge to take a nap that I realized perhaps she was quizzing me as a way to see if I was somehow trying to use my dog to scam my way into some xanax.
I wonder if people do such things? Maybe I’m just a cynic … working as a reporter will do that to you.
It’s entirely possible she was just curious about my curious girl.
Not a joke at all. Many drugs for people and dogs are the same. In fact, some cancer drugs are tested on dogs first because dog cancer models human cancer so well.
Well, a friend who thought the story was oh-so compelling seemed surprised that it irked me a fair bit. For example, I feel that some of the critics cited haven’t had a “new” idea for decades. But, to people who are not living this reality every day, I’m sure the article was eye-opening.
The best critique I’ve read is this one by a veterinarian in Florida:
<http://www.dolittler.com/index.cfm/2008/7/13/dog.cat.veterinary.veterinarian.New%20York%20Times%20Magazine.Animal%20Pharm>
Really interesting–you may well have been right about the pharmacist’s concern, except that in my neck of the woods docs hand out xanax like candy. Did you see the NYT Sunday Magazine story on behavioral drugs for dogs a week ago yesterday? I kept thinking about you and Lilly and wondering what your take (and that of the other folks here)on it might be.
This cracked me up! I had a similar experience when I had to get a liquid codeine-based med for Oliver’s cough. First the pharmacist (I had to go to a compounding pharmacy to get it!) could not believe that I was going to spend $300 on meds for my dog, and then he kept telling me that it was very dangerous for humans to consume. (I bet it wasn’t. I always wondered when I had a cold if it would be a terrific cough syrup, but it was too expensive to waste on me.)
S.