Last week, we got back the results of Lilly’s blood work in preparation for trying antidepressants to help her cope. The good news is that it came back with no scary or weird results. I asked for the full thyroid panel, and her values (I’m told) are normal. If I can get the full report, I’ll post her numbers later.
Her blood count numbers do reflect that Lilly lives and trains at 8,000 feet above sea level. Like me, she has a very high red cell count … just call us Sherpa girls!
Because the dosing such medications is more nuance than formula based only on weight, our veterinarian took his time choosing Lilly’s starting dose of amitriptyline. He called yesterday morning with a decision — half of a 75 mg pill once a day. So, essentially we’ll start with 37 mg per day. Lilly weighs 34-35 pounds, so it’s just more than one mg per pound.
The nurse is calling the prescription into a local human pharmacy today since they don’t keep it on their hospital shelves. I guess I’ll go pick it up this afternoon and probably start giving it tomorrow.
If you are interested in reading a good overview of these meds for anxiety and such in dogs, I recommend a piece called “Anxiety Medications” by Mary Straus that ran in the July 2006 issue of Whole Dog Journal. Mary has the full text of the article on her website.
It includes details on her own saga with a phobic dog named Piglet, so the story doesn’t match our scenario, but the summary of what drugs can be used when is helpful as a baseline knowledge for those of us with sensitive, anxious dogs.
Our trainer said it’s quite common for docs to start with amitriptyline, rather than an SSRI like Prozac or Zoloft. Amitriptyline is an older drug that our doc has more experience with, so that’s where we’re starting.
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