Lilly’s New Meds (clomipramine) Arrive
After last week’s drama, I’m happy to report that Lilly’s new medicine (clomipramine), the one the animal behaviorist recommended, arrived Friday (7/18) from 1-800-PetMeds, just 2 days after the order was shipped. It took a full week and something like 20 phone calls to make it happen, though. Seriously, it took less time to get the meds here from a warehouse in Florida, than it did for someone to OK the order by phone. All manner of things fouled us up — a lack of responsiveness from my regular veterinary practice, an administrative rule at the CSU veterinary teaching hospital about what constitutes a “medical” case, and a jumble of miscues relating to the various forms of the drug that are available. It shouldn’t have been this hard.
Still, lesson learned. If you cannot work with a behaviorist who happens to be a veterinarian as well, then be sure your regular veterinarian is open and willing to prescribe drugs the behaviorist (typically with a PhD) recommends. And, I would add … not just willing, but that he or she will hop to it and get it done within a reasonable time frame.
I know it seems like behaviorists are EVERYWHERE these days, but the pool is still pretty limited. You might be surprised how few board certified ones there are:
American College of Veterinary Behaviorists
Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists
Many of them work through their own private consulting business, but you can always do what I did and check your nearest veterinary teaching hospital. (Thanks to Dell Rae, in the CSU media office, for helping me contact the right person.)
From a consumer perspective, I’d also recommend asking local trainers for input on who they like, who gets results, etc.
So, drama, frustration, and delays aside … we’re into Drug Era #2 in Lilly-Town. Our fingers are crossed.