Medication for Separation Anxiety in Dogs

Posted by Clare Bristow

springer-spaniel-looking-sad Last week, Eli Lilly and Co announced the launch of a prescription medicine that helps treat separation anxiety in dogs. The medicine is called Reconcile and uses the same compound as the human anti-depressant Prozac. The medicine will be easy to administer - it comes as a beef-flavored chewable tablet.

Eli Lilly stresses that the medicine should be used in conjunction with behavior modification training for separation anxiety. In tests the company carried out, using Reconcile with a training program proved to work faster in relieving the symptoms of separation anxiety than if just a training program was implemented.

According to Eli Lilly, Reconcile works by making your dog more receptive to training, and although he may appear calmer whilst on the medication, it does not act as a sedative.

As we all know, teaching a dog to stop an ingrained behavior requires consistency and patience on our part, in other words, a bit of time and effort.

For dogs with a severe case of separation anxiety and who have responsible owners, I can see that this drug could be of great help as they teach their dog that being on their own isn't all bad.

For many owners, though, I'm sure it will be seen as the panacea for separation anxiety. The medication will be administered with all the good intentions of implementing the training program, but, as is often the case, this will fall by the wayside as the owner never finds the time to do the training. As a consequence the poor dog will continue to suffer panic and distress every time his owner leaves the house ,whilst being on the canine equivalent of Prozac and enduring the possible side effects of the drug - what sort of quality of life will that be?

I'm all for using medicines where they are proven to work, but all to often they are used as a quick and easy fix to a problem that can be cured not with medication but a bit of time and effort.

US Food and Drug Administration has published this docket on Reconcile, and it lists some of the side effects of the drug.

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