09/04/2026
CONVERSATIONS ABOUT PET MEDS
Trigger warning: discusses mental health
Some really wonderful comments yesterday from you lovely folk about medication.
All your comments really resonated with me, and they're worth a wider audience.
We had a few that reiterated that common fallacy they'd heard that people (and dogs) can just 'pull themselves up by their bootstraps'.
It hit me more than most yesterday because it was the exact day 35 years ago that I lost one of my best friends. He was 19. I was 18. It was my third such loss in less than a year in my home town, and my third rude awakening to mental health issues. It's probably the least surprising thing of all to anybody that I then became profoundly interested in psychology and psychopharmacology.
The notion that needing support is weakness is precisely the problem.
The notion that any of us were supposed to 'pull ourselves up by our bootstraps' in a society that is, frankly, uncaring at the best of times on the whole, is also a huge part of the problem. I think this is especially true around the mental health of men, and I've advocated hard for better conversations and support for men's mental health ever since. Maybe we'd have fewer people upset by conversations about our own mental health and that of our dogs had we made more progress over the last thirty-five years?
Not only can societies be uncaring, they can also demonise those who it has already victimised or exploited, denying them access to healthcare or dismissing the importance of it.
You think it's different with dogs?!
You and I, here, reading this, we know it's not.
We know the systemic harms in society when it comes to animal care, and we're here to do better.
We know first hand about dogs who have come from puppy farms - I was utterly horrified this morning to hear that an image I'd dismissed from the RSPCA of an animal hoarding situation as being AI generated was, in fact, a real image. I'd believed it at first, having intervened on numerous occasions in such situations. Then it seemed so unreal that I thought it must have been enhanced to make a point. Not so, it turns out.
I don't know why it felt so incredulous. We can't believe anything these days.
Yet I'd seen similar scenes myself. One day, back in 2016 or so, we removed 50 dogs from an out-of-control backyard breeder, the dogs mange-ridden and flea-bitten, unrecognisable as any kind of breed or cross - little lost souls. And despite how awful the situation was, it was hard not to empathise with the person who'd done this - herself suffering enormously with both physical and mental health issues, a pariah herself in her community.
That brings me to another point: we live in an age of misinformation and disinformation. It's one reason I don't discuss medications very often, even though a number of the dogs I work with take them.
First, it's not my place: I'm not a vet.
Second, it's not my place: I'm not YOUR vet.
Third, it's not my place: I'm not your vet having had a relationship with your dog and with you, knowing your life.
Having honest conversations with your vet is so important. As Gloria commented yesterday on my previous post, we know it's not a fix.
There can be side effects.
Sometimes things don't work.
I spoke about Lidy's firework issues yesterday - it's taken years to land on the right combination FOR HER, so haphazard are fireworks. We only know they work when it's firework season, right? I always make sure we've tried the combination out of context, but the only way I know whether it works with fireworks is on the night.
I capitalised the FOR HER on purpose. She's had side effects on one of the medications that did work that were so awful (diarrhoea) that I had to weigh up the effects of that medication against the consequences. Weighing up the costs is important on any medication. I had the same conversation with my vet about my dog Heston when he started a course of steroids while on an anti-seizure med that completely changed who he was. Yet loads of other dogs have had that combination without worry.
This is another reason I don't talk about medications: it would be easy to create bias and give you the impression that this or that medication or combination is flawed with hideous side-effects when, were every dog to get the same side-effects my dogs had had, those medications wouldn't be on the market at all, or at least not in combination.
It's so important to find a great vet, and when you find them, treasure them. I can't honestly speak more highly of the vets I use regularly - both for myself and my clients: they have always gone above and beyond. Working to find the right combination for Lidy and her fireworks concerns has been an important part of it.
As Gloria also said yesterday: 'I try to frame it for people that it can help take the “edge” off, so the subject can stay calmer and in their “thinking mind.” And then therapy or training is crucial. That teaches the subject different ways of dealing with the issue.'
Quite. Other people added how it had helped them find their 'training space' for their dog, just to find that little c***k where we can work to help them feel better around triggers. Gail said she'd seen how it got the dog into a space where there was an even keel to learn. It's exactly that, isn't it? Finding an even keel, a little equilibrium.
For better or worse, sometimes the dogs we live with and work with would benefit from licensed medications or those used with care and thought off label.
Modern life can be hard with its fireworks and deer scarers (and storms!), with breeding for looks rather than stable temperaments, or with thoughtless backyard breeding and puppy farms pumping out millions of dogs without much by way of regulation.
This modern life isn't adapted to dogs and there's a lot to squash in to their early learning. Stuff happens too: house fires, illness, pandemics, car crashes, historical abuse, neglect ... all kinds of events may result in psychological or physical trauma for dogs where medication may well be able to help us find that small c***k to help.
It's wonderful to know there are so many kind, caring advocates out there who know what a difference it can make
