I'd like to address an interesting and increasingly important topic
in the pet world because I think if it hasn't already touched ferrets
lives it eventually will. That is the use of human antianxiety meds,
tranquilizers, and other psychogenic drugs such as Prozac.
People have slipped their pets everything from some homeade
concoctions of honey and whiskey during the old days to heavy forms of
antipsychotics today. But in the distant past, it was very unusual and
when people did it, they did it in such minute dosages it didn't lead
to many problems. But today, people are doing it more and more because
of the wide variety of choices in drugs, access, cost, and the heavy
promotion of them. In fact, many vets prescribe these drugs for
animals. Obviously you should not medicate your pet without advice
from a vet... so to do so is at your and your pets risk. I'm not a vet
and I'm not qualified to debate the advantages and disadvantages of
administration of such drugs on pets, let alone ferrets. But I did want
to bring to your attention to the over usage, misusage, and even abuse
of these meds with our pets that can occur from misinformation to
owners and professionals alike.
A couple of weeks ago there was a horrific accident involving a chimp
attack on a human. The chimp was famous and well cared for. He was
under a vets care for some little medical issue. Now, the attack
happened for many, many reasons. I won't go into them here, but there
is a very, very long and alarming list of them. However, minutes before
the attack, the owner gave the chimp a Xanex (on top of some other
medicine that a vet prescribed) without a vets directions (they are
reporting, that may be inaccurate, but it's neither here nor there).
What resulted were two officers hurt, the chimp killed from being
stabbed several times by his own human-parent and shot by police, and a
woman who is now missing hands, nose, lips, and who's face was so caved
and beaten in that the police didn't even know the victim was a woman
at the time. She is hanging on by a thread today.
I then thought of all the instances I've ever run into where people and
vets administer these drugs for various behavior problems ... and how
exceedingly popular it's become recently. I did a little digging and
found that this is possibly a very bad thing. Dogs, cats and even
parrots are given things such as Prozac for OCD like problems and more.
They are saying now that they know this to be a very bad thing to do
in many cases with dogs and cats. In cases dealing with agitation and
aggression there is a likely case scenario where the animal does not
get calmed down but gets increasingly irritable and even aggressive.
Antianxiety meds in particular result in the animal being less
inhibited. So if he has an aggression issue ... it makes it worse. It
lets the animals defenses down, lessons it's control, and releases the
animal in them I suppose. Prozac, benedryl, and other meds are often
prescribed to parrots with severe behavioral problems. I have such a
bird. My vet however would not prescribe such medicine unless it came
down to a choice of that or euthanization. And even then, there would
be close supervision by her. She even stated that in many cases, she'd
opt for euthanization because to bypass the irritation and excitability
these drugs can bring on, she has to drug them so much it decreases the
quality of life severely or can even hurt their organs in the long run.
My message being ... don't do it. And if a vet prescribes it, question
it. If you decide with a vets advice to take that route, only do it as
a last resort to anything else and with close monitering (although
Ketamine and others drugs can be okay one time then lead to
hallucinations, etc, another do it can be decieving).
[Posted in FML 6264]
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