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]