Take a Chill Pill: Behavior Medications for Pets and Their Benefits

Some pets need behavioral medications to help them navigate the world — despite how hard we try to make life perfect for them. The world is a big place — ever changing and unpredictable. For some pets, it’s exciting and adventurous. But many others struggle to cope with daily activities and the uncertainty of each day. Certain events can be stress-inducing and coping can be difficult — this is where medications can help. As guardians, it's our job to consider every option available that may reduce our pet’s stress and bring them comfort.

If your pet struggles to cope with daily activities or certain situations, you should discuss the option to start behavior medication with your veterinarian. Medications can reduce overall stress and minimize anticipation of future stressful or unpredictable events including fireworks, construction, doorbell ringing or knocking, abrupt changes to your routine, or more. Allowing our loved ones to suffer when options are available to reduce or eliminate stress is out of the question. Luckily, we don’t have to. We can help them.

With ‘behavior concerns’ as a leading cause of pet relinquishment and euthanasia in North America, mental health conversations should be an active part of veterinary care for all pets. But unfortunately, even in humans, there is a stigma associated with the use of mental health medications that has even made appropriate treatment of major depressive disorders more difficult. 

Despite a strong understanding of how medications work and how they can greatly benefit pets, one of the biggest barriers to our pets’ wellness can be our hesitation to start medication due to our own misconceptions.

The Benefits of Medications

Behavior medications are a well understood aspect of medicine that is continuously improving. As the veterinary field continues to consider the mental and physical wellness of pets, more options are available for more specific behavioral concerns, allowing for targeted behavioral medications.

Stress is not just inconvenient; it causes the release of the hormone called cortisol into the bloodstream. A single stressful event can cause a spike in cortisol that takes 3-5 days to return back to a baseline level. And chronic stress causes chronic elevations in blood cortisol levels, which can have an effect on a pet’s metabolism, immune system, and behavioral health.

Medications can prevent frequent or long term spikes in cortisol levels. By treating stress, we are treating both the mental and physical health of our pets.

What are Pre-visit pharmaceuticals (PVPs) or Situational Medications?

The most common use of behavior medication is for short or individual events. This can be helpful if your pet shows stress during predictable events (e.g. fireworks, thunderstorms, vet visits) or infrequent events (e.g. car travel, boarding, grooming). Anxiety medication can be given 1–2 hours prior to an anxiety-inducing event to reduce the stress response once the event occurs. Medication can also usually be given repeatedly until the event is over.

The type of medication and dosing can take some trial and error with a goal of finding the lowest effective dose. The goal is for your pet to be calm with minimal stress, but reducing common side effects of short term medication including sedation, wobbliness, and stomach upset.

Often a pet requires a combination of medications, depending on their levels of fear, anxiety and stress in each situation. The combination of medications together can successfully target different components contributing to your pet’s behavior concerns. The medications can also work together to create stronger or longer responses.

It’s important to remember that undiagnosed pain, nausea or metabolic disease can contribute to anxiety. Therefore, pets experiencing anxiety, especially if new or escalating, should be medically evaluated for other illnesses or injury while simultaneously reducing their anxiety with situational medications.

Daily Medications

My general rule is that if your pet seems to struggle to cope with daily life, daily behavior medication should be strongly considered. Too scared to go on a walk? Can’t relax while you work from home? Fearful of family members or items in the home? Medication can help. Many pet guardians hope their pet will eventually get used to their routines, but they should not be allowed to suffer in the meantime.

For pets on daily medication, it should always be combined with behavioral modification. This can be pursued with a force free professional trainer using positive reinforcement, animal behaviorist or board-certified veterinary behaviorist that uses evidence-based skills to help you and your pet learn coping strategies. A daily medication alone will not eliminate concerning behaviors. Often medications are used to allow your pet to relax enough to be able to learn — to create a positive association with their previous stressor, or replace their concerning behavior with a safer alternative behavior.

Some daily medications can take longer, up to 8 weeks in some scenarios, to reach therapeutic levels in the pet’s system. They often cannot be discontinued abruptly, and will require a tapering decrease before stopping. These medications work in different ways that are geared for long term anxiety-reduction. Most commonly these types of medications are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI), or tricyclic antidepressants (TCA).

Daily medications can be geared toward anxiety, separation anxiety, hypervigilance, panic, reactivity, and hyperactivity. They are often used in combination to create a customized and effective regimen for your pet.

Side effects most commonly include sedation, decreased appetite, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea or agitation. However, side effects differ for each medication and each pet.

Does my pet need behavior medication?

If you think your pet could benefit from situational or daily behavior medication, talk with your veterinarian. If they struggle to cope with daily events or certain scenarios, they can likely benefit from medications in their care plan. Don’t forget to simultaneously rule out medical concerns that can cause concerning behaviors including pain, discomfort, nausea, endocrine or metabolic disease.

It can be difficult living with a pet with behavioral concerns. Finding the support you need is essential for the health of your pet and you. If you are interested in discussing your pet’s behavior and the possible use of medication, we can help. You can schedule a virtual consultation where we will review your pet’s medical records, discuss their current health status, and come up with the best set of options for you and your pet. For New Yorkers, we have a Fearful Pet Care Package to allow for low-stress medical care at home.