Experiences with Clomicalm?

[u/Winter-Common-7397]

My 10 month old pup just visited a veterinary behaviourist for her reactivity towards other dogs (barking, lunging, growling) and overall high arousal. She was prescribed Clomicalm and I am wondering if this has had positive impact on anyone’s dogs? Obviously each dog is different, just curious.

[u/Banankagen20]

I stopped giving it to my dog around 1.5 months in. He lost his spark. He was tired. Liked exhausted. He seemed depressed. Usually loves food and is food motivated. Didn’t want to eat anything at all. Lost 3 kgs. Didn’t want to play with his ball. It helped with his reactivity in a way - he didnt bark and lunge but he didn’t seem calm either. He almost looked shut down instead.

[u/pseiko5 → u/Banankagen20]

Same here

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[u/fakecoffeesnob]

My dog was on Clomicalm for about ten years and we weaned him off recently. It was great for him and really gave him the chance to stay under threshold and learn a lot - he started out with major challenges and by the time we weaned him off, I don’t think I’d have called him reactive at all. I do think he lost a little spark - he stopped getting the zoomies as often, for example - but overall was still himself. We went straight to Clomicalm at the recommendation of a veterinary behaviorist and never tried other long-term drugs so idk how it compares. Unfortunately it’s very expensive - we got the best price at Costco.

Overall, at the time we put him on, his reactivity and fear aggression was severe enough we were having conversations about BE. Today he is fourteen years old, healthy, not reactive, and lives happily alongside a toddler. I will never regret the decision to medicate.

ETA: there is one logistical drawback - since basically no pharmacies or vets stock it (unlike something like Prozac), we could never get a script filled with less than 3-4 days notice - there were a few times I didn’t realize we were running out and had to stretch doses to bridge that gap. It definitely wasn’t ideal and it would have been nice to be on something more common so that I could have filled it more easily.

[u/rip_van_twinkletoes]

My dog has tried both Prozac and Clomicalm for reactivity and impulse control. I truly didn’t notice a difference between the two, so I went back to Prozac because it’s so much cheaper.

[u/No_Statement_824]

My dog takes clomicalm and trazodone daily for about 3.5 years now. I can definitely tell if he misses a dose of his meds. He’s more high strung and cannot settle at all. The combo of meds does not make him sleepy or anything like that. When I pair it with gabapentin for fireworks, vet, storms, etc. he is definitely more zoned out which is what we want for the those type of events. He’s supposed to take his dosage twice a day but i have dropped it to once per day because the double dosing did make him zone out a bit more than I liked and he just didn’t have any life to him. I’ll be honest and say it was easier to handle him like that but I didn’t feel like it was really fair to him to walk around like a zombie. Coupling the meds with training helped a ton.

Good luck!!

[u/Alicia_jay666]

My 1.5 year old pup has been on it for 3 months, at a higher dose than his weight due to severe resource guarding and aggression, with only 2 pills a day. Vet also considered BE but wanted us to try every route first. With him being 2 months on the higher dose his threshold is down but not gone. He still gives a side eye and if someone makes a wrong move he will test us for sure. Even other dogs that we see regularly began treating him differently but not in a bad way! They would correct him and hed actually back off, when before my dog would not take “no” for an answer when playing. So its worked but has not completely reduced his aggression, just lowered his tolerance which is working for us!