Prozac and Dogs Starved as Puppies

I'm not a vet or student. I joined to post this and perhaps stir up some interest. I run a rescue for abused dogs and made a discovery that I think is worth looking into by veterinarians. The following was posted on Petfinder, so please bear with the terminology. If you find it has merit, perhaps you would do some research into it and help a lot of dogs who are being abused for being too reactive.

I put my third rescued dog on Prozac with excellent results. I have come to the conclusion that if you have a hyper dog who you know or suspect was starved or nutritionally deprived as a puppy, Prozac may be of benefit. I have not seen a study on this but intend to contact some vets and vet schools to see if anyone is interested in doing some research on it.

Prozac is an SSRI – a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor. It works by blocking the brain from absorbing the neurotransmitter Serotonin. In my small sampling it would appear that dogs who are nutritionally deprived as puppies have brains that may over produce or have an overactive uptake of serotonin, or sensitivity to a normal amount. In other words, they are brain damaged from inadequate nutrition as puppies.

All three of these dogs are highly reactive – barking at the slightest provocation, making poor judgments such as jumping on you, or other dogs, exhibiting periodic aggression toward other dogs (but only when they are being reactive) and being difficult to train due to a high level of distractibility. The one with the worst symptoms almost died from starvation at about 6 weeks old. She has severe ADHD and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder along with being reactive.

Gloria, the pit bull in my signature was beaten severely as well as being starved and poisoned by being fed Clorox to make her mean. I considered her brain damage from the beating to be her primary disability, but I’ve come to believe that it is the starvation that caused her worst disability. Since she has been on Prozac her most prominent symptoms have subsided (sporatic aggression and severe compulsiveness.)

Nikki, my shepherd/Lab with ADHD and OCD was so bad we were considering euthanizing her. She started fights with every dog in the house, jumped on you to the point of doing injury (no doctor – I do NOT have a husband who beats me…I have a dog who loves me…) and obsessing about chasing a ball to any object to the point where she was harassing you to throw an item even in the middle of the night. Prozac has reduced her symptoms to the point where we can live with her, she no longer wants to fight with anyone and she still loves and chases her precious ball, but knows when to go play by herself. She is also learning, at 4 years old, how to play with another dog.

Cheyenne, our last trial run on Prozac, is a collie/shepherd who was rescued from being starved as a puppy and then again from being passed from home to home. She is the most reactive dog I’ve ever seen as well as one of the most beautiful. Every noise caused her to leap to her feet screaming. She picked fights constantly to the point where the others learned to ignore her aggression – she’s a coward and tries to bully the dogs to get them fighting so she can join in and bite from the rear. She jumped constantly and is the most painful dog I’ve ever owned because jumps are accompanied by being rammed by her nose, grazed by her teeth or raked by her nails. Since the Prozac kicked in she no longer barks all the time, her aggression has dropped off markedly as has her need to climb all over you.

Prozac has gotten a bad rap in humans, but I believe that it has a place to help rescue dogs who have brain damage from early depravation. It is listed as an anti-depressant and is NOT a tranquilizer (Nikki’s constant activity can attest to that.) It is quite inexpensive as Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club has it on their $4 list of prescriptions. We find it most effective administered after breakfast and after dinner. The doseage is based on the dog’s weight and may need to be adjusted upward as your vet is getting the dosage correct.

You may want to speak with your vet about Prozac, if you have a reactive dog who hyper and mildly aggressive (the aggression in my dogs went in spurts depending on how hyper they were at the time.)

Peace.
Jane and the Hole in the Wall Gang -- Hole in the Wall Rescue
Contact: [email protected]
_________________
See our gang here: http://flickr.com/photos/12349062@N00/

Okay, I mistakenly thought this was a professional forum. Sorry for that.

The dogs are being monitored by a vet and behavior mod did not work. These 3 are the worst of the worst and I only take the worst. I thought it worthwhile to study if there is a connection between a SSRI and a brain injured by poor nutrition. Apparently the responders do not agree.

Sorry I wasted your time.

Sincerely,
Jane

Ps. Don't waste your time reprimanding me for my manners. I won't be back to read your responses. I'm sick to death of people who know it all when they are not the ones in the trenches.

I FOUND THE CONNECTION!!!

I was searching and ran across studies on male aggression because of a defect in the MAOA gene. I searched for that + nutrition and found this article on an Autism web site:
http://www.autismwebsite.com/crimetimes/05a/w05ap12.htm

EARLY DIET AFFECTS BRAIN FUNCTION
A report by Brazilian researchers adds to evidence (see page 1) (see related article, Crime Times, 2005, Vol. 11, No. 1, Page 1) that early malnutrition can permanently affect brain function.

J. M. Barreto-Medeiros and colleagues divided 64 rats into two groups: one nursed by well-fed mothers and a second nursed by malnourished mothers. After weaning, all of the rats received a good diet.

When the rats reached adulthood, the researchers injected half of them with fluoxetine (Prozac), which affects serotonin levels in the brain and normally results in reduced aggression in rats. The rats who were well-fed in early life reacted normally to the drug by exhibiting less aggression, but the rats who experienced malnutrition during infancy did not reduce their aggressive behavior. The researchers conclude, "These findings suggest that the serotonergic system was affected by malnutrition during the critical period of brain development, and [that these effects] persisted even after a long period of nutritional recovery."

"Malnutrition during brain growth spurt alters the effect of fluoxetine on aggressive behavior in adult rats," J. M. Barreto-Medeiros, E. G. Feitoza, K. Magalhaes, J. E. Cabral-Filho, F. M. Manhaes-De-Castro, C. M. De-Castro, and R. Manhaes-De-Castro, Nutritional Neuroscience, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2004, 49-52. Address: J. M. Barreto-Medeiros, Dept. de Nutricao, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Cidade Universitaria, 50670-901, Recife, PE, Brazil.

http://www.autismwebsite.com/crimetimes/05a/w05ap1.htm

EARLY MALNUTRITION LINKED TO LATER AGGRESSION, HYPERACTIVITY
A poor diet in early life is a strong risk factor for aggression and hyperactivity in childhood and adolescence, a new study reports.

Jianghong Liu and colleagues compared 353 children who were malnourished at age 3 to a control group of about 1,200 children who did not show signs of malnutrition at this age. All of the children were participants in a long-term study conducted on the island of Mauritius, off the coast of Africa.
Children were categorized as malnourished if they exhibited any of these signs:

angular stomatitis (cracking of the lips and corners of the mouth, a sign of riboflavin and/or niacin deficiency).
abnormal hair pigmentation (a common sign of protein malnutrition, particularly in Africa).
sparse, thin hair (a sign of protein-energy malnutrition or overall malnutrition; also a possible sign of zinc and/or iron deficiency).
anemia, a sign of iron deficiency.

Overall, 22.6 percent of the children in the study showed one or more signs of malnutrition at age 3. To determine if the degree of malnutrition was a factor, the researchers divided the subjects into groups based on the number of malnutrition signs the children exhibited.

Liu and colleagues analyzed behavioral data taken when the children reached the ages of 8, 11, and 17, and report that "the children with malnutrition signs at age 3 years were more aggressive or hyperactive at age 8 years, had more externalizing problems at age 11, and had greater conduct disorder and excessive motor activity at age 17." These findings remained true when the researchers controlled for psychosocial factors including parental education and employment status, mother's age and marital status, quality of housing, access to toys and books, number of siblings, and presence or absence of parental mental illness.

A "dose-response" relationship was seen in the tests performed at ages 8 and 17, with a higher number of malnutrition signs correlating with a greater degree of externalizing behavior. The researchers also found that at 8 and 11, low IQ mediated the link between malnutrition and behavior problems. This indicates, Liu et al. say, that "malnutrition predisposes children to a lower IQ, which in turn predisposes them to externalizing behavior problems." They note, however, that malnutrition was associated with externalizing behavior problems at age 17 even when they controlled for IQ.

Liu and colleagues note that the malnutrition-behavior link remained strong at different ages, was detected by three different behavioral tests, and was true for both genders and for different ethnic groups included in the study. They note, however, that further research is needed to investigate whether the effects on behavior stemmed from transient or chronic malnutrition, and whether prenatal malnutrition played a role.

"We hypothesize that early malnutrition negatively affects brain growth and development," they conclude, "and that brain impairments predispose to antisocial and violent behavior by affecting cognitive functions." They cite scientific literature showing that zinc, protein, and iron deficiencies can impair brain development and predispose to aggression, as well as recent research showing that dietary improvements can lead to reductions in antisocial behavior in adult criminal offenders (see related article, Crime Times, 2002, Vol. 8, No. 3, Page 1).

"Because nutrition is a malleable factor," they say, "it may be more practical and easier to prevent externalizing behavior through better early nutrition targeting at-risk populations than more complex and expensive psychosocial manipulations." Such measures, they say, may also need to target prenatal diet in order to be effective.

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"Malnutrition at age 3 years and externalizing behavior problems at ages 8, 11, and 17 years," Jianghong Liu, Adrian Raine, Peter H. Venables, and Sarnoff A. Mednick, American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 161, November 2004, 2005-13. Address: Adrian Raine, Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061, [email protected].

Related Article: [2005, Vol. 11]

Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with this information and see if anyone has thought to do a study on animals who exhibit hyperactivity and aggression. AND why my dogs exhibit less aggression on Prozac than seems indicated by the first article. It may be that their aggression was based on their hyperactivity as they were easily distracted from it and not really eager to fight.

This has huge implications for veterinarians and for people who do rescue. It only affects a small percentage of dogs, but with 8 million dogs being euthanized in this country and the dogs who are adopted but have behavior problems that they are unable to control through training and behavior mod -- that consitutes a sizeable population.

It is my hope that someone with an interest in pursuing this line of research will see this post and find it worthy of further study.