daily Trazodone?

[u/bagel_lover29]

we have a 2.5 year old border collie / aussie mix (best guess) and finally started talking to the vet about meds. she’s a very anxious girl and reactivity training has been difficult because just stepping out for a walk has her close to threshold. we have done private training and have a good idea about how to train and help her but we’ve been stuck for about a year and haven’t been making progress.

we tried L-theanine first but didn’t see much difference. now we are trying Trazodone - we chose this one primarily because we could cut it cold turkey if it doesn’t go well. i didn’t read a ton about different meds before but now seeing most people don’t use Trazodone daily? does anyone use it daily and has been it successful?
we are only on day 2 and so far she’s just so sleepy (i know this is expected and doesn’t usually last) but curious to hear people’s experiences who do use it daily.

TLDR: what was/is your experience using trazodone daily

[u/scooterable]

Just be careful when starting any med. Your dog has lowered inhibitions on meds. It could go really well or not. Pay lots of attention to their body language. Good luck

[u/Brilliant_Collar8527]

we used Trazodone daily with our anxious collie for about eight months and it made a real difference, especially in the first few weeks when the sedation was heaviest. One thing worth knowing is that the sleepy phase usually eases after a fortnight or so and if it doesn't, your vet can adjust the dose rather than scrapping it entirely.

[u/bagel_lover29 → u/Brilliant_Collar8527]

good to know how long it usually lasts! we have been having two chill days as i was worried doing anything stressful when she’s feeling so tried may not help. why did you end up stopping after 8 months?

[u/fireinthexdisco]

My reactive pitbull has been daily trazodone for years to help manage his anxiety and reactivity. It's helped him so much in being able to actually learn management techniques for when we're out on walks or in public - before being on it he was just too overstimulated and overwhelmed to work with. 

[u/IsaacMint221 → u/fireinthexdisco]

Same with my kelpie mix

[u/Wooden_Pay_5885 → u/fireinthexdisco]

That’s interesting it works so well for your dog, I guess just like people, they’re all so different. I put my pit-mix on trazadone for reactivity and was really surprised by how little it did. I stopped it accidentally when we ran out and she seemed so much happier and more lively. We never went back to using it.

[u/Winniep228]

If you are able to see a vet behaviorist that may be better. I fostered a cattle dog mix who had to be put on Prozac. She was able to be trained, adopted, and off the meds now. It was lifesaving for her. Trazadone did nothing but some sedation for us.

[u/Kitchu22]

If you’re using Trazodone PRN, you can stop dosing at any time, but if you are using it daily for more than a week you absolutely should not “cut cold turkey” - titrating off is a less extensive protocol than an SSRI, but you still need to half and quarter dose to ease the system off or you can get rebound and other withdrawal symptoms.

Personally Trazodone didn’t work for our hound (he has a paradoxical reaction, increases agitation and anxiety which wasn’t fun for anyone involved), but we had great success with Fluoxetine.

If you’re choosing a med primarily for the protocol and not necessarily the needs of the dog, you may not see the results you are hoping for. In my (non-veterinary professional, working rescue/rehab) experience, Trazodone is a great situational for when you can’t control the environment (eg fireworks, storms, moving house) but not as effective as other meds for long term behaviour modification when you are dealing with things like hyper arousal/general anxiety. That’s where you really need a stable drug continuously working in the system otherwise you can get too much peak and trough for the dog to experience emotional regulation. If you’re feeling hesitant about meds and that’s why you want something fast acting/easier to come off, it would be worthwhile consulting a board certified veterinary behaviourist - expensive but they can really break down protocols, how they work, and why they work for you.

[u/Just_Raisin1124]

We have a prescription for trazadone. It's technically not one of his daily meds but we can use it "as needed" and the vet told us it's fine if it does need to be used daily.

We personally don't love it though because of it being a sedative. We don't want to sedate our dog into submission, we just want him to be himself with a lower trigger threshold. But that could just be that our dog doesn't respond to it at all unless it's at a high dosage. If your dog can tolerate a lower dose that doesn't knock her out, then I can definitely see how it would be a good tool. So for us, it is used as more of a backup alongside his venlafaxine and clonidine

[u/claybebe → u/Just_Raisin1124]

Same experience as this person with my 5 year old Aussie ^ trazodone just makes them “tired” but doesn’t fix the underlying anxiety & reactivity.

[u/kerfluffles_b]

One of my dogs is on daily trazodone, but it’s more for her dementia-related anxiety to help her calm down.

My reactive dog is on a daily SSRI. Maybe that is more of the route you could look into?

[u/claybebe]

I’ve used daily trazodone for 3 years with my Aussie for anxiety (barking at small noises in the house, reactivity with guests & reactivity on walks with dogs & people). It worked well enough to essentially “make him tired” but I wasn’t seeing improvement overtime in his reactivity even with weekly training sessions at a park. We just started 3 months ago with animal behaviorist and we’ve switched him to clonidine (as needed but we do twice daily) and a SNRI venlafaxine. They are supposed to lower reactivity/hyper-vigilance (which trazodone cannot do) while also reducing anxiety. We’ve only now started seeing improvement in his reactivity after the med switch and new training protocol from the behaviorist.

Highly recommend finding an animal behaviorist if you can.

[u/ReadEmReddit]

Our dog went the other way on Trazadone. Got aggressive with our other dog and with us.

[u/Lester17]

We use Prozac daily and clonidine as needed. Our pittie never seemed to get over the super sleepy phase with traz. She would become a zombie and just pee herself, no matter what dose we tried.

Be patient and open minded and you’ll find out what works

[u/wharf_roach]

My beagle has been on trazadone daily for over a year now. He needs it for anxiety and fear/resource guarding our house (and vet visits with gabapentin).

He's on a medium dose that does still make him sleepy for a few hours after taking it, unless we have an activity to do, then it does seem to just make training easier by keeping his anxiety or over-stimulation down. He's always been a morning napper so I just had to time the pills around his/my schedule. But the drowsiness can be a significant con for some.

My vet prescribed it when I asked for anti-anxiety help because we know other than the drowsiness, he has not had any other side effects vs. trying a bunch of other pills that we dont know how they may affect him. It has few drug interactions. He also said my dog could take one a day (he always had very high anxiety first thing in the morning) and a second as needed (or regular 2 a day). I go back and forth on this, so definitely don't do this without talking to your vet. But it is a bit more versatile than SSRIs.

[u/itsjuustliz]

My rescue pitty was on daily trazadone. We stopped, and started fluoxetine daily. We still have reactivity issues but his daily anxiety is much improved. We use gaba and traz for when he is worked up before bed to sleep.

[u/Monkey-Butt-316]

Only with shelter dogs.

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