Depression at dogs. About sympthomes, causes, solutions and antidepressants

Everybody knows people may suffer of depression, but how many of you know that even our beloved dogs may have the same affection ? You can easily see if your dog is affected by sadness because the sympthomes may be similar to those of people.

Sympthomes

Losing the appetite, less playing activity and excessive sleeping may be the first signs. If you see your dog beeing tired, slow and not wanting to interact with people, it’s the case to take it to the vet. It’s very important not postponing too long. Below you may find some common sympthomes in case of depression:

Behavorial changings
Your dog may become introvert looking like it had lost its vitality. It may avoid playing, walking, hence becoming slighlty irritable.

Excessive sleeping
If your pet doesn’t do anything else than sleep, then it is possible it suffers of depression.

Inactivity
This is a classic sympthom of depression. It’s possible that your dog may sit all day long in its sleeping place or in another comfortable place in the house.

Losing the appetite
We all know dogs generally want to taste everything. In case of depression, their appetite dissapear.

Depression’s causes

Same as at people, dogs’ depression may appear because of more factors:

The abuse
In case your dog was abused in the past by the former owners, they may show aggressivity and depression signs. It’s the same as in people’s case, when the adults neglect or abuse the children.

The dead
If the owner or even the dog’s brothers lose their life, the dog will be devastated. Generally, dogs are very affectionate to their owners and to the ones who are around them every day.

Depressive owner
If you suffer of depression, the mood will inevitable be transferred to the dog. Many people try to heal of depression by addopting a dog, but they don’t know the dog may be affected by their behavior.

The environment
The dog put so much soul in everything is around it, that it can get into depression even when you decide to move in a new house.

The loneliness
If you are a busy person, not spending enough time at home, it would be better not to adopt any pet. If you isolate your dog for a long time, you would be able to experience the dog’s sadness that accompanies the loneliness.

How to heal it

Compassion
Offering it all the love that it needs by paying an extra attention.

Play with it
You can do something new or you can play fun games. Take it outside or to a pet park.

Socialize it
If your pet misses of a brother with whom it played before, you can take it to places with other dogs.

Antidepressants for dogs

These should be used as a last option. You should try detecting the cause of the dog’s depression, treating it via natural methods, such as spending more time with it.

The antidepressants may get the state of dogs worse and we cannot say that this is the most suitable treatment for them. The known antidepressants for dogs are: Clomicalm, Prozac, Zoloft.