Vetoquinol Zylkene Calming Support Supplement for Medium Dogs 33-65lbs Helps Promote Relaxation and Reduce External Stress Factors, Daily Behavioral Support and Anxiety Relief for Dogs, 225mg

Okay, this is going to sound like it was written by a relative, but I'm just your normal, average animal freak with five resident dogs and seven cats (two are fosters). Over the years we've had probably a hundred or more animals in our home, and we tend to adopt the misfits. Mango, our overanxious, neurotic rat terrier is one of our bigger challenges. She has to modes: catatonic and, as my friend put it, "tiny psycho dog." Over the years, we've done any number of behavioral, homeopathic, and medical interventions with only modest success. After a series of very volatile outbursts, our vet put her on a strong antianxiety medication before. We were thinking we may need to prepare ourselves for euthanasia, something we aren't in a rush to do, but after three years and thousands of dollars, we were running low on options. The drugs worked, but she was so zonked out there were nights we had to literally carry her upstairs. We knew we had to wean her off of the drugs but we were apprehensive about her reverting back to her old ways. The vet said one of the other vets had good luck with Zylkene, and said while it's spendy, maybe it was worth a shot. Since she's been completely off the drugs and exclusively on the Zylkene (about 3 months), she's gone from several occurrences of attacking the other animals (and occasionally is) a DAY to maybe twice in the past three months, and very easy to redirect to preferred behavior. I truly believe this stuff has saved the life of the dog who stole my heart. She's a confident and affectionate little girl who not only doesn't fight with her siblings, but actually cuddles with them! Remarkable! I haven't had the same luck with our other anxious dogs, but if say it's worth a shot of you're at wit's end.

I started using Zylkene eight days before the fireworks started. The recommended dose for each dog ( 19 pounds and 14.5 pounds) was 150 mg. So I bought the 225 mg capsules and cut the capsules in half so each dog received approximately 112 mg every morning. On July 3rd and 4th, when our usually quiet neighborhood sounds like a war zone for hours, I gave an additional dose in the evening. In previous years, we went to the basement and played Music Through a Dog's Ear very loudly to drown out the outside noise. However, the dogs still became frantic and could not be comforted until the noise stopped about 1 or 2 AM. Obviously, this was stressful for us as well.Zylkene changed my dogs' response to a known severe stressors. We still had to go down to the basement, but our dogs did not become frantic. There was some panting and restlessness, but they could be held and comforted through the worst of the noise. We were able to watch TV just like it was a normal evening. One dog even fell asleep on my lap. We also noticed the dogs tolerated intermittent (legal) firework noise while outside without immediately running to door to get in the house. We gave (and they readily took) treats as positive reinforcement for tolerating the noise. Then last night we had a severe thunderstorm in the middle of the night. Without getting up to get the Thundershirts or starting the calming music, both dogs reacted to the noise but, again, did not become frantic. We were able to hold and comfort them until the storm passed and everyone could fall asleep again. We will continue Zylkene for the rest of summer until the thunderstorm season has passed.

This product is excellent and I’ve tried cheaper versions and other natural versions but this one is the best. I do believe it is way too expensive though. If I could find a less expensive seller I would but it appears this is the only one that sells this. And almost every time I order this product it gets lost in shipping and is extremely delayed. I don’t believe it’s the fault of the seller. So order early and ahead of needing your next supply because it’s delayed up to a week and sometimes completely lost and I have to reorder.

I bought those for two of my dogs. I had read that it may not work with every dog when taken. Well on my smaller anxious dog it worked surprisingly well! She’s the type that barks at everything even at night. The first day taken she actually slept well which i was so happy about! She deserved a good nights rest. Now on my other dog, well didn’t work at all. Overall the product does what it says and may or may not work. It’s a chance an owner has to take.

Some people may not find this to work, but for us, our 5 yr old puggle who has issues with fireworks and storms it helps a lot.It definitely works better then the doggie meds from the vet that just make it worse.We use this product along with the Thunder Shirt and we can really see a difference, of course its not going to make your pets issues just go away, its a very light sedative that for our dog takes the (edge off), when we think Buster needs it, like 4th of July, New years eve and approaching storms, we simply give him the recommend dose, and within about 20 min he started to feel a little better and within an hr he's able to go to his (safe place) and sleep.When dealing with dogs with issues, you really need to give them a SAFE place, somewhere they can go if they want and deal with they're stress. sometimes its on your lap and sometimes its in a bathroom or cage, but give them an option along with the Zylkene. Also, we play music at higher volumes for him, classical music is great.All in all, if your pet has stress issues, nothing is going to (fix) the issue easy. But there are things you can do to help and for us it the following:ZylkeneThunder ShirtSafe PlaceClassical music at levels not too loud but loud enough to blend in with fireworks or thunder.UPDATE~~We do use this but also some stronger prescription meds from our vet for when something stronger is needed, we happy to see a new FDA approved drug just released SILEO, so if your needing something stronger check into this.

This supplement is a big help with my dog that has separation anxiety.