Dr. Dolittle Meets Dr. Marvin Monroe

Zoo and wildlife medicine specialist Romain Pizzi finds that pets are increasingly being prescribed anti-depressants because they cannot discuss problems in their lives with others.    (Read the article...)

Mr Pizzi said the severity of some pet’s depression may put its life at risk. Parrots are especially vulnerable. They are known to engage in self-mutilating behavior, like plucking out feathers, when their depression is left untreated.

I can see that. The bird's confined to a cage and surely suffers by hearing the refrain 'Brawwwwk! Polly want a cracker?' a thousand times each day. I'm sure the bird wants to roll his eyes each time his owner performs the imitation, which inevitably ends with the caretaker chuckling at his own ingenuity.

"Last year, Eli Lilly released a chewable anti-depressant for dogs onto the US market. The manufacturers even gave the “Reconcile” drug a beef flavour."
As investigators probe deeper into animal health issues (especially animal mental health), it can't be long before veterinary neuropsychiatrists will provide the answer to that age-old riddle: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Tags:[Romain Pizzi] [Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons] [Pet Depression] [Dr. Dolittle]   [Sigmund Freud] [Dr. Marvin Monroe]   [The Simpsons]