Stopping Fluoxetine Urgent Advice Required please!

Hi we have a rescue dog who has been with us for 4 years now, she has always suffered from separation anxiety. This escalated, from trembling and pacing when we were getting ready to leave the house (On the dog camera she settled and laid on her bed eventually) to leaving pools of drool on the floor and pacing until we returned. I work from home and do 2 x 20 minute school runs a day at most usually. I had tried a few behaviorists/trainers over the 4 years, tried herbal and vet-recommended natural products. She has never been food motivated (in fact most days she doesn't eat all of her food) she is picky with her foods and the only dog I know who doesn't like treats. She has great recall and is very chilled aside from the time it comes to leave her. She began losing weight and after an ultrasound, stomach camera and bloods the vet ruled out any underlying cause for this and advised working dog food, which she has been on for about 6 months and her weight has now levelled out. She is a lovely dog (Podengo cross with Labrador) and most of the time is content with sleeping, walks, cuddles, and playtime. 2 years ago she was prescribed 40mg of Fluoxetine for the anxiety, this stopped the drooling but she has always continued to shake and tremble before we leave and be hyper when we get back - like we have been gone for a month. (She has the run of the house, I leave a radio on low and she has her favourite toys around). Recently the drooling has returned, when I say drooling, I literally have to mop the whole kitchen floor when we return. The vet has advised to take her off Fluoxetine and try her on Selgian 10mg in 6 weeks. My concern is, the vet has said to just stop the medication from tomorrow! I am worried that this will have an adverse effect, shouldn't there be some weaning off especially as I am led to believe that 40mg is quite a high dose? She weighs 14.7kg. Any advice is appreciated.

Hello - in England, Fluoexitine is an off-label drug, so has no license or specific instructions for the treatment of anxiety and therefore our formulary contains no useful 'rules' for vets to follow.  Thus far, is not a drug that I have used, or considered, with this purpose in mind.  However, a side effect of it is vomitting so I can understand why her clinicians reccommended that she came off the drug.  Your specific question is whether this ought to be done slowly and the answer is that I don't know; have you put it to the clinicians involved?   If you ask them to make a note in the clinical notes that you asked and their response, then this will encourage them to think through and ensure that that they are happy to be accountable for their reply.  If they are unclear, perhaps they could direct you to a behaviourally-included vet should a second opinion be required?  As ever on this forum, your vet is better placed than me to speak for the specific patient in front of them.   Wishing you all the best with these new challenges and please do let us know how you get on.