Cat on prozac? (eating, carpet, foods, antibiotics)

[marylee54]

I have 4 cats, 3 male, one female. The female started to urniate everywhere, and I mean everywhere---bed, clothes, anything on the floor, bags, laundry, yeech!

We took her to the vet, ruled out UTI. The vet suggested prozac, said she's probably stressed. We lost a cat back in Oct, he was PTS due to age and multiple health problems. That was her "companion cat" they were closely bonded, I know she misses him. Also, my dh took a job in another city, so he's only home weekends. In short, there's been a lot of stress here, and probably the kitty is reacting to it. She wants to sleep with me now, and doesn't want the other cats on the bed.

We got the prozac today, will start it tomorrow. Has anyone had a cat on Prozac, and did it help? Meanwhile, I keep her confined to one room, but that stresses her out even more, she wants to sleep with me, which is fine, but she doesn't want any other cats on the bed, hisses and fights them off, then, if they do get on the bed, she pees on it. I obviously can't put up with that!

[beachmouse]

Haven't used prozac specifically but we've used other behavior-altering drugs in the past for an anxiety cat, and it really does help in his case to spend a few months on the drugs to 'reboot the kitty'.

[FiveHorses]

I haven't had to use it myself, but there are situations where only anti-anxiety meds are going to work - where the behaviour isn't going to respond to more traditional approaches.

However, most anti-anxiety meds should be combined with behaviour modification techniques. A lot of vets seem to leave this out of the whole picture - that the drugs should be a means to an end, but not an end by themselves.

The meds - and the way they act - allow patterns of unwanted behaviour to be broken and that's where the second part of the equation comes in. (Ignore the title that comes up in this link - it always does this, but it should actually read "Overcoming Stress".)

Re-Directed Aggression Towards Other Cats

[eger]

Your kitty is a headcase...lol

[alixjack]

I haven't used prozac but I bought an OTC called rescue remedy from Whole Foods that worked WONDERS with my pee-everywhere-but-the-box cat.

[lori1057]

Started my kitty on Prozac after he got crazy when he saw an outside cat. Starting attacking my other two cats as if they were strangers (they grew up together). Been on Prozac since November 10th and it is a wonder drug! Now he licks the other cats and hangs out and purrs all day. I took him off after one month to experiment whether or not he still needed it and he got aggressive again. I put him back on it and peace reigns again in our household. I just worry about side effects.

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by lori1057

I took him off after one month to experiment whether or not he still needed it and he got aggressive again. I put him back on it and peace reigns again in our household. I just worry about side effects.

Re-directed aggression is a common phenomena among cats. It can be dealt with.

This is really where I feel a lot of vets let their clients down - "pop the pill and it will all be well". The meds are brilliant stuff - no doubt about it - and in certain cases they're the only "means to an end". But they should be used as a "vehicle" to get to the end (i.e. a happily co-existing multi-cat household) and not as the end themselves. There should also be a behavioural modification program in place so that the cat can be weaned the meds. Without trying to modify the cats behaviour (and the meds allow this to happen) there's not going to be any change. Why would there be? Once the cat is off the meds, all the feelings of anxiety or aggression or whatever it may originally have been are just going to come flooding back.

An owner needs to work on changing that while the cat is on the meds so the cat can come off the meds.

[Boopiegirl]

I just had the same thing happen to me - my girl cat was always a very nervous girl. She's had a history of bladder infections, and she is now 6 years old. We added a new cat in October - things were going fine. Then she got a bladder infection and began peeing everywhere - on clothing on the floor, on the carpet, on furniture - horrific. We keep our home IMMACULATE, so this is huge stress on us and we are simply horrified. We had her on antibiotics for a month, and she was finally diagnosed as having a stress-related bladder condition. The only recommended course was Prozac - which I was not at all happy about. But I truly had no other option. We got the prescription, and gave her .05 mg a day (1/2 a pill crushed in wet food). Things immediately improved. So after about 3 weeks, we backed her off to .025, and then the peeing started again. So I have put her back on .05 and it looks like we are in this for a while :-( But we have no other choice. When I make a lifetime choice of a cat - it is just that. So I pray this will work and will keep it up for several months and then try to back off again - I hope this works. Good luck and know that as a "last resort" this is truly one of the best ones you can try.

[Boopiegirl]

Originally Posted by eger

Your kitty is a headcase...lol

Marylee54 has a very serious situation she is dealing with. Instead of dropping her cat off at a shelter, she is trying to get help and correct things positively. Please don't make fun of other people's problems, especially when they are trying so hard to make responsible decisions and also take their responsibilities and commitments, seriously. Not funny.

[spankylynn]

Is there an all natural remedy for cat spraying?we have multiple cats in the house (5) and they are driving me crazy..I clean and clean to no aveil..they just keep pn peeing..its getting worse...