A month or so I adopted a semi-blind 2-year-old male cat that I have named Phineas, aka Finn.
Sadly, it’s not working out. I’ve followed internet instructions about keeping the new and existing cat (recent pic of Zoey the Princess here) apart and letting them gradually bond, but unfortunately Finn is an asshole. Zoey, after a few exploratory bats of her paw toward the glass door he was behind, rolled over onto her back in an adorable “you can be uber-cat, let’s play!” position. I let Finn through the door … and he attacked her. Bastard.
As for me, I am covered with scratch marks and one nasty cat bite that is still not healed afer 3 weeks. Finn wants to be loving - he acts desperate for affection whenever I join him - but he’s one of those cats who goes from “hey gimme love I love I love I love” to “SLASH! KILL! EAT! HURT!” in half an unpredictable second. Not cool, and I have the scary wounds to prove it.
So the vet recommends giving Finn a high dose of Gabapentin for a few weeks and gradually tapering it off, to see if this mellows him out enough that he can be integrated into the household. That’s option 1; option 2 is let him be an outdoor cat, something I don’t approve of but I guess it is something to consider if the alternative is going back to the shelter. The vet says he has enough vision to manage; she likened his condition to, “imagine you were wearing sunglasses with fingerprints all over them; it would be annoying and there would be stuff you couldn’t see, but you’d basically see enough to understand the world.”
Anyway…has anyone else here used Gabapentin this way? The Internet suggests that Gabapentin as an aggression-modifying drug for cats is real, but a fairly recent idea and not well studied.
I never tried gabapentin. I bought my mom some L-theanine chewables for her cat which was very high strung and anxious. They worked but she had trouble getting her to eat them.
He’s neutered, right?
If not, I’d start there. It won’t change character entirely, but it’ll tone the behavior down some.
I don’t know about the Gabapentin; but if your vet’s recommending it, I’d give it a try.
It might also help to get him a great deal of exercise. You might or might not be able to accomplish this without letting him out. Whether letting him out is a good idea IMO depends a great deal on location; but I’d want to keep him in at night if at all possible, as areas that are low enough traffic to be relatively safe for cats often have night-active predators capable of eating cats.
I’m only personally familiar with Gabapentin as a pain reliever for my dog, but I understand is also has usage as a stress reliever.
Part of me wonders if your kitty is in some sort of chronic pain that manifests itself in basically being cranky all the time. In that case the Gabapentin might help with that as well.
I would give it a shot.
A friend’s cat has some aggression issues that are being controlled by Alprazolam (Xanax). Her cat has gone from hating nearly everything, to loving nearly everything.
I’d try the gabapentin. You have nothing to lose, right?
There may be something to the pain idea. I have a dog who had perpetual problems with her eyes. Unbeknownst to me, one of them was ocular pressure, which does hurt. When that problem was finally solved, she was a happy little pup.
When I adopted him, the Humane Society had him pegged at 2 years old; the vet seems to think he might be a little younger. He was neutered just before I picked him up.
The vet said he has a significant heart murmur; I assume that would not cause pain?
I’ll try the gabapentin; I already have it, in liquid form, so it it shouldn’t be hard to get Finn to take it. The biggest issue is that it is supposed to be administered every 12 hours. I live alone and there is no time of day/night that I am guaranteed to be home. So the administration is going to be a little irregular, though I’ll do my best to stay on schedule.
He’s very much in the habit of being a full tom, then. It’s probably helping some, and he may calm down some more as time goes on.
If he’s only around 2, some of this may well be excess energy. Some cats retain that kitten need for high level of activity significantly longer than that.
You can check with the vet., but I shouldn’t think so. I’ve got one, and it doesn’t hurt.
Sometimes there are non-obvious causes of pain. That is a good point to think of.