My cat has had issues with peeing all over my stuff lately. I took him the vet because I thought he had an infection. Turns out there is nothing wrong with him, he is just being really territorial. The vet recommended, and then prescribed, Prozac for him. I feel so yuppy saying that my cat is on Prozac.
Does anyone have experience with this. Does it work?
A few years ago, our Boo decided that one certain spot on the staircase wall was…well, we don’t really know…out to get him? Improperly aligned with the cosmos? Whatever the reasoning, he would spend hours at a time staring at that one spot and meowing his head off. In the middle of the night.
We took him to the vet, the vet put him on prozac for a month or so, and the meowing stopped.
Just like in humans, efficacy of drugs like these varies from individual to individual. Sometimes, it takes several different drugs before you find one that works. My dog took four or five different drugs before we finally found the one which was right for her issues.
Fascinating.
Prozac, they tell me, has some kind of ability to switch off compulsions, though the effect can wear off in weeks or months.
The vet said it would repress his need to be territorial. He didn’t really explain the mechanics of it at all. He said the only side effect was the possiblity of him losing his appetite. If that happens we will have to take him of it and try something else. He mentioned the possibility of Valium, but didn’t seem to trilled about that idea. I am not sure how I would feel about having a cat that is doped up all the time.
I’ve never heard of giving a cat Prozac for peeing issues, but I have heard of giving them BuSpar, which is an older antidepressant - a friend of mine used it for awhile on her cat and it worked. That cat was upset due to a move, and starting peeing outside the litterbox in the new home.
There’s a lot of info on this page about Prozac and litterbox issues.
If the medication is right for your pet, they shouldn’t be acting “doped up.” Ideally, you wouldn’t even be able to tell that they’re taking it, except that some of the undesirable behaviors caused by mental/mood issues would have stopped.
My dog’s on Prozac. He’s acutely agoraphobic. Before we started medicating him, he’d spend most of the day cowering in the bathroom. Wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t go for walks… he was a total mess. The Prozac worked wonders. He’s pretty much a normal pooch now.
I do feel wierd about it, though. There’s millions of people in Africa dying because they can’t afford AIDS medicine, and my dog is on Prozac. It’s just so… Marin County. I hate it when I fulfil a stereotype.
My older cat had lost all the fur off her (normally beautiful, orange and fluffy) belly. I was really panicked, fearing the worst, and took her to the vet. They did blood work and a checkup and found nothing wrong. The diagnosis was stress due to our younger cat. The older cat took to living in the closet for a few months, her fur grew back, but she still doesn’t like the younger one. The vet had mentioned Prozac as an option, but I didn’t take her up on it. I was more relieved that it wasn’t a serious physical problem.