Which human medicines keep cats away?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My wife is a huge cat lover. For a while now she’s had to take a whole bunch of different medications and, except for one, our cats avoid her. I don’t know if it’s the medications or not, but I’m thinking it’s a possibility.

Have any of you seen cats stay away from anybody taking a certain medication? Have your own cats shied away when you took a particular medication?

Due to privacy concerns if you don’t want to give the specific medication name, would you at least say what it’s generally used for? Like for depression, or pain, or water retention for example.

Thank you.

2

I also have to take a whole bunch of meds, for various reasons. I haven’t noticed any negative reaction from my kittehs.

3

Consider the possibility that her ailments may make her smell objectionable and not the medications she’s taking for the ailments. Like a mother cat who shuns a kit with congenital defects.

However, having said that, I work in veterinary/rescue and have worked with thousands of cats and hundreds of people and have not heard of this from either angle. I have, though, heard of cats avoiding people as a general shyness or because they don’t like being handled in some certain way a particular person handles them. Some cats simply prefer to be near their person but never held or cuddled.

Are these cats that will let you hold and cuddle them but not her? I’ve also seen many cats change their minds about allowing more intimate handling when food/treats are used as motivators - even then it can take weeks or months for them to come around, but I certainly know a bunch of cats that won’t let anyone but one or two certain people hold them.

4

She is on a home vent that goes into her trach, but I wanted to try the medicine angle first. The vent itself doesn’t seem to bother them, and if she’s reaching out to pet them the vent hoses are far enough away they shouldn’t make a difference.

She’s wheelchair bound and spends most of her time at her computer desk. If she goes out into the front room to where the cats are they’re usually, but not always, more tolerant of her.

The cats really love me, but won’t even come move when she calls them. One will on occasion let her pet him when she’s lying in bed, but not very often.

The one cat she can pet and scratch (Ginger) stays on the computer table with her because the other cats don’t like Ginger. But unfortunately even Ginger prefers me over her.

5

If the cats are all nimble enough to jump onto tables or countertop areas, and if there’s a table, countertop, or any other area accessible by your wife to reach, try mealtimes given by her. I’ve seen many cats come around to both people and other cats through mealtime food bonding. If there’s a way for you to help her become the meal source, if you need to prep canned food and then give it to her to give the cats, she can use the taller surface as the feeding area. Meal feed canned food 2 or 3 times a day and you might be surprised how well they come around.

If that may prove more difficult, you could try cutting back on their regular food a bit (to make up for calories) and try a treat time daily where she is the source of favorite treats. Again I’m thinking a taller surface area that will be more accessible for her as I imagine just dropping treats on the floor plus trying to touch the kitties would prove inhibitive. The taller surface would make her arms/torso/face more appealing to the cats to approach if she’s pulled up to a table.

6

So? That’s pretty normal cat behavior – it’s only dogs that will slavishly come when their ‘master’ calls them. Cats are far more independent than that.

7

Hah, this ^^

I call our cat, and if she even deigns to look in my direction, the attitude is ‘Wha? You want me to respond?? Who the hell are you anyway, and why should I bother…OHHHHHH, FOOD…I LURVS YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH’

Bloody cats.

8

Could it be the wheelchair? My cats are afraid of anything mechanical that moves, especially if their tails are at risk of being run over.

9

I make no claims as the cat whisperer but in my experience cats pick up on ques from other cats. If one is skittish toward a person for whatever reason then other cats will follow suit.

In your case you have one cat who likes your wife. The other cats know this and if they don’t like that cat then the fix is in.

She shouldn’t take it personally but she can probably bribe the other cats into changing their behavior over time. I just took on a kitten a year ago and he’s not overly affectionate but at the same time he’s also my shadow. I’ve been wearing him down.

10

Good idea, but the ways things are set up it would be very difficult to have a surface for her to feed the cats herself.

11

They’ll come if I call though. And her past cats came.

12

Nah, they’re fine with it. One even likes to ride it if it’s being moved while my wife is out of it.

13

They didn’t like her before we took Ginger in.

14

Years ago, we had cats, and the head vet at the practice we took them too was in a wheelchair.

We’d seen other vets in the practice several times, but the first time we saw the wheelchair-bound vet… he rolled into the room, our cat took one look, went :eek::eek::eek:, flattened himself to the table and began backing away in terror. Everyone laughed.

Back to the OP: Did the cats originally enjoy being with your wife? As in, did something appear to change in their behavior at any point and did it correlate to any change in your wife’s treatment (wheelchair, vent, meds)?

15

She doesn’t have to do it herself. Just set the food by her wheelchair (or her). The idea is you want the cats to associate feeding time with in close proximity to your wife.

I was going to say cleaning the litter box helps too, but I’m guessing that’s not an option for her.

16

Do the medications include anything with menthol, eucalyptus oil or other pungent substances?

17

Does your wife’s urine have an uncharacteristic odor? That could be a clue as to what the cats are reacting to. In my own case, due to multiple medications, my urine has a faintly skunk-like odor… and strangely, my cats seem MORE attracted to me. (And are your cats on any meds?)

18

OK - we have these cats that never liked her, it sounds like. Past cats that have.

Get another hospital table and try the bribe route first. You can prep it, roll it up covered, and she can dole the treats out.

Try also different coverings for her lap, if there’s room for a cat to sit there. Some cats are very picky about where and what they sit on. Mine don’t like sitting on my jeans, but will gladly curl up on an inexpensive towel or cheap knit blanket that I got at CostCo (but Target or almost anywhere will carry them). A heating pad under the blanket (at a temp that is comfortable for your wife) might help up the allure.

Basically, your first course of action is to make her and her surroundings more attractive to cats who are not used to considering her an option for treats, attention, warmth, etc. You’re looking for ways to help with that. Even something like a flat cat shelf over the monitor stand that they can lie on and be all superior about might help. Move their cat tree next to her work area, things like that. Increase their opportunities for interactions.

My read is that you have become the primary source for all positive things for most of the cats, and so they don’t even consider her.

Second, if these cats have generally always behaved this way, I don’t think you need to look at her medications or other sources for the behavior. Look at the environment and seek remedies there.

Third, if you spend a period of a few weeks gradually increasing interactions, melding environments, bribing, etc, and nothing is working, you might want to consider, well, a kitten or a small dog. A kitten that she carries around with her and that you enable her as much as possible to be the primary caregiver. It will obviously need to get down and play and do its business, but you’ll need to bring her a food and water station. The kitten should sleep in a pocket or blanket on or near her, etc.

Small dog might be last resort. If she’s really missing a companion animal and the cats just won’t cooperate, there are some really loving little guys out there that love wheelchairs and just chilling.

19

The only things the cats would smell would be the Calmoseptine and Bag Balm on her upper legs, but she sits on those. Sometimes the cats will smell her hand and then back away, and her hands don’t come into contact with Calmoseptine or Bag Balm, nor any of the medicines she takes which made me wonder if any of the medicines cause her skin to emit an odor unpleasant to cats.

I only thought about the possibility of the Calmoseptine and Bag Balm being the culprit last night. Although they aren’t strong smelling, and her sitting on them should keep any smell from coming out, I guess I’ll see if they could have something to do with it.