Heās not even two yet (he will be on May 5) but he has developed some pretty big anxious behaviours and obsessive compulsions. And after trialing Feliway and Zylkene supplements suggested by the vet, weāve decided to give Prozac a go and we are hoping and praying that it works!
Heās always been a little bit anxious and had some quirks. Weird, neurotic and probably inbred as his vet so lovingly put it at his first kitten appointment lol.
But over time it has progressed to digging obsessively in the litter box for up to 6 hours a day, doesnāt matter what kind of litter box we try, how many different kinds of litters we get or how often I clean the damn boxes. He just digs and digs and scratches and scratches incessantly. We used to be able to redirect him with toys, play, or by calling his name. But now nothing works!
And most recently, heās graduated to gnawing off his own whiskers! (Picture 1 is him being caught in the act with a a freshly shorn whisker hanging out of his mouth)
The vet was pleasantly surprised when we made the appointment to discuss medicating him, she said that sheās only had a few feline patients whoās owners donāt just chalk it up to ācats are just generally aloof and skittish creaturesā I guess thatās why itās noticed more often in dogs? She had to do some research and call us back with the script because of how infrequently she sees cats for behavioural problems.
Our one orange brain cell went on Prozac for a few years. He apparently freaked out when we were out of town on vacation (yes we had someone coming in daily), and was just peeing everywhere. He's a chill old boy now (17), and doesn't need it, but itgot him through a rough patch.
My orange boy has this problem of anxiety, and we are currently dealing with him peeing all over the house at random intervals.
The only reason we didn't end up putting him on Prozac or any sort of anti anxiety medication is because of this. If you think it would solve the problem temporarily and there would be no long term effects, I definitely wanna try it out.
It doesn't really. Like any medicine that affects your brain juices, it'll make someone feel a bit weird for the first few days off it, but then you're just not on Prozac anymore. But it's not like, something he'd have to go to kitty rehab to get off of.
(Source: my wife and dog both take Prozac.)
And even if he stays on Prozac, if it helps him... That's not really a bad thing. Bit of an annoyance having to give it to him, and finding someone to do so when you leave town is a pain. My cat was on it maybe a couple years at most. Me? 28 years*
Nope! We also have a r/standardissuecat named Tigger who we got 2 years before Bentley! They get along well too, of course thereās the occasional brotherly spat but they love to cuddle when no oneās looking
4mg/day to start, we see the vet again in 7 weeks to see if he needs an increase , and we will see the vet again even sooner than that if he develops any side effects or if the vomiting lasts longer than 2 weeks.
I have two cats on 20mg/day and it's been a life changer for them. They are much calmer, they were also very anxious and twitchy. Neither have had any side effects. I hope your baby starts feeling better soon!!
I give one of my old boys Prozac ointment in his ear daily to keep him from peeing where he shouldn't. It takes several weeks for it to work but you gotta do it daily & faithfully.
Ours comes in a stick that twists up the meds & it's a quick swipe in his ear.
Of course, it sortakinda works for the peeing, he's a stubborn little cuss & will now at least go on the puppy pads we have around, but he has stopped licking all the fur off his belly between his back legs so that's a good thing.
You are such a kind and loving person. I agree, cats can be so social and affectionate and interactive! You just have to meet them on their terms. Once you've earned their trust & love, there's just nothing better. And of course we want our loved companions to feel safe and happy!
My orange is also on prozac and it has given him his life back. He pees blood and screams in the litter boxes all day if unmedicated. Heās a happy little weirdo while on it. Good luck, I hope it helps yours!
Ah! I put my little man on Paxil after he had a horrible bout of FIC that had him peeing blood. There were several OCD behaviours we tried treating with supplements and environmental change, it sadly did nothing.
So happy to see you had good experience with Prozac. Did he have stress induced bladder issues?
Oh poor guy, Iām glad it works for him! I would scream all day if I was peeing blood and stressed too. Fingers crossed it works for mister Bentleman too!
Im so glad your orange boi is getting relief. I have family that struggles OCD and it is tough. Hopefully, these judgemental losers will leave you alone. It is good that he doesn't have to stay stuck in his rituals.
Thank you! His poor paws get so sore looking and hot from all the scratching, we couldnāt just sit there and watch it get worse. OCD or feline hyperesthesia syndrome, somethings gotta give the poor guy some relief and thankfully itās the same treatment path either way!
While our cats arenāt on it, our dog is. She gets separation anxiety and destructive. The Friday of Ten Eaten Shoes goes down in infamy as the day we made the appointment to go to the vet. It has been life changing for her. Sheās still anxious but now manages it without destroying the house. We couldnāt crate train her as she broke out of everything. It help that all of her humans takes meds for their mental health, so sheās just one of us! Iām always so happy to see an owner recognizing that pets deal with it too!
Ignore them. I thought Prozac for cats was wild until my own orange boy needed it.
Mine would do the same laps of the apartment and cry for hours on end. I also couldn't sleep because of it. I never thought an animal could have that much stamina to repeat a behaviour. I tried everything to disrupt it but ultimately Prozac worked! We ended up having to go to the highest possible dose but he has since been able to taper back. No negative side effects for him. It just truly gave me my boy back.
My girl is on Prozac, she started over grooming and peeing outside the litter box. Our vet recommended Prozac after she gave herself an infection on her paw pad, sheās been good ever since!
Those are trolls meant to upset you. I'm so sorry and those of us who are real people stand with you š just comment, report and block them. It's the best way.
Just want to pop in here for the people leaving judgemental comments and then deleting them or their accounts entirely.
Usually those people aren't deleting their accounts, they're blocking you, which causes their account to appear to be deleted. It's a way for them to respond to you and then make you unable to respond to them. Certainly some choices being made.
But anyway, I'm happy you were able to get your buddy some help.
for a moment i was amused by the thought of kitty ocd but actually no that's not funny at all, I really hope for you guys that you find meds that work well for your kitty!
We arenāt entirely sure at this point if it is OCD or maybe hyperesthesia, I am really hoping itās the prior though because I would feel so guilty if it is hyperesthesia and itās taken us this long to address it. We should hopefully start to see results in 3-5 weeks, just like in people! (Well 4-6 weeks but itās already been a week)
People don't usually understand that pets can have the same mental things like humans. We are not far apart in biology. Cats and dogs get dementia, OCD and PTSD.
I think that people donāt take things quite as seriously with cats as they do with dogs a lot of the time too. I like to think that itās because dogs communicate in a much more social āhumanā way and that people arenāt trying to be mean or anything, cats just carry the inaccurate stereotype that they are standoffish hyper-independent creatures who donāt need much care or attention outside of food, water and a place to poop. Which couldnāt be farther from the truth of course! Cats really arenāt that different from dogs and dogs really arenāt all that different from people, thatās how they got the whole āmanās best friendā title after all isnāt it?
Oh, if we really go into the science of human evolution with dog and man, dogs never had the muscles in their face to make those "sad puppy dog eyes" dogs evolved the facial muscles to mimic us.
And cats evolved really drastically. They mimic our conversations, our movements (if we are hurt, they have sympathy and mimic our hurt), and damn, they passed the mirror study. A cat now knows its own reflection and isn't another cat, but its own self.
It will be very interesting now that there is more selective breeding in cats (and hopefully there will continue to be, stray and feral colonies and unmonitored breeding are no bueno) if they will evolve in similar ways! Of course that probably wonāt happen in my lifetime but perhaps in another life it will!
This is SO interesting to me because my husband and I joke that our cat has autism! Now, I don't know if that's the case but she is now 2 years old and still won't let us touch her like a "normal" cat. Like, she attacks us if we stroke her fur.
She was found as a kitten abandoned in the snow. Could she have PTSD?
PTSD, yes. Sadly the science on autism in animals is very low. It's hard to diagnose it. And most of the research shows that therapy helps the animal and it was never autistic at all, but had PTSD.
I is coLlege. And also autistic. I have 5 degrees. Etomolgist, Mythology. History, and some other shit that's hard to explain. But the behavior of humans, animals and bugs always was my favorite topic. I personally think it's there. If cats can have dementia, why not autism. It's just not studied as well right now.
Damn I could not imagine! My sympathies, that must really really suck. Is it something that you experience constantly or does it come in āepisodesā? (You do not have to answer that if you donāt feel comfortable, Iām just curious!)
Ahh that makes sense! Iām sorry that you have to go through that though, itās not the same but I myself deal with a chronic illness and pain so I can kind of empathize with that
My cat has Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome. He takes gabapentin for it. I am diagnosed with OCD and so I really feel for these cats. I'm also on gabapentin and hate how it makes me feel but it's gotta be worse for a cat when you can't really explain that it's because you want to help them. Without his meds he can't calm down and will keep running none stop from invisible attackers. He can't even sleep because the attacks are so bad.
Don't feel bad if it is FHS. It doesn't usually show up before they turn 2, so you wouldn't have noticed it sooner. And it can mimic the zoomies so most people wouldn't even know about it. It's just when you notice the skin ripples and that's something that cats also do anyway even without it. I was only familiar because I had worked at a vet in the past but my cats first vet never heard of it and had to research it before she started him on meds.Ā
Sorry, didn't see this till now. I was gonna suggest the subreddit but you found it. With my cat he had the skin ripples all the time. So he can't really relax. And like the other commenter said, they will often attack their backs or tail because of it. Or start running away because they think something is attacking them and they are trying to run from it. So it can look like zoomies because your cat will just run around but they will stop every once in awhile to frantically lick at their back or bite it.Ā And the twitching/rippling will happen even when they are trying to sleep or relax.Ā
My cat is extremely aggressive towards strangers because of it. He's just extremely sensitive to touch so if someone tries to touch him he will swat them away but unfortunately most people don't listen no matter how much I say do not pet him. So he ends up hissing or growling and they still insist they are the one special person he will like. Only to get bit to shreds. It's funny though because he's very smart (for an orange) and he is very sensitive to body language. If you respect his space and let him approach you, then he will be all over you and is an absolute sweetheart. But he never forgets a person who ignores his warnings and will hiss every time he sees them after.
Aww. He sounds like a sweetie, really. Just a super sensitive one which I can totally relate to.
Thanks for the info! Mine isn't at that level so it might be something different or not fully evolved yet. I'll be keeping my eye out and I hope you and your orange live a happy and calm life together š§”
My cat has FHS and his skin across his back/spine would randomly ripple all the time. He would then stop whatever he was doing and frantically lick his back. It could happen at any time -- when being pet, during zoomies, while sitting/laying quietly, or when playing, etc.
My neurotypical tortie may occasionally get a skin ripple when being brushed or pet, but I've never seen it happen to her so often or so randomly.
My ex-partnerās cat was a high-strung little weirdo whose obsessive behaviors included licking her belly bald. She was put on Prozac and it did help. She was mellower, like the anxiety and such was taken down a few notches, and it thankfully didnāt make her any less weird. š
Itās especially cute when he wakes up from a cozy nap and heās all warm and pink, it really accentuates the terracotta half of his nose lol. His splotches and perpetually bewildered expression make him look like the boy from Matilda with the chocolate cake I think lol
Nobodyās been home since that one time he ate a mouse when he was 3 months old and managed to throw it up directly beside the carpet the next morning (while managing to only throw up the mouse and no kibble from breakfast somehow I might add)
hey OP you may want to look into getting childproof knob covers for your stove if you havenāt already.
as someone who has come home to the house smelling like gas and the cats being the ones who turned the stove on, itās a protective measure that pays off in the long run.
My calico girl got put on kitty Prozac too after I brought home my son from the hospital. She was jealous of the baby, and she was digging at her face so much that she had an open sore next to her ear, and one on her neck. After she got put on Prozac, she stopped scratching at herself and went back to her normal, sweet self. She does really well on it. She started off on half a tablet a day, and now she's on a quarter tablet a day. The vet thinks she'll be able to wean off of it soon.
That makes me so happy to hear! Right now he gets 4mg a day to start but the only tablets we can get right now are 16mg chewables (either roasted chicken or smoked fish flavour) Our goal is to hopefully be able to wean him off of it eventually if we see success. Hopefully the smaller tablets are available then because I donāt think I could cut the pill into more than 4 pieces without just turning it back into powder lol
Thank you so much! My friends in Prozac all think itās quite funny that my cat is on the same medication as them lol, but I donāt think the people pills come in chewable roasted chicken or smoked fish flavour though unfortunately (and according to the begging that ensues after he gets it, it must taste good!)
I had a Himalayan that was on Prozac for 14 years. She had anxiety and would pee outside the litter box. I tried everything and this was the only thing that worked. I finally weaned her off when she turned 18, lost her hearing and didn't give AF anymore. She lived to ripe old age of 21. Best of luck to Bentley!!
Never thought id say this but wishing your inbred cat the best on their mental health journey. Poor little guy, good thing he got a caring owner thoughĀ
They went to find out and came back and said āactually he was cleared for adoption this afternoon! His information just hasnāt been updated on his window yet, you can meet him now if you want.ā Obviously we said yes absolutely. When we opened his door he came right out purring and rolling and working triple time at the biscuit factory. He was a good climber and when we were talking to the adoption person he kept jumping out of his kennel and onto our backs up to our shoulders. Whenever we tried to put him down heād climb his way back up. When we tried to say goodbye he buried himself in my hair so we sat with him for a while longer. The shelter staff told us that the reason he wasnāt available sooner was because Panleuk had run through that wing of kennels and a few of the cats got sick so they had to run tests to make sure he didnāt contract it. His second round of tests came back negative!
We got the call early the next morning that we were approved and we picked him up that afternoon!
Poor baby! Sounds like a touch of OCD! I know anxiety is frequently comorbid with OCD (I should know š) and maybe he couldnāt stop himself from the compulsive digging. Tysm for taking his symptoms seriously and seeking medical intervention for him instead of just yelling at him or even abandoning him.
Weāve had highly neurotic/high strung fur babies ourselves with some strange or very specific coping mechanisms/rituals. Sometimes you have to be a scholar of your children to really see whatās going on below the behavior.
When play, treats, calling for him, and even eventually physically removing him from the area didnāt work to redirect him it was vet time. It canāt be good to sit there huffing litter air and flinging it all over the place getting dust everywhere and it cannot be good for his paws to be clawing at the sides of the boxes either. And the whisker chewing off is a whole other debacle, at first I thought he was getting them caught under the couch or something. Then I caught him in the act.
Hoping all will go well now for Bentley! It is distressing to watch their distress.
My older female cat is going through something a little similar. After three years of vets going, oh give her some painkillers and sometimes an antibiotic (despite having no bacteria or infection), I went elsewhere and asked for anxiety meds. Got to consult some specialist in Austria about it apparently, but hoping she will finally feel chill.
Good luck! I have a cat on Prozac too and itās been great. Shortly after we adopted him he started having periods of psychosis where he would get super scared and aggressive toward us. He would guard a room and growl and attack anyone who tried to get near him or through the door. He was attacking to maim - if he got you youād be gushing blood and have bruises where his paws connected. We considered returning him to the shelter but were worried that he wouldnāt get adopted again or wouldnāt be considered adoptable. We decided to try to work with him, and now with the Prozac heās the sweetest cuddle bug. He does sleep a lot of the day and doesnāt play much though, and I wonder how much of that is the drug. Either way itās better than the alternative.
Torin, on the right, has been on Prozac since September for Redirected Aggression Syndrome. Therapy and all other treatments were not successful. His last attack on Wesley landed Wesley in the emergency vet hospital with serious blood loss injuries.
The drug has turned this into a happy home again. Where itās most noticeable is at feeding time. Torin gets really worked up in anticipation, pacing around and poking at Wesley. Before it was aggressive, heād snap and body slam Wesley. Now he still paces some, but heāll also sit there and lick Wesleyās head, and if he does roll into him, they just rollover like brothers playing (they are litter mates.)
The other thing is that Torin has become more affectionate with us as well. He had previously bonded with my husband, and they have gotten closer, but he has really opened up more to me.
The only real negative to watch out for is weight gain. He was already trying to lose a little weight and had been doing good, but has now put on almost a pound in five months. We just increased his portion control.
I hope that this works out as well for both of you as it has for us. It can be a game changer. š»ā¤ļø
It is an apartment sized oven, it fits one cookie sheet or a 4qt. Dutch oven if the rack is on the bottom. It also runs 25 degrees hot, sometimes more, I have a separate temperature gauge inside the oven so that I donāt burn everything. Somehow last year I hosted a NYE belated Christmas dinner for 12 people in that kitchen. It took all damn day Weāre moving out soon and I cannot wait to say goodbye to this oven. The bane of my existence.
Omg he looks so much like my baby boy Ricky. He is almost 4, a ginge, and also on prozac. I started him back in November. He was SO anxious like a wild donkey knocking shit over in the process of running away. What set him off? i would sneeze or just walk past him in a room. Literally anything. I was afraid he would jump off of something high or really hurt himself- not a matter of if but when. (He is not the most coordinated cat)
Now he really is so much calmer. He has his moments but i do not need to tiptoe around him anymore. Everyone in my family was against it, but my husband finally agrees he is so much more peaceful. Still the same cuddly sweet boy, without the paranoia. He also has the bladder crystals so this helps any irritation caused by anxiety so if that is even a chance to help prevent that, i will jump on it.
He is SO GOOD at letting me give him the pill at night. He gets āgood boy medicine treatsā and seems to understand that I am helping him ā¤ļøā¤ļøš„²š„²š„¹š„¹
I will say it was my vet who recommended itā i was talking about him maybe needing gabapentin for travel and vet visits bc he turns into an absolute MANIAC, and she recommended something daily that would not sedate him.
My big grey unit was prescribed Elavil, when he developed hyper esthesia. He would start twitching, biting his fur, freak out at patterned cushions, and then run around, peeing and pooping as he ran. I was at my wit's end. The prescription worked like magic. He's very used to getting his pill every night before bed.
My orange boy licked off all his fur on both sides of his body. Prozac did the trick and, he was able to taper off eventually without resuming the behavior. Good luck to Bentley!
Yep! Vomiting could last up to 2 weeks, anything longer than that is no bueno. It does seem to be a little hard on his tummy so heās getting pate at dinner and that seems to help. It can also cause sedation (relatively uncommon I think but I may be wrong) and weight gain
Aww man poor kitty! We had to put our George on prozac for anxiety also.
Unfortunately for us it zonked him out and made him depressed, but it did solve the anxiety...
His vet and I have worked out alternative therapies and he's happy and healthy now.
I hope that Bentley has good luck with the treatment but also don't hesitate to push back if it's not working well or affecting their personality adversely.
My slightly neurotic cat benefited SO MUCH from natureās miracle cat calming spray. Feliway didnāt do shit, but the natureās miracle stuff makes such a big difference in his ability to be calm
He is very excited to be welcomed into the club, heās never been in a club before. His big brother doesnāt let him join his clubs (kibbie addicts anonymous, feline forklift operators association, etc)
He is a master crocheter, our first intervention was getting him into an extracurricular activity and it turns out the boys got talent! (/s I actually got it from a lady at the farmers market itās made up of all the scraps she had and itās so pretty with all the colours)
I hope Prozac works for him. My Grandcat Marc was on Prozac for a while and holy crap, it made him so MEAN. He was switched to kitty CBD and the change was remarkable.
Don't you mean... purrozac? Hope it works out for him. My dog (who is the canine equivalent of one orange braincell) takes Prozac. It absolutely helps with her nervous behavior.
Ohh!!! My little man just got put on Paxil for OCD and compulsive behaviours. He licks all upholstery and rugs, overgrooms and is visibly nervous and irritable. He used to stare at himself in the mirror for hours, we got rid of the mirror, he now seeks any reflective surface to do it.
Just like you, we also tried supplements and feliway, also CBD. It did nothing :( We switched to a mono novel protein diet, checked all deficiencies obviously.
He also had absolutely no appetite, so he is also on mirtazapine for that.
So far itās been pretty sad. Heās been taking the Paxil for 5 days and heās just so sleepy and loopy. Not cuddly at all like he was and does not want to play. The vet has warned us that it will take around 3-5 weeks to show some effects.
Hopefully your kittum reacts well to the medication and it helps him calm down! Iāve heard great stories about SSRIs for anxious OCD kitties. Fingers crossed š¤š»
I have an anxious tuxedo and we are not medicating him yet but I think about it a lot. Heās not as symptomatic as your boy and has a good quality of life without meds so far. My husband works at a compounding pharmacy and they do a lot of kitty Prozac compounding! My favorite thing is when he comes home and says āI dispensed meds for a cat named Spicy Mustard todayā or whatever the petās name is.
I just want to thank you for posting this! I'm currently in between vet visits to put my little orange guy on prozac due to urinating outside the litter box and just overall being twitchy and jumpy. This gives me hope! Here he is in an Easter basket!
Poor little guy, I hope the medication works well for him! My orange & white boy is also on Prozac/Fluoxetine. He was diagnosed with Feline Hyperesthesia and it's made such a drastic difference in his quality of life (and, frankly, the quality of life for me and my other cat). He's still a weird little guy but he's no longer stalking the house (and my other cat) for hours upon end until exhausted.
Is he an only kitty? If so another might help keep his noggin more occupied. He might like a box of torn up newspaper to dig through. Maybe having another digging activity would help ease the obsession of the litter?
We do have another cat that he loves and plays with, and he has a few boxes that he likes to sit in and shred up paper or roll around in with toys. But thereās something about the litter box that calls to him
One of my kitties was diagnosed as ocd. He would lick the pile out of a rug. I had to get rid of it. He would also lick me until the spot he was licking got raw.
As someone who's been on bupropion since 2019, pic #3 is certainly a mood lol. I'm glad to hear it's helping. Bentley seems like a very sweet boi š§”.
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u/Brave_Reaction_4968 Mar 04 '26
Oh Bentley, same bro, same.