Kaleetha
17th January 2006, 11:55 PM
Poor baby! She had another skin scraping done, just in case the vet missed something the first time around, but nothing turned up.
Now she's on 10 mg of Amitripty (the vet spelled it Amitrypty) for the next 12 days. If this helps her, then we'll continue the drug until she's healed up and then see if we can decrease the amount and frequency of what she's given.
If it doesn't help, we start exploring more dietary options. My vet is completely happy with a raw diet, and also the holistic diets that have been developed. So if this is the route (again) that we need to go, then there are plenty of options.
Has anyone had experience with this drug? The vet said to watch for bizzare behavior. Googling it comes up with a bunch of unintelligible studies.
ConsumerKitty
18th January 2006, 10:58 PM
Amitriptyline is an antidepressant. Is the drug your vet prescribed a similar drug to amitriptyline?
Kate_e_did
19th January 2006, 03:18 AM
ELAVIL or Amitriptyline is also used for the treatment of chronic pain. The dosages make the difference.
Amitriptyline is a strong antihistamine.
Is your kitty being treated for allergies?
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_amitriptyline.html
This talks about its use with humans and small animals.
Kaleetha
19th January 2006, 04:17 AM
Kanoe licks herself raw... which is why the vet prescribed this. We've already gone the Feliway route *sigh* which although it calms her down, she didn't stop. The drug (according to the vet) is to make her calm down (it did, she was zonky last night and if it happens again tonight I'm going to call the vet and see about changing the dosage).
It's possible the vet spelled it wrong (one start was crossed out)... so you might have the correct spelling (it sounds right).
Thank you for the link Kate!
Kate_e_did
19th January 2006, 04:38 AM
There is an adjustment period. I can't remember but I think it was a month or so. I take it at bedtime. It dose make one sleepy until their past the adjustment time. Once adjusted it's great. Give her some time on it. I would also give it to her at bedtime. So the worst of it is during the night when you want her sleeping any way.
Kaleetha
19th January 2006, 06:05 AM
Thank you... I did give it to her later. Yesterday the zonky-ness seemed to hit her about 6 hours after the dose, so we gave it to her about 7:30 tonight.
PurrPaws
19th January 2006, 10:18 PM
Polly just started on amy on Monday for (probably) cystitis. It doesn't seem to be making her sleepy, but my vet told me to give it to her at night. Polly only takes a half-pill, though, because she is small. You could talk to your vet about reducing the dose if her "zonkiness" continues.
Do you just give her the pill or crush it and spike her food?
Kaleetha
20th January 2006, 06:26 AM
I just give her the pill. She won't eat anything that isn't dry food (I have a hard enough time getting her to eat the supplements I give the kitties) so I wrap it in butter and make her swallow it.
It's kind of wierd that it's used for so many different problems... my vet gave it to me as an "antidepressent," but Kate said it's also an antihistimine.
Actually, I think that sort of bothers me... hmmm... need to do more research.
PurrPaws
23rd January 2006, 09:13 PM
I just give it to Polly too. She's a pretty good little pill-taker.
Kaleetha
24th January 2006, 11:33 PM
Well, the good news is she's not licking as much. The bad is that she's not acting like the sweet little Nu-boo we know and love. She's groggy so much that all she does is sleep now. Toulouse is going stir crazy (generally they take care of eachother's energy needs).
She's still walking around and awake part of the time, but she's just not as loving. We are giving her the medication at night so the worst part of the groggyness is when she's normally asleep. Other than that, she sure looks cute when she sleeps.
I'll have to talk to the vet soon anyway since her medication runs out on Friday.
MyBabies
25th January 2006, 12:12 AM
Well, the good news is she's not licking as much. The bad is that she's not acting like the sweet little Nu-boo we know and love. She's groggy so much that all she does is sleep now. Toulouse is going stir crazy (generally they take care of eachother's energy needs).
She's still walking around and awake part of the time, but she's just not as loving. We are giving her the medication at night so the worst part of the groggyness is when she's normally asleep. Other than that, she sure looks cute when she sleeps.
I'll have to talk to the vet soon anyway since her medication runs out on Friday.
I had my Kotton on it because she kept getting hysterical when Panther would go after her. She is 16 pounds and got so zonked she did nothing but sleep. I ended up stopping it.
My Missy has terrible allergies and is on Triamcinalone. It has helped her some!