Feliway, does it smell like other cats?

Hi everyone, I had a question about Feliway.  I have a cat who is terrified of other cats.  I have been using the Feliway diffusor for some time and but recently I tires the Feliway Spray. I sprayed a blanket and put it by my cat after about an hour, he smelled it but then the next day he was urinating more than normal, which is what happned when he gets nervous.  My question is if a cats afraid of other cats will they be afraid of the smeel of Feliway, does it smeellike other cats?   If anyone has any advice I would love som einput, thanks so much!

Nay, Feliway is supposed to "smell" like their own feromones, the same they spread when they are butting with their head and chins on you and things around them.  Their "feeling safe friendly and good" feromones.

Although one of our forumists wrote the other day hers cat reacted negatively to Feliway.  If it was some bad batch of Feliway (perhaps same batch as you got?), or a not so common, individual reaction, I dont know.

The usual is they either do have positive use of F (often), or there is no practical difference.

Sometimes there may be a noticeable smell, but not of any cats.

Thank you so much for your help.  I'm going to try and find the person who said their cat reacted badly and get in contact with them to see where they bought their's from.  Do you think each batchfrom different places smells a little different?  I have been getting mine from amazon.com because it is half the price of what the vet charges. I also had a question, do you change your diffuser every 6 months?   Thanks again for your help!

Calming collars work great! It's a friend of mine who makes them and we have some of those and calming sachets too. http://www.calmingcollars.com/

Thanks for that advice, i will look into the collars!  I did find a post from someone who said their cat was scared of the spray but it's from 2009...

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/204497/scared-of-feliway

I wonder if there is a difference between the spary and the diffuser? 

MyCatPaulie said:

I also had a question, do you change your diffuser every 6 months?   Thanks again for your help!

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I believe the diffusers works 5-6 weeks.  Unless you got some extra big one.

The calming collars you get at the store fall apart and turn to powder. The ones my friend makes are dried, safe herbs wrapped in material. You measure your cat's neck and she makes them to fit. Believe me when I tell you, these things are amazing! I was skeptical but they work and they last a long time, up to a year I think.

Thanks again for all of the replys. 

I read in the Feliway instrustions you need to replace the actual diffuser part every 6 months, does anyone do that ?

I hadn't read about replacing the actual diffuser part every six months.  Not sure why you would need to do that.

I know the liquid itself lasts around one month.

You might also true Rescue Remedy; it's a calming agent that you add to water or food.

Ritz is prone to stress-induced UTIs, and both help.  I use the Rescue Remedy on an as-needed basis, for example, when I have repairmen coming into my apartment.

Thank you for that suggestion.  The Feliway company said something about the diffiser collecting dust, at the top of mine it has little burnt marks, I don't know if I should get a new one, does anyone else have this happening?. 

oh jeez, I didn't even know this. I just got one about 2 months ago so I haven't seen that yet.

I know, it does get expensive but our kittys are worth it!  I just don't know if it helps my cat or not, it's so hard to say, he is so afraid of smells, he even gets stressed when I change his litter and his had a flare up of cysitis when I got a new little box ;(

I don't think it's a strong smell though. I've got a sensitive honker and I'd be getting headaches if it was.

That's true, I am bothered by smells too.  Do you know how far it travels?  I Ihave mine in my kitchen but my cat is always al over the house. 

I don't think one goes all over the house. I had two, one on each end of the house for awhile.

Do you use your diffuser even in the summer?  Mine is right by an open window but do you think stopping using it over the summer will cause more of a problem?

Also this is totally off topic but I didn't want to clog up the boards and start a new thread, do you know if cats are supposed to get blood work done every year?  My vet runs a wellness plan that does this and I have purchased it for two years now but my cat gets stressed when going to the vet do you think it's worth getting done or is once a year for a check up ok?

I think it depends on how old your cat is. If the kitty is elderly or has health issues that warrant it, that's different. But if not, and they get too stressed out, I don't see need for it myself.

Hi there   First, I'm responding to the Feliway question.  I have a 1600 sq ft, 2 story house, and when I was using the diffusers, I had 4 of them plugged in, for all the good they did .  (and I don't think they will do ANY good with the windows open!)  Now, about the urinating more after you sprayed his blanket, I suspect that is mere coincidence.  May I ask why you are doing this?  Are you trying to integrate another cat into the household?  (sorry if you have another thread going on that that I may have missed!)  And I sure didn't know about changing out the actual diffusers themselves, although I quit using mine because I was afraid of a fire and didn't see them doing any good anyway.  I would possibly recommend Rescue Remedy, but with my female, she actually got really stressed out with me trying to rub it on her ears and pad, so it really depends on your cat.  (mine girl doesn't like to be handled, obviously )

As to the blood work-up, it is recommended that seniors get it done annually, or cats that have a chronic illness, as Finn stated.  However, I have a 12 year old female, and our Vet doesn't always recommend it because she gets such a great checkup annually and she knows we monitor her so closely that we will bring her in if anything strange starts occurring.  If you have a cat that gets so stressed by a Vet visit that he will make himself sick, then I would think twice about going, or at the very least,  talk to the vet about something to calm him before going.  Is it the carrier he is afraid of. If so, there is an excellent article on how to get your cat to accept their carrier that I can send you.  What the heck...here it is:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/beware-the-dreaded-cat-carrier

BTW, don't feel like you are clogging up the boards by starting new threads, because there may be others out there with the same questions, and they might not think to look under "Feliway" when looking for something about annual vet visits .  Feel free to start new threads anytime.

One of my cats hated the Feliway spray. At the time I had 7 cats in the house though and none of the others were bothered by it. Spot refused to go near the blanket or bed (I forget which it was) I had sprayed with it. When I tried to carry him near it he completely freaked out, hissing, clawing, tail puffed up... He acted like there was some huge animal that was going to eat him or a monster or something! I stopped using it after that.

Thank you for everyones advice. My cat is only 4 years old but he gets flare ups of cysitis so he has gotten quite a few injections to calm down the inflamtion, I kow that can lead to problems in the future, do you think BW should be done yearly because of that? 

Nekochan, that is so strange, have you used the diffsors before?  I threw away the spray but still have the diffser plugged in but I might stop it durring the summer and see if he does ok without it.

Mrsgreen, I am using th feliway because of the cysitis, I thought it would help him not be so stressed but I don't know if it's doing more harm.

Thanks again so much for everyones help and sorry about the spelling errors I am writing this fast