2 Neutered Male Cats with Urination Issues...vet prescribed amitriptyline .

Hello...we are new to the site.

Let me tell you a little about us.

We have a multiple cat household.

The problem is with our 2 male cats. Both are neutered. They have been having urination issues for years now and we are almost at our wits end. They pee on doors, cabinets, walls,even our kitchen counter. We have ruled out medical conditions, tried feliway diffussers and spray ,tried Buspar. Nothing has worked.We have multiple litter boxes and they are always kept in clean condition.  Today our vet prescribed amitriptyline. Has anyone had this prescribed for their cats and if so,how effective was it? We are financially and mentally drained. We also have a cat who less than 3 months ago had to have all of her teeth removed because of stomatitis gingivitis.

If medication does not work,we do not know what we will do.

Please help.

There are many different reasons cats will urinate out of the box, if it is behavioral it is possible the Elavil (amitryptyline) will help.  The caveat is that like people, every cat's brain chemistry is a little different.  What works for one cat doesn't for another.  With drug trials it can take a little while to sort out what works best.  Also, Elavil is pretty heavy in the side effects department, Prozac, Xanax and (in extreme cases) Ativan are better drugs because they have fewer side effects in general.  Not to say there are not risks with any of them.

As a person with 2 cats on psychotropic drugs I'll say this; I don't view them as a cure to the problem, they are not what is going to "fix" it.  They are tools to make life easier for me and the cats until we can fix the issue.  The sooner I get them off the medications, the better for everyone.

You need to find out why your cats are urinating out of the box; perhaps consider having a behaviorist come in and do a consultation to point out what is causing the urinating, and help you address the problems appropriately.  Given that this has been such a long term problem you're going to have to work a little harder to fix it, but it can be done.

Good luck to you all.