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- Jan 6, 2015
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Hello all,
My beloved cat of 11 years has one eye (lost the other one in kittenhood before I got her, due to the herpes virus) and periodically has flare-ups in the remaining eye during times of stress. Unfortunately, the past several years have been a "time of stress" for her, since due to combining households we've introduced another cat that she tolerates at best and loathes at worst.
Several months after introducing him (which we did verrrry slowly, keeping them completely separated for weeks and afterwards allowing them to intermingle only during special times), we entered an awful period of nearly a year during which she constantly got eye ulcers. I spent literally 10 percent of my income that year in vet and medicine bills, toting her back and forth to the vet when she was already clearly stressed. Finally, we took her to an ophthalmologist, who prescribed Megestrol Acetate, which she's been on ever since.
The Megestrol has the effect of suppressing her eye infections, but is otherwise less-than-ideal. It makes her ravenously hungry all the time, which is annoying to us and probably awful for her. It increases the likelihood of developing diabetes. And it does nothing to address the underlying problem, which appears to be her stress levels with having the other cat around. We've also recently had to up her dose from once a week to once every four days.
She was on Prozac for a while, and that worked beautifully until it abruptly stopped working. We've tried all the other ideas, including lysine, Composure treats, Feliway, giving her a private space away from the other cat, etc. The other cat is actually a very mellow, sweet cat who leaves her alone for the most part--his mere presence, though, seems to put her on edge.
Unfortunately, we stopped sequestering them in different parts of the house after about a year, and they now both have their "private rooms" that are situated so that it would be difficult to return to separating them completely (we live in a one-story house).
Do you have any other ideas for anti-anxiety meds we might try for her? Or any other way to reduce her stress levels? I really don't want to go down the path of either her going blind or giving up one of the cats; we love them both dearly.
Thank you.
My beloved cat of 11 years has one eye (lost the other one in kittenhood before I got her, due to the herpes virus) and periodically has flare-ups in the remaining eye during times of stress. Unfortunately, the past several years have been a "time of stress" for her, since due to combining households we've introduced another cat that she tolerates at best and loathes at worst.
Several months after introducing him (which we did verrrry slowly, keeping them completely separated for weeks and afterwards allowing them to intermingle only during special times), we entered an awful period of nearly a year during which she constantly got eye ulcers. I spent literally 10 percent of my income that year in vet and medicine bills, toting her back and forth to the vet when she was already clearly stressed. Finally, we took her to an ophthalmologist, who prescribed Megestrol Acetate, which she's been on ever since.
The Megestrol has the effect of suppressing her eye infections, but is otherwise less-than-ideal. It makes her ravenously hungry all the time, which is annoying to us and probably awful for her. It increases the likelihood of developing diabetes. And it does nothing to address the underlying problem, which appears to be her stress levels with having the other cat around. We've also recently had to up her dose from once a week to once every four days.
She was on Prozac for a while, and that worked beautifully until it abruptly stopped working. We've tried all the other ideas, including lysine, Composure treats, Feliway, giving her a private space away from the other cat, etc. The other cat is actually a very mellow, sweet cat who leaves her alone for the most part--his mere presence, though, seems to put her on edge.
Unfortunately, we stopped sequestering them in different parts of the house after about a year, and they now both have their "private rooms" that are situated so that it would be difficult to return to separating them completely (we live in a one-story house).
Do you have any other ideas for anti-anxiety meds we might try for her? Or any other way to reduce her stress levels? I really don't want to go down the path of either her going blind or giving up one of the cats; we love them both dearly.
Thank you.
