Other medication options besides Prozac

I have two cats. The girl came first, and a year later the boy who is almost two years older. He is a very needy cat, and there is only one of me. The vet says I'm doing everything right. I have three cat trees and three litter boxes, though I do live in a smaller apartment (which can't be helped). After about a year, he started peeing on things. First it was the dirty sheets and towels (on the floor ready to be put in the laundry). Then it was my girl's carrier. Then it was on the floor outside one of the litter boxes. The vet prescribed him the generic Prozac in pill form. It worked great until he actually bit into the pill that was in the pill pocket. After that there was nothing I could do to get him to take the pill. I switched to the flavored liquid. He would fight me. I would have to wrap him up tight in a blanket. He would fling his head around making it impossible for me to aim in his mouth. Sometimes I made it. Sometimes I didn't. When I did, I had to hope for the best (no sticking it between his cheek and teeth), and he would end up excessively foaming at the mouth. After about a week of that, he developed a cough. I knew that it wasn't going down right. So I stopped. The vet gave me some dermal meds, which don't absorb well with this compound. She also gave me the treat blanks to try to see if there was a flavor he liked the best. He is very food focused. So, there were only a few he wouldn't eat. I decided instead of trying the compounded treats, I would take him off the meds.

He started peeing again last week. I asked the vet if there was another medication I could try that wasn't as bitter, but he assured me that the pharmacy did a very good job at masking the taste. Sure enough, he won't even touch the compounded treats. I wish the vet would have listened to me and suggested another medication. Now I feel like I will have to specifically ask for something.

My questions are: Has anyone else had this extreme difficulty medicating their cat with bitter meds? Has anyone one else successfully used another medication to curb inappropriate elimination?   I tried to look though the forums, but there were so many topics on Prozac. I didn't see anything that matched my questions. So, forgive me if this has been covered before.

Yes, I have a cat with aggression issues (Tater Tot) and another with PTSD (Pie) from the aggressive cat trying to kill him all the time. Pie ended up with inappropriate urination because Tater was also attacking him inside the litter boxes. So, we gave Pie Xanax to calm his nerves and Buspirone (compounded) and Xanax (compounded) to Tater. This combination has worked wonders for everyone. Unfortunately, Buspirone is just as bitter even with the compounding. Not all meds can be masked no matter how much compounding is done. Buspirone may be the way to go, though, if the Prozac isn't working. It also treats behavioral issues in cats including inappropriate urination.

Tater is a major wiggler and can turn his head upside down while trying to medicate him. He's a mess. Dont burrito wrap your kitty. That just causes cats to feel confined and upset. What I do is take a beach towel lengthwise and wrap it around his neck (not tightly). I tuck one side across his neck down his body and then tuck the other side across (up higher near his neck so I can hold on to it if he starts moving his front legs up to block my hand). I then take the rest of the towel and arrange it in a circle around his body. I also sit with his body against mine (so he can't squirm away) with his head pointing the same direction as mine. Make sure you have a wet washcloth also. Once I start giving the meds, I try to keep his head tilted upwards so the medicine slides down his throat. If he starts drooling mid-process, I grab the washcloth and clean him up, then use it to stroke his throat with his head tilted upwards so that he swallows. All the while, he is turning his head upside down to keep from getting the meds. Sometimes I'll hold his head on both sides just to get a good aim, but dont hold it for lobg. It's a hard process, but it it doable. I do the same thing with my cat Pepper. She's a snapper...she snaps at you while you syringe the meds into her. And also whips her head around. I just keep trying to give her the meds, stroking her throat with the wet washcloth after each squirt and cleaning up drool. Both of them get 3 meds each, so this is a lengthy process but eventually I get the meds down. With Pepper sometimes it's a hit and a miss. By the time I get to her second med, she's already snapping and whipping her head around. There are days when I get all three meds down her and days when she drools at least some of the medicine back out, but getting some of it in her is better than none. Also, I praise and talk to them like they are babies while doing this.

Give the meds in squirts rather than the whole med at once. That keeps the drooling out of the meds to a minimum and they swallow more.

Eventually you will learn how to counteract your cat's behavior during med time. It just takes practice, patience, and time. I hope this has helped. Keep me posted.

Another possible option would be to see if any of these drubs might be able to be compounded into injectibles.  We had a cat we absolutetly could not pill.  We even hired a Vet Tech to come over to pill her and she couldn't do it either .  So....our only option was to get everything she needed as either transdermal or injectibles.  She never even seemed to notice when she got her shots, and they were almost daily.