The Vet just put my cat on anti-anxiety meds

Hello, I'm new to this forum. I have a question about anti-anxiety meds for cats.

My cat Sable has had a history of peeing on the floor. I tried changing her litter, her box, using enzyme cleaners, putting foil and newspapers on the area, blocking off the area, all to no avail. I took her to the vet today just in case she had a urinary infection or something.

She's fine (except for her shaved butt!) but the doctor gave her Buspar, an anti-anxiety medication. He said that might help. She is an especially skittish cat (to the point that people feel sorry for her because everything terrifies her) and perhaps this will be a good thing overall. But I'm a little nervous about giving it to her. She's not a person--she can't tell me if the medication is giving her side effects.

Do any of you give your cats anti-anxiety meds? Did it work? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

kj

Okay, just wondering why they shaved her butt??
With any medication, you are really just going to look for her doing things out of the ordinary. Buspar is generally tolerated very well, but the side effects may be sedation, or restlessness which is fairly normal in the beginning and is okay. The biggest thing to watch for is vomiting. If vomiting occurs, you may want to try another medication as she probably isn't going to tolerate it well. As with any behavior modification medication, it may not work, but you will need to give it some time to tell.

They shaved her butt because they wanted to look and make sure the glands weren't infected, but she is a VERY furry kitty!

I will look for her doing things out of the ordinary. So far she has mewed for petting, used her litterbox (YAY!), mewed for more petting, and slept. seems ok so far.

I'm also wondering what will happen if I forget a pill? Obviously I'm going to make an effort to give her all her pills, but I'm sure that I'll forget. Will that mess her up?

Does she have two litter pans? If not add one pan and see if that helps.

currently there are two litterpans for my two cats. However, next week there will be two more cats coming to live with us, so there will be at least 3, if not four. Not looking forward to cleaning all those!

Today after her pills, she used her litterbox. I actually saw her use it, something I never saw before. I'l take that as a good sign!

My vet prescribed an antianxiety med for my my youngest (Sophie). When my husband and I gave it to het, she started foaming at the mouth, acting VERY crazy and made sounds as if she was hurting or scared. I vowed to NEVER giver that medication or anything like it again. It sounds to me that your baby is handling it better than mine did, I woud just watch her closely.

Like humans, cats can have very weird behavior on meds like that and by missing doses you can throw off the therapeutic levels and cause even more anxiety than you started with. Is your litter box open or hooded? Electric or no? Have you tried different types of litter? Your baby may not like the way the litter feels and the meds are "Numbing" her senses. I know that there are certain brands that my babies REFUSE to use and will go right beside the box as if to say "I'll teach you for buying the wrong litter!"

Just be very carefull giving your baby any Neurological chemical altering drugs and make sure you do your research on it. If you ever decide to take her off you could have a heart braking situation on your hands.

Good luck.

My old boy, Fluff, had some peeing-otuside-the-box problems. Mostly, if you put anything on the floor he peed on it. Napsacks, clothes, plastic bags, shoes..anything. So we kept everything in well shut closets. Then he started peeing on the outside of the box!!

Careful reflection revealed that he did this at times of change (I left for school for 4 months, came back for 1, left again for 4....etc.) and my mum was sick of dealing with it. (We had already tried feliway, and it kept him from peeing on the christmas tree, but didn't seem to help anywhere else..)

So, we switched litters (we were using yesterday's news to cut back on dust, so we switched to clumping, which Fluff had been on most his life before the yesterday's news) and put him on an antidepressant (clomipramine). He hasn't had an "accident" since And I got them as flavoured chew tablets, so he thought they were treats!

When I moved him to Guelph with me, I stocked up on his meds just in case... and I only used them for maybe 1 week, or less.... we also have 4 litter boxes (3 cats) and there's never been any "messes" in the new house I have the meds on hand, in case anything big happens again... but they worked really well for him, just to get him over the initial stress of change.


.maggie

Something you have to always keep in mind is that anxiety and depression and such are chemical actions and reactions in our brains...be it a cat or a dog or a person or whatever. Sometimes getting our chemistry back to "normal" can only be done with medication. My daughter is bi-polar and OCD (amongst other things) and without her meds, she is in hell. I have always suffered from clinical depression and without my meds I'm a mess, too. Nearly everyone in my family has some form of anxiety and or depression (in our case it is genetic).

What's my point?

DO NOT feel badly about giving your baby medications to try to help her brain chemistry to get to normal. Chances are that she is even more frustrated with her behaviour than you are! She simply can't help herself, which is why what you've tried hasn't worked, I'm guessing. But if there are no adverse reactions or if they are minimal and not as bad or worse than the original problem, then stick to it. Don't expect to see results in fewer than 6-8 weeks. It can take even longer sometimes, and sometimes much less, but don't expect it before then.

There are other ways, too. You can try acupressure and acupuncture and aromatherapy and massage therapy and many other things. If you try several meds that don't seem to help or have adverse effects, you can look for a holistic vet in your area that might be able to help.

Don't give up and good luck to you and your baby!