- Joined
- Mar 25, 2022
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Hi y'all,
For the last several months, since October 2021, my cat has been over grooming her stomach in one spot just between her hind legs. We traced it back to a recent food change, since she and her sister for no good reason suddenly rejected the food they'd been eating for ages. Her sister (literally her litter mate), has a gluten/grain intolerance and won't eat seafood, so they've been on chicken/turkey diets for almost eight years now. This time also coincided with her sister needing a few teeth extracted and being gone from the house for six hours.
Coraline has always been very anxious, and prefers to snuggle with the humans or her sister, but it's always been low key and manageable with distraction, toys, and plenty of hugs and love. Since we noticed the thinning fur on her stomach, she has also presented with the wet, soft poops. It is not diarrhea as it's still solid, just not firm. She often needs help getting it out of her fluff because she is an excessively fluffy cat for being a domestic shorthair. Her sister is half her size and they only have about a 2 pound difference between them.
I took her to the vet when the over grooming led to cuts and hot spots on her belly. They gave her an antibiotic shot that "lasted two weeks" and ProVet Calming Care. They warned me the probiotic could take six weeks to kick in. After about two weeks with no change, I purchased a surgery suit to protect her stomach and she's worn it a majority of the time since, especially as I and my husband work 12hr shifts and will both be gone 3 times a week at night. Now her belly has healed from the sores (though she has some scarring) she is still excessively licking and it's been about eight weeks. She is still eating, drinking and peeing normally. Her wet, soft poops come and go, sometimes she goes days with normal poop then has a week of non normal poop. I've taken to checking her butt floof every time she comes out of the liter box closet.
Vet ruled out allergies and parasites (mostly because the cats share their boxes so if one has a parasite, for sure the other would to) and the vet gave me prozac, 5mg/day. He said that it might take a while to kick in, and Coraline is tolerating the surgery suit well, so I'm going to leave her in it and reduce the time slowly as she gets used to the pill. I heard once that a cat can be weened off the medication (prozac) once the behavior has been eliminated. Is this true? It's not expensive and I can easily afford it but I'm concerned some of her other personality quirks may also be affected. I'm also incredibly anxious (clearly this cat takes after me) that she will all of a sudden stop being my affectionate baby. She sleeps with me a majority of the time, she will break into the bathroom if I close the door with her on the other side. She prefers to lay on the radiator closest to my computer, or on me, or on the desktop tower itself within touching distance, at all times. She asks for kisses, and will press her head to my lips until I make the "muah" sound. I absolutely adore this behavior and I will be devastated if it stops. I'm not really looking for advice, I'm just looking for reassurance.
I gave her the first pill yesterday morning, which she ate in her normal morning wet food and she didn't come snuggle. She ended up falling asleep on the couch in the warm spot I vacated when I went to bed. (I work third shift and usually sleep between 10:30am and 5pm). When I realized she wasn't up on my pillow or down by my knees, I had a total panic attack and went to find her. I found her where I had left her, and scooped her up and snuggled her for a half an hour in bed. She eventually got sick of me and left, but came back twoish hours later to pester me for dinner because I slept past 6. She had eaten most of her dry food by the time I left for work so I'm not really worried about her appetite (and honestly if she had some slight appetite reduction, she'd be fine, she's 13lbs).
As you can tell, I am also an excessively anxious person (where does she get it from I wonder???) and I'm just really worried I made the wrong call with asking my vet about prozac.
Thanks!
For the last several months, since October 2021, my cat has been over grooming her stomach in one spot just between her hind legs. We traced it back to a recent food change, since she and her sister for no good reason suddenly rejected the food they'd been eating for ages. Her sister (literally her litter mate), has a gluten/grain intolerance and won't eat seafood, so they've been on chicken/turkey diets for almost eight years now. This time also coincided with her sister needing a few teeth extracted and being gone from the house for six hours.
Coraline has always been very anxious, and prefers to snuggle with the humans or her sister, but it's always been low key and manageable with distraction, toys, and plenty of hugs and love. Since we noticed the thinning fur on her stomach, she has also presented with the wet, soft poops. It is not diarrhea as it's still solid, just not firm. She often needs help getting it out of her fluff because she is an excessively fluffy cat for being a domestic shorthair. Her sister is half her size and they only have about a 2 pound difference between them.
I took her to the vet when the over grooming led to cuts and hot spots on her belly. They gave her an antibiotic shot that "lasted two weeks" and ProVet Calming Care. They warned me the probiotic could take six weeks to kick in. After about two weeks with no change, I purchased a surgery suit to protect her stomach and she's worn it a majority of the time since, especially as I and my husband work 12hr shifts and will both be gone 3 times a week at night. Now her belly has healed from the sores (though she has some scarring) she is still excessively licking and it's been about eight weeks. She is still eating, drinking and peeing normally. Her wet, soft poops come and go, sometimes she goes days with normal poop then has a week of non normal poop. I've taken to checking her butt floof every time she comes out of the liter box closet.
Vet ruled out allergies and parasites (mostly because the cats share their boxes so if one has a parasite, for sure the other would to) and the vet gave me prozac, 5mg/day. He said that it might take a while to kick in, and Coraline is tolerating the surgery suit well, so I'm going to leave her in it and reduce the time slowly as she gets used to the pill. I heard once that a cat can be weened off the medication (prozac) once the behavior has been eliminated. Is this true? It's not expensive and I can easily afford it but I'm concerned some of her other personality quirks may also be affected. I'm also incredibly anxious (clearly this cat takes after me) that she will all of a sudden stop being my affectionate baby. She sleeps with me a majority of the time, she will break into the bathroom if I close the door with her on the other side. She prefers to lay on the radiator closest to my computer, or on me, or on the desktop tower itself within touching distance, at all times. She asks for kisses, and will press her head to my lips until I make the "muah" sound. I absolutely adore this behavior and I will be devastated if it stops. I'm not really looking for advice, I'm just looking for reassurance.
I gave her the first pill yesterday morning, which she ate in her normal morning wet food and she didn't come snuggle. She ended up falling asleep on the couch in the warm spot I vacated when I went to bed. (I work third shift and usually sleep between 10:30am and 5pm). When I realized she wasn't up on my pillow or down by my knees, I had a total panic attack and went to find her. I found her where I had left her, and scooped her up and snuggled her for a half an hour in bed. She eventually got sick of me and left, but came back twoish hours later to pester me for dinner because I slept past 6. She had eaten most of her dry food by the time I left for work so I'm not really worried about her appetite (and honestly if she had some slight appetite reduction, she'd be fine, she's 13lbs).
As you can tell, I am also an excessively anxious person (where does she get it from I wonder???) and I'm just really worried I made the wrong call with asking my vet about prozac.
Thanks!