Our first cat, Trixie, and our new kitten, Babs, are still working out their differences under doors. On their first face-to-face introduction, Trixie attacked the baby, so we started over, taking it in slower stages.
Our friend had a similar situation, and her vet put her cats on Valium, which kicked in and helped within days. After a month of medication, she discontinued the Valium, and the cats have agreed to a guarded peace.
Our vet, though--a cat specialist--doesn't recommend Valium, saying she's known of rare but irreversible kidney-damage side-effects. Besides, despite our friend's experience, our vet thinks that the Valium will not really make our aggressive cat calm down, only "increase her inhibitions"; that the drug is more likely only to help the victim cat relax--which, of course, wouldn't do us much good.
Instead, our vet recommends putting both our cats on a form of Prozac. She claims there won't be any permanent side-effects, although, on the down side, the calming effects won't take hold for 4-6 weeks (yikes!).
Personally, I don't like the idea of medicating either of them with anything. But the situation is very strained here, and we're getting desperate (we're the ones who need Valium).
Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Who's right-our friend's vet or ours? Neither? Both?
P.S. We're using Feliway and doing everything else by the book.
Thanks.
P.P.S. I posted this message the other day on "Health & Nutrition" but only got one reply (thank you). So it occurred to me that it really belongs in the "Behavior" category. Sorry for the duplication, but we really need some good advice.
Our friend had a similar situation, and her vet put her cats on Valium, which kicked in and helped within days. After a month of medication, she discontinued the Valium, and the cats have agreed to a guarded peace.
Our vet, though--a cat specialist--doesn't recommend Valium, saying she's known of rare but irreversible kidney-damage side-effects. Besides, despite our friend's experience, our vet thinks that the Valium will not really make our aggressive cat calm down, only "increase her inhibitions"; that the drug is more likely only to help the victim cat relax--which, of course, wouldn't do us much good.
Instead, our vet recommends putting both our cats on a form of Prozac. She claims there won't be any permanent side-effects, although, on the down side, the calming effects won't take hold for 4-6 weeks (yikes!).
Personally, I don't like the idea of medicating either of them with anything. But the situation is very strained here, and we're getting desperate (we're the ones who need Valium).
Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Who's right-our friend's vet or ours? Neither? Both?
P.S. We're using Feliway and doing everything else by the book.
Thanks.
P.P.S. I posted this message the other day on "Health & Nutrition" but only got one reply (thank you). So it occurred to me that it really belongs in the "Behavior" category. Sorry for the duplication, but we really need some good advice.