Mentally Ill Cat?

This might get long, so please bear with me. I am looking for some advice maybe, and just to vent a bit. I have 6 cats and have had cats all my life, and have never come across a cat as problematic as my 9 year old (neutered) male tabby.

We have had Sam since he was a kitten, and had him fixed around 6 months old. The poor guy had to go to the vet early on in life as he started getting struvite crystals in his urine. We know this is an ongoing problem so we did what the vet advised and started feeding him the Hill's urinary acidifying food (I believe it was S/D?). That food is absolute junk as we found out because Sammy hated eating it first of all, and after a few weeks on it had a bout of pancreatitis that almost killed him. We switched to the Royal Canin wet urinary food (as no cats with urinary issues should be eating dry food anyway) and that did not seem to help his issue with crystals. Found out they took the acidifying l-methionine out of that food and for our purposes, it wasn't effective. I did tons of research and started using store bought grain free wet food and added l-methionine, cosequin, and extra water to his food. I still do this to this day because it seems to work well for keeping the crystals from building up. He has never had a blockage and never needed surgery, thankfully.

Unfortunately despite the food that seems to help, he was still spraying all over the place. The vet suggested it was anxiety and prescribed prozac to help with the problem.

He was on prozac from several years and in the beginning it seemed to work. He was down to spraying once or twice a day from spraying every couple of minutes. Thousands of dollars in ruined furniture, vet bills, and years of nonstop cleaning came to an end for a while with just a bit of clean up here and there.

Over time the prozac stopped working and Sam was spraying very frequently again. We consulted the vet and had him in for a check up again and nothing was found. He had blood tests and his kidneys were okay too, all other levels normal. This was around a year ago and we had to face facts that we had to give up on the prozac for good. We weened him off it and his spraying and erratic behavior became even more extreme.

I don't know how he physically can spray that much in one day. He doesn't spritz either-he unleashes a huge amount of urine with every spray, all over the house with a frequency that is frankly amazing. Over the years I have tried everything the vet suggested and I watched Jackson Galaxy, hoping for some pointers, searched the internet over and over again. I bought cat trees and cat beds (which he sprayed on), tons of cat toys that we use a lot with him and our other cats. I have 7 litter boxes everywhere all over the house, all different spots, all uncovered. I've tried cat attract litter, and in fact I use different litters in different boxes to head off any picky cat problems. I clean them out all the time so the problem can't be related to litter boxes. We have a fairly regular routine, feeding schedule, the works. Everything that was suggested I have tried to no avail. Galaxy said to take note of where a cat was spraying because it might give insight to the reason. Well, Sammy sprays by the doors, the windows, on the furniture, in the middle of the hallways, doorways, in bathrooms, on his own bedding, on the outside of the litter box, directly on us, on beds, etc. He sprays literally anywhere and everywhere, and no amount of cleaning with enzymatic cleaners or anything else helped to deter him.

When he started the prozac, his mental state seemed fairly normal despite his urge to spray. Over the several years he was on the drug he slowly became scarily unhinged. He is now aggressive, anxious, and just for lack of a better word, completely unpleasant. He always has a crazy look in his eyes and as he is, most of time we don't even want to engage with him much as a petting can quickly turn into drawn blood. His spraying has escalated to the point that he can't even live in the house anymore. Outside he sprays his own bedding and will lay right on it afterwards, and patrols the immediate area spraying everything every couple of minutes just like he did inside. I feel so guilty for kicking him out, but short of surrendering him, I didn't know what else to do with him. His crystal problem is mostly under control with a few bad patches here and there that he needs a vet visit for (I had to take him once last year for bloody urine), but I have tried almost everything I can think of to help him. He doesn't often have bloody pee these days so the l-methionine is keeping things somewhat under control and according to the vet, he is healthy.

I have done more research and my last ditch effort is to try milk thistle in his food as some have reported this helps with bladder issues like FLUTD and crystals. I am not optimistic though, because these issues seem well beyond the physical and I suspect they are more mental at this point.

What I am wondering is if anyone else has ever had to deal with such an unpleasant situation with a cat and also if anyone else has experienced permanent brain chemistry problems after using prozac on their cat? I do think the prozac exacerbated his already budding tendencies toward manic behavior. The spraying aside, he was a much nicer and laid back cat before he took the medicine. That element has always been there a bit, but never to this extent. And also, any other advice about how to deal with this situation? I will not put him down just due to inconvenience, and I hate to think that he is in pain from his bladder and that I can't seem to make it go away. If you have dealt with this, how did you go about helping your cat to get better? I don't even know if getting better is possible at this point with how bonkers his behavior is. I need a ray of light, some advice, someone to relate to, anything!

I can't believe how much money I have spent on vet bills, replacing furniture in my house, and buying suggested things to try to keep him happy. The amount of stress in my life from cleaning up after him constantly, having my house smelling like pee, being attacked when petting him, and now being constantly worried about him living outside...I have so much anxiety over this animal that has gotten worse, not better over these 9 long years. I keep thinking there has to be something that will help him that I just can't seem to find.

Thank you for reading this and thank you in advance for any advice you might be able to offer, or even any personal stories from you that let me know I am not alone in dealing with a possibly mentally ill cat.

Wow..... That is quite an experience and I want to take a moment to thank you for sticking with him despite everything.

I don't have experience with Prozac although others in the forum do. Hopefully one of them will be able to come and comment on this. I wouldn't think it would make his problems worse though. It could be the changes we are because it was still developing and that just coincided with the prozac. I know in humans not every medication will work for everybody. So I could just be that the prozac wasn't the best fit so his symptoms kept getting worse while on it but the prozac did help a little during that time but not enough to fully stop it. Just my own uneducated opinion on it from experience with humans on similar medications.

I do have some experience with mental problems in cats. My rainbow kitty, Cinnamon, had (we assume) brain damage. I say assuming since he was never diagnosed. Since we saw him get thrown around like a ball by the person we took him from and he later in life had problems with recognition and mood we assumed. It was never to the point of medicating him though because it was just he was slow and disconnected.

My girl though is medicated. Rocket started getting aggressive towards my boys and spraying about a year ago. Nothing serious at first but as time went it got worse. I did not see my vet for it but again self diagnosed her as anxious and something else. Anxious because she was better around me but when I was gone she was on edge (I was her support animal apparently ). She was aggressive with the boys in more of a territorial sense and spraying goes with that. But that can also be anxiety as your vet told you. I did not see the vet because I had been giving my boy CBD oil for his arthritis, which in California you can't talk to your vet about not can they recommend. I figured in for the penny, in for the pound and since I had heard CBD can help with behavior I tried it.

She gets just 0.15ml twice a day and it really helps. She is calmer, less aggressive with the boys and generally more relaxed. She even started using the cat door more and other little things. Last week she missed a few doses because she didn't eat all her food (bad human bought the wrong thing) and I could immediately tell the difference. So I am being more careful about making sure she gets her full dose again.

If the CBD oil didn't help I would have seen the vet about it directly. She had an annual exam the week before I tried the CBD so I knew it wasn't physical at that point along with a physical exam when she first started having problems.

Hi. I have a female cat that started spraying when I brought in my male cat. Clearly she was stressed out and marking territory and they never did get along. Our story is a bit different than yours but yes, she sprayed all over the place. She loved spraying the windows and blinds and it would drip down. She sprayed my oven door and I didn't know it; one day I turned it on and OMGosh the smell. She never sprayed bedding or my clothes. She did fine on the prozac and the spraying stopped. I weaned her off it after about two years and she's been fine.
Honestly, I can't blame you for keeping the cat outside. I don't know what to tell you. I wish I did. Have you tried another cat calming drug? I'm not talking about herbal stuff but a real drug?

You have done everything you can by this point. The only hope would be another tranquilizer. Novis made made and may still make another tranquilizer called Clomicalm which worked well for our dog. I read reviews that said it worked well for cats. During the time we were using it there were production problems so you'd want to keep enough on hand to wean him off of it if need be.

However, there maybe a reason your vet didn't suggest the Clomicalm, it's been a few years since we used it.

I don't know if there is anything you can do to help your boy, I hope there is. I just want to and I mean this in kindness and from personal experience. If you must give him up, and I totally understand that, go on and let the vet put him to sleep surrounded by the people he knows rather than turn him into a shelter. It is the kindest thing to do.

A kill shelter will hold him for a few days in a small cage, where he knows no one and is in fear for his life. Then they will put him down.

A no-kill shelter may try to place him, may even succeed. What happens when he starts spraying at his new home or attacking? They might just chase him outside to die on the streets.

Your a good person, whatever happens you have not failed your cat. Like some physical problems that just can not be fixed, some mental problems can't be fixed.

I remember my vet suggested Clomicalm as well so I believe it's still around. Are there other cats in the neighborhood that have him agitated?

I've heard a lot of cats do better on Xanax than Prozac. Worth a try I suppose.

Thank you so so much everyone! Sometimes it feels good just to know I am not the only one dealing with such terrible cat behavior. I am going to look into all your suggestions-I am willing to try anything at this point. Sam was on another drug before he was on the prozac that absolutely did not work at all but I can't remember what it was called. I will bring all these suggestions up to the vet to see what she recommends. I also need to look up if CBD is legal in Ohio because if so, I will definitely try that too. We did try Anxitane (l-theanine) too and that was a bust.

He has seen two different vets in his life because we moved years ago when he was younger, but after he started experiencing troubles. I get the feeling that vets are totally mystified by cat problems (dog centric for the most part I guess is what I mean). Maybe that is why I have never even heard of Clomicalm. My dog is the most laid back animal in the world so I would have never encountered any similar issues with him to learn from.

Again, thank you so much for your kindness and taking the time to make such great suggestions!

Maybe if your cat has something along the lines of bipolar, instead of the more common anxiety, then it is possible that an SSRI like Prozac would make manic behavior worse like it does in humans. i just don't know for sure, but ti might at least be an avenue to look into. *shrug*

The thing is, spraying isn't an unusual behavior for a cat and is quite natural. The problem is just that humans don't like it :/. So I don't know if that even counts as mental illness, unless he's definitely doing it because of anxiety.

Has he ever been screened for hormones? I wonder if his neutering didn't take, if he had a retained testicle or whatever. Hormone therapy may help.

It's true that most vets don't really understand cats. Are there any cat specialists in the area?

I remember reading one review of the Clomicalm, where the person said the cat had been attacking the baby. As soon as they got the Clomicalm he stopped. I'm thinking it reduces the anxiety that made the baby seem threatening to him. It certainly reduced our dog's fear of thunderstorms, fireworks, other loud noises. It's possible that the spraying maybe an attempt to claim his territory due to his anxiety. If so it might help.

Now I feel bad because I didn't think of this when the couple had the three cats, two females who were constantly spraying every ting in their house. If anyone knows where that post is, please direct them to this thread.

Although I've never met a cat quite as extreme as yours, there are cats at the shelter I volunteer at that have some mental health issues. One cat in particular is on prozac, and while it seems to help, it can't cure anything. As someone with an anxiety disorder, I can tell you that medication can't stop every symptom or cure anxiety. I recommend looking into other anti-anxiety medications or perhaps increasing his dose of prozac. I'm glad your boy isn't attacking any of your cats or self-harming though. As irritating as cat urine is, I think it's better than injuries.

Ooh, one more thing I'd like to suggest: Have you ever considered giving him his own room? At the shelter we have another cat who isn't on medication, but is often very aggressive and attacks the other cats (and occasionally our ankles). We let him stay in the basement away from the other cats (since the shelter is free range during the day) whenever he acts out and he stays there over night as well. While he can still be moody when he has a room to himself, he is much more relaxed and friendly, even to the point that he'll beg to lay in your lap. He still pees on the furniture down there and can still get cranky out of nowhere, but he's far more relaxed and predictable when he's allowed to have alone time.

I am no expert in multi-cat households, but I am wondering... does Sam have any "safe spaces", all his own, away from your other five cats? Or vice versa, for the other cats? And how do all of the cats get along, from what you have observed? Have any of the cats been sick w/ health issues the last few years?

I just know that any household, whether it is just full of humans, full of one or two cats plus humans, or full of 5+ cats plus humans, is something I basically envision as a system of concentric circles of influence -- there is overlapping and give-and-take and cause and effect -- a lot of interplay between everyone's "personal circle". Some circles don't merge as easily, causing stress and strife. The more living beings in a household, the more you (and the cats) have to observe and understand the system that develops, as everyone's behaviors play off of each other. Maybe he is being affected in ways by the other cats that you haven't deciphered yet?

my vet has one of our cats on Buspirone which I believe is like a Xanax. he has an issue with chasing and biting his tail. he's been on it for about a year, and i think it helps. he still sometimes has anxiety issues, and will chase his tail. we know now how to calm him down pretty fast, and he has not bit anything so far in the last year and a half. trying to keep a bandage on a large determined cat is not fun. might want to ask vet about buspirone though.