Aggression in Cat, PROZAC?

BaileyCrow26

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We have a 1 year old Russian Blue, Stormy, who is neutered and has some biting issues. We raised him from 3 weeks old, and he was terribly under socialized, and bites our hands and legs all the time. He is simply trying to play (he tries to bunny kick us while doing it) and nothing has worked in regards of trying to correct the behavior. He also has a playmate already that is pretty scared of him. The vet we see suggested we try Prozac or Gabapentin, but we couldnt afford the cost of the gabapentin, as we are young and in college and simply trying our best to work with him because we dont believe in rehoming him but im about to move back to my hometown, houston, and i will be living in a studio apartment so i need to be able to be in the same room as him constantly and currently, i cant handle it. Any opinions on the Prozac for him? any success?
 

SirenSong

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My resident cat had anxiety through the roof when I first introduced my second cat. The vet recommended Prozac for cats (Purrrozac, I liked to call it ....). Anyways, the low dose made no discernible difference so they recommended to increase the dosage.

As a warning... very rarely, Prozac in cats can have the effect where it literally turns their fear/anxiety OFF. They no longer fear anything. They know doing a specific thing is wrong and will do it anyways because they have no fears or inhibitions. This means the cat may start attacking without fear or remorse, not caring about repercussions or any feelings you may have on the subject, because the medication makes them bold to the point of insanity.

This happened to my cat. She had been bad before with the anxiety, but she want from anxious to malicious hellion in a matter of days. Luckily, she never turned her aggression to people but she beat the ever loving poop out of the other cat before I realized what was happening and took her in for another assessment. On that day, the vet recommended we wean her off of it and never try it again. She is obviously one of the rare ones that reacts poorly to it.

I'm not saying don't do it, I'm just letting you know to start slowly and watch for signs of the aggression getting worse. The only thing worse than trying to deal with an anxious/aggressive cat, is dealing with a cat who literally gives zero fudges ... you can't discipline ... you can't warn them ... you can't reason with them or bribe them when they're like that ... I had a little better luck with Clomicalm but ended up going with a calming food and Zylkene.
 
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BaileyCrow26

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My resident cat had anxiety through the roof when I first introduced my second cat. The vet recommended Prozac for cats (Purrrozac, I liked to call it ....). Anyways, the low dose made no discernible difference so they recommended to increase the dosage.

As a warning... very rarely, Prozac in cats can have the effect where it literally turns their fear/anxiety OFF. They no longer fear anything. They know doing a specific thing is wrong and will do it anyways because they have no fears or inhibitions. This means the cat may start attacking without fear or remorse, not caring about repercussions or any feelings you may have on the subject, because the medication makes them bold to the point of insanity.

This happened to my cat. She had been bad before with the anxiety, but she want from anxious to malicious hellion in a matter of days. Luckily, she never turned her aggression to people but she beat the ever loving poop out of the other cat before I realized what was happening and took her in for another assessment. On that day, the vet recommended we wean her off of it and never try it again. She is obviously one of the rare ones that reacts poorly to it.

I'm not saying don't do it, I'm just letting you know to start slowly and watch for signs of the aggression getting worse. The only thing worse than trying to deal with an anxious/aggressive cat, is dealing with a cat who literally gives zero fudges ... you can't discipline ... you can't warn them ... you can't reason with them or bribe them when they're like that ... I had a little better luck with Clomicalm but ended up going with a calming food and Zylkene.
oh wow thats interesting, i will definitely watch for that. he is doing 2mg, but stormy was like this before the second cat and now he will redirect his behavior when i correct him to sammy our new cat. i have never heard of a calming food, i currently add Anxiety Relief from Homeopet into his food and it seems to work somewhat for him, not much.
 

SirenSong

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oh wow thats interesting, i will definitely watch for that. he is doing 2mg, but stormy was like this before the second cat and now he will redirect his behavior when i correct him to sammy our new cat. i have never heard of a calming food, i currently add Anxiety Relief from Homeopet into his food and it seems to work somewhat for him, not much.
Yes I don't think it's a common reaction. The vet was pretty shocked it went that way. Just the way my princess cat is. Nothing is ever easy or simple with her LOL.

The veterinary line of Royal Canin has a food called "Calm". It contains casein and tryptophan, like Zylkene, to naturally encourage the cats to be calmer. I feed "Urinary/Calm" because princess Journey showed urinary crystals in her last urine sample ... It seems to help take the edge off.
 
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BaileyCrow26

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Yes I don't think it's a common reaction. The vet was pretty shocked it went that way. Just the way my princess cat is. Nothing is ever easy or simple with her LOL.

The veterinary line of Royal Canin has a food called "Calm". It contains casein and tryptophan, like Zylkene, to naturally encourage the cats to be calmer. I feed "Urinary/Calm" because princess Journey showed urinary crystals in her last urine sample ... It seems to help take the edge off.
I will for sure look into that. thanks!
 

sargon

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If your cat's aggression is play related, I'm not sure that Prozac will help. Prozac reduces anxiety, which reduces fear and status type aggression, but play aggression has very different causes (poor socialization, overstimulation, and such).

Prozac stopped my cat's status agression ( or at least reduced it 95%) and did wonders for her anxiety, s I'm a big fan, but she still gets overstimualted she'll still bunny kick, because, to the best of my knowledge, that's not the kind of thing that it will help with.
 

ScaredCatLady

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If your cat's aggression is play related, I'm not sure that Prozac will help. Prozac reduces anxiety, which reduces fear and status type aggression, but play aggression has very different causes (poor socialization, overstimulation, and such).

Prozac stopped my cat's status agression ( or at least reduced it 95%) and did wonders for her anxiety, s I'm a big fan, but she still gets overstimualted she'll still bunny kick, because, to the best of my knowledge, that's not the kind of thing that it will help with.
Hi - sorry to butt in, but your post caught my eye, and I am desperately looking for a bit of wise counsel / reassurance.

One of my beloved cats has been in the grip of redirected / territorial aggression for the best part of a month now - she is a terrifyingly different animal when the red mist descends and my other cat isn’t safe (nor is anyone who gets in her way). After trying just about everything you can get without a prescription the vet has started her on 5mg of Prozac a day. My vet assured me it would work immediately (about which I was instinctively doubtful) and now that the first few days of drowsiness are wearing off, she is still hissing and snarling when she gets hold of her former best friend’s scent.

A 95% reduction would be the answer to all my prayers - can you remember how long you had to wait before you started to see positive signs?

Thanks, Sarah
 

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Hi Sarah. None of the above members have been active on this site recently, so I am not sure if they will respond. I will offer this information from another member who is currently active. Perhaps this data will be of some help.

I used Prozac for 2 male cats. One cat was aggressive and attacked the other cat. The cat who was attacked started spraying. It was awful. I tried for months to get the situation under control. I took both cats to the vet and it was decided to put both on Prozac. It is known to help with territorial spraying and also aggressiveness.

We started at at low dosage of 2.5 mg per day. It made both cats very very sleepy. I started giving the pill at night so that most of the side effects happened at night when they were less active. It took 6 weeks for the symptoms to get better. Lethargy was the main side effects, but I know others who deal with cats not wanting to eat. That can be a problem.

The cat who was spraying stopped spraying in just 4 days. It was incredible!! The aggressive cat was much calmer. As time went by, the cats issues were under control, but their personalities had both changed. Both were very subdued. They didn't have much zest or zip in their step.

After being on Prozac for 5 months, one of the cats started to have very large urine output. I started to monitor him closely. He was holding his urine for 24-30 hours. The urine output was often as large as a softball. I kept watching and within a week the length between urinations was increasing. He was hovering at 30+ hours. So to the vet we went. Long story short, but he ended up with a urinary blockage. I did a lot of research and found that Prozac can cause urinary retention in cats.

Of course he was immediately taken off of Prozac. I did use Zylkene for awhile. My main concern at that point was keeping him calm. The Zylkene helped, but not enough. After more research I decided to try CBD for him. I discussed this with my vet and we decided to give it a try.

I then decided 2 months later to take the other cat off Prozac. I just could not chance the same thing happening to him. I weaned him off and transitioned him to CBD as well. He has been completely off Prozac for almost 4 months now. He has only sprayed once!

Talk with your vet about other options if you are worried about trying Prozac. It can be very effective and help so many cats. Yet it does not come without side effects so do your research.
Btw - Since you think her behavior is related to re-directed territorial aggression (maybe you could explain why you think this), have you considered going through a re-introduction process - just like these cats were new to each other? There have been cases I have read on this site where this was the only thing that resolved the aggression issue.
 
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shadowsrescue

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My cat who was aggressive that was put on Prozac took over 6 weeks to notice a difference. He was very lethargic for about 4 weeks, then things got better. While Prozac did help, the urinary retention that led to a complete blockage was a nightmare. My cat almost died from this. While this is an unusual side effect, it still warrants being mentioned.

Both of my cats ( the territorial sprayer and aggressive cat) are both off Prozac now for almost 6 months. I transitioned to CBD and it has really worked very very well for them. No more aggression and the sprayer only sprays on occasion and it's always on the side of the litter box.

Watch your cat carefully while on Prozac. I did notice a personality change in both. The entire time on Prozac they were kind of subdued the entire time. It was an amazing difference once I took them off and their true personalities came back.
 

ScaredCatLady

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Hi Sarah. None of the above members have been active on this site recently, so I am not sure if they will respond. I will offer this information from another member who is currently active. Perhaps this data will be of some help.



Btw - Since you think her behavior is related to re-directed territorial aggression (maybe you could explain why you think this), have you considered going through a re-introduction process - just like these cats were new to each other? There have been cases I have read on this site where this was the only thing that resolved the aggression issue.
Thank you so much for replying.

Redirected aggression is the vet’s diagnosis, and I agree with him, I think. Elsa and Mo have lived together happily for five years, since both were kittens, and although Elsa has always been a bit fragile (she has skin allergies and asthma) she has always been an engaged and loving cat.

This incredible aggression she is now showing towards Mo came on in a flash about 3 weeks ago. She’d had a stressful few weeks - a flare up of her allergies had resulted in two vets visits - first she was prescribed a course of oral steroids then, when that made no difference, she had a steroid shot. Our flat was not its usual peaceful place due to a combination of things going on in neighbouring flats - I was feeling quite frazzled myself. I think something happened to ‘trigger’ her fear / frustration while she was agitated and stressed, and Mo became the target.

I am keeping them completely separate at the moment and plan to attempt a slow-paced réintroduction as soon as I think Elsa can handle it. (The separation has at least calmed the atmosphere in the flat somewhat and Mo seems fine - though managing the logistics is taking a lot of time and I feel quite emotionally drained). But a week into the Prozac I’m not at all confident that Elsa is ready. She still seems on edge and fearful - nothing like the confident, playful girl she was up until a month ago. She’s jittery around my partner (who she used to love), and hides a lot when she is out and about in the apartment. And I worry that the fear could instantly tip over into aggression again if she was brought into Mo’s orbit, and set us right back. I don’t want to rush, but I do want to get us back to normal.

I really want to understand what counts as ‘normal’ when a cat first starts taking Prozac - although I recognise that with these drugs there will be some variance between individual kitties....
 

ScaredCatLady

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My cat who was aggressive that was put on Prozac took over 6 weeks to notice a difference. He was very lethargic for about 4 weeks, then things got better. While Prozac did help, the urinary retention that led to a complete blockage was a nightmare. My cat almost died from this. While this is an unusual side effect, it still warrants being mentioned.

Both of my cats ( the territorial sprayer and aggressive cat) are both off Prozac now for almost 6 months. I transitioned to CBD and it has really worked very very well for them. No more aggression and the sprayer only sprays on occasion and it's always on the side of the litter box.

Watch your cat carefully while on Prozac. I did notice a personality change in both. The entire time on Prozac they were kind of subdued the entire time. It was an amazing difference once I took them off and their true personalities came back.
Thank you! I will try to manage my expectations and hope for change over the coming weeks. Elsa definitely seems subdued, and I would definitely hope to wean her off as soon as the aggression has been resolved. I have a cupboard full of OTC cat anxiety meds - including some CBD treats - I would like be to be able to transition to that once the Prozac has done its work.

I really appreciate your response, and will keep an eye out for any toileting problems. Thanks for the advice.
 
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