Aggressive Cat, Vet Prescribed Prozac

[doublemom]

Long story but I'll keep it short. We've had 2 male cats (neutered) for 12 years. Two months ago my daughter moved back home with her 2 younger female (spayed) cats. One of the older boys is incredibly aggressive and is attacking the 2 younger ones. We have had them separated with limited, supervised introductions for 2 months now. You name it, we've tried it. Jackson Galaxy from My Cat From Hell would be proud of the patience and time and $$ we have put into trying to introduce them slowly. Our entire household is being held hostage at this point by 1 aggressive cat, and it's not a good situation, for the cats or the humans.

Monkey, the aggressive older cat, simply will not accept the 2 new ones. Have talked with multiple vets. Finally their vet suggested Prozac (fluoxetine). He gave us pills and Monkey is IMPOSSIBLE to pill. He will not take it with any type of food, treat, pill pocket, nothing. I've tried pilling him but that causes even more anxiety and aggression on his part, so not worth it.

Believe me... we have tried everything, Feliway, playing to the point of exhaustion, introducing through screens with favorite foods, etc. Two veterinarians and multiple vet techs have said we have exhausted everything they can think of. I've talked with people who do animal rescue and foster, and they've said the same thing. Our aggressive cat is 100% not giving in.

I asked the vet Prozac could be given as an injection and he said they didn't do that. So my question... to save our household from complete insanity and breakdown, does anyone here know if Prozac/fluoxetine is injectable, and if so, where I could go about getting it?

 

[Vega's Dad]

Can you crush the pills and mix it with food?

 

[doublemom]

I've tried getting those pills down his throat with all of his favorite foods and treats. They're incredibly bitter and he just spits them right back out. No go

 

[tdonline]

One of my girls has been on prozac for a few years now. Initially the vet prescribed 5mg daily but now she's on about 1.6mg every other day. It's enough to keep her sympatico with her sister but not enough for side effects. She has always been the more skittish of the two. If you look at my old posts, from 3 years ago, you'll see quite a few about the whole situation so I won't get into the backstory.

Prozac is incredibly nasty tasting and if my cat tastes it, she will foam at the mouth. This is what I do to keep the prozac nastiness away:

1) Buy size #5 capsules, they're smallest I've found online
2) Crush prozac tablet
3) For 10mg tablet, I divide it amongst 6 capsules
4) Crush kibble in food processor, leaving a few kibbles in some shape (I crush a large jar full at a time)
5) Spoon 1 teaspoon in a very small plate or bowl
6) Place capsule on top of kibble

My cat will wolf down everything in seconds. Obviously, this only works if your cat is a fan of kibble. Find what works for your cat. I used to use a combo of wet and dry food and discovered it worked equally well with just dry food. Kept it simple. I feed this in the morning when she's most hungry. She then gets wet food for a proper breakfast. This method works almost all the time. Once in a while, she's able to bypass the capsule to get to the kibble. But all I do is place it on top of another teaspoon of kibble. I have never had to do 3 times. I keep it snack size to ensure she eats the capsule. If it's served on a full plate of food, she may not finish all the food and bypass the medicine. Keep it small to ensure everything goes down in a few seconds.

The reason why I crush the kibble is because she is able to pick out whole kibbles and leave the capsule. Crushed kibble forces her to lick up the food and capsule together. I leave one or two whole kibbles so there's a combo of eating and licking up the food.

 

[ileen]

Luciano is now on Prozac, the tiny brown circular pill. I'm not home & don't remember the dosage, but he gets 1/2 pill once a day. I split the pill with my thumb & index fingernails and crush it with the top of the pill bottle cap & mix it into his wet food. He doesn't wolf down his food immediately like he used to, but it's always gone by the time his next meal approaches. I've been saying he's eating more like a cat now, whereas before he ate like a dog.

 

[doublemom]

tdonline - thanks, I'll try getting some tiny plain capsules, filling with crushed prozac, and mixing in with kibble. I'll have to get Monkey good and hungry to try that, he is usually not motivated at all by food or treats of any kind (unlike his brother, who is a complete pig).
ileen - I've tried crushing and mixing in with any and every type of food possible. It's so bitter he won't touch it and would rather go hungry than eat it.

 

[ileen]

Do your pills look like mine? I wonder if there are different types of prozac pills.

 

[tdonline]

tdonline - thanks, I'll try getting some tiny plain capsules, filling with crushed prozac, and mixing in with kibble. I'll have to get Monkey good and hungry to try that, he is usually not motivated at all by food or treats of any kind (unlike his brother, who is a complete pig).
ileen - I've tried crushing and mixing in with any and every type of food possible. It's so bitter he won't touch it and would rather go hungry than eat it.

Hope it works, I know how frustrating the whole process can be. I was afraid I was going to have to split up my girls as one of them would have freakout sessions as a result of redirected aggression. I feed her the pill away from her sister so she can eat in peace. Also to ensure her pig of a sister won't eat the snack and pill. So definitely watch out for the pig brother.

I'm very fortunate that my cats will do things for kibble. And I keep that desire high as they only get kibble as a snack. They get more of it too when I travel.

 

[doublemom]

A lot of different companies make the generic form fluoxetine, so there are a lot of different shapes and sizes. Mine are tiny white pills, 10 mg, that the vet quartered for me into 2.5 mg, which are almost too small to handle without tweezers. You'd think being that small I could get them down Monkey's throat LOL! The taste is just horrid, so I'll give the capsules a try.

 

[ileen]

Did you taste them yourself?

 

[tdonline]

I have...to see if my cat was being a drama queen. Nope, the prozac pills I have really are nasty. I have small white tablets too.

 

[ileen]

Next time see if you can get the brown ones, maybe they're not as bad. Luciano used to get xanax and those were scored white tablets, a good bit larger than these tiny brown prozac tabs.

 

[danteshuman]

I have heard good things about prozac working.... I hope it does. Please keep us posted.

 

[doublemom]

I tasted the powder left on my fingers when I was trying to hide one in some tuna, and it was horrible.

 

[doublemom]

UPDATE... I figured out how to get my cat to take these horrible-tasting pills. I bought empty capsules (size #5, very tiny) and put the 1/4 Prozac tablet inside the capsule. Then I wrap it up in a dried Bonito flake and he swallows it whole. He is totally non-motivated by food, the only thing he really flips for is the Bonito flakes. By putting the tablet into the empty capsule, he can't taste how bitter it is and he doesn't even know it's there. Now... to see if the Prozac will bring his aggression under control, who knows? He's had 3 days worth of medication, hopefully we'll notice a change in his behavior soon.

Thanks to everyone for all of your suggestions, I'm keeping fingers crossed that we can at some point go back to a peaceful house

 

[danteshuman]

I have heard it takes a couple of weeks?

 

[ileen]

Four to six weeks, I believe.

 

[Mickpest]

Long story but I'll keep it short. We've had 2 male cats (neutered) for 12 years. Two months ago my daughter moved back home with her 2 younger female (spayed) cats. One of the older boys is incredibly aggressive and is attacking the 2 younger ones. We have had them separated with limited, supervised introductions for 2 months now. You name it, we've tried it. Jackson Galaxy from My Cat From Hell would be proud of the patience and time and $$ we have put into trying to introduce them slowly. Our entire household is being held hostage at this point by 1 aggressive cat, and it's not a good situation, for the cats or the humans.

Monkey, the aggressive older cat, simply will not accept the 2 new ones. Have talked with multiple vets. Finally their vet suggested Prozac (fluoxetine). He gave us pills and Monkey is IMPOSSIBLE to pill. He will not take it with any type of food, treat, pill pocket, nothing. I've tried pilling him but that causes even more anxiety and aggression on his part, so not worth it.

Believe me... we have tried everything, Feliway, playing to the point of exhaustion, introducing through screens with favorite foods, etc. Two veterinarians and multiple vet techs have said we have exhausted everything they can think of. I've talked with people who do animal rescue and foster, and they've said the same thing. Our aggressive cat is 100% not giving in.

I asked the vet Prozac could be given as an injection and he said they didn't do that. So my question... to save our household from complete insanity and breakdown, does anyone here know if Prozac/fluoxetine is injectable, and if so, where I could go about getting it?

My vet just prescribed Prozac for our guy in a transdermal cream. I just dispense the correct amount and apply to the inside of the ear. Any compounding pharmacy can do this

 

[Vicki76]

Has nobody heard of liquid fluoxetine - we get this liquid form from our vets. Still leaves our poor cat foaming at the mouth but easier to squirt into mouth. Best done outside thought as quite sticky solution & spluttered up walls & on floors is not what you want!!

Good luck!

 

[Mickpest]

Has nobody heard of liquid fluoxetine - we get this liquid form from our vets. Still leaves our poor cat foaming at the mouth but easier to squirt into mouth. Best done outside thought as quite sticky solution & spluttered up walls & on floors is not what you want!!

Good luck!

We have been using fluoxetine (Prozac) on our cat for 6 months now to help get he and our resident cat to be able to live under the same roof, and it is working!! He only would do pills briefly, so we now use the compounded cream form that we simply apply to the skin area of his ear flap. We tried everything before going this route, and this is the only thing that has worked! It has worked so well that they play and sleep together now. Truly a miracle for us!!