Hello fellow cat lovers!
It's been awhile since I've posted. But, a new-ish issue has come up in our house hold.
Little bit of backstory:
I posted 2 years ago about my crazy play-aggressive kitten who grew up to have real aggression. He was a bottle baby who didn't get a lot of time with his siblings and it caused him to be NUTS as a kitten and once he hit around a year of age he became needy with random instances of attacking me. He would jump up and attack me - usually going for my shoulder when I was relaxing in my computer chair. Or sometimes when I would be laying in bed looking at my phone or reading he would jump up and go for me then. Full on ears back, crazy eyes. He drew blood multiple times. I tried time outs, I tried wearing him out regularly, we worked on training. He would still do it. It was like some random anxiety trigger that neither me or my veterinarians (I'm a vet tech) could figure out. And he would only do it to ME. My boyfriend is immune to his fits of rage, lol.
Me and the Vets decided to try him on Fluoxetine (Prozac) and it worked GREAT. The instances dwindled down to only occasionally. He seemed much more laid back. And I had him on it for a year. As it got closer to the year mark it would become difficult to give him the medication. He would let me give it to him, but I would often have to sneak up on him because if he saw me grab the medicine or the syringe he would run away and hide for long periods of time. It got to the point where I was only able to give it to him basically every other day. So, since it had been awhile the Vets said I could try weaning him off and stopping it.
Well, good news! He's been off his Prozac for about a month. Bad news, he has jumped at me a few times. But, still not at the frequency he was doing it before the medication.
Now, with all this backstory info about my crazy feline I can inquire about the NEW behavior he is doing. New-ish. He has always occasionally come up and gently bitten the back of my heel when I'll be sitting in my computer chair.
Since stopping the Prozac he does it at least once a day, sometimes multiple times a day. And now it's not always as gentle. He hasn't broken the skin, it's still pretty tame - but he does it a LOT. To the back of my heel, to my calf. Earlier he tugged on my jeans. -.-
He has food, he has water, we play.
What is he trying to tell me!? lol
And of course everyone's favorite thing - cute pictures of the little man himself! This is Gage
It's been awhile since I've posted. But, a new-ish issue has come up in our house hold.
Little bit of backstory:
I posted 2 years ago about my crazy play-aggressive kitten who grew up to have real aggression. He was a bottle baby who didn't get a lot of time with his siblings and it caused him to be NUTS as a kitten and once he hit around a year of age he became needy with random instances of attacking me. He would jump up and attack me - usually going for my shoulder when I was relaxing in my computer chair. Or sometimes when I would be laying in bed looking at my phone or reading he would jump up and go for me then. Full on ears back, crazy eyes. He drew blood multiple times. I tried time outs, I tried wearing him out regularly, we worked on training. He would still do it. It was like some random anxiety trigger that neither me or my veterinarians (I'm a vet tech) could figure out. And he would only do it to ME. My boyfriend is immune to his fits of rage, lol.
Me and the Vets decided to try him on Fluoxetine (Prozac) and it worked GREAT. The instances dwindled down to only occasionally. He seemed much more laid back. And I had him on it for a year. As it got closer to the year mark it would become difficult to give him the medication. He would let me give it to him, but I would often have to sneak up on him because if he saw me grab the medicine or the syringe he would run away and hide for long periods of time. It got to the point where I was only able to give it to him basically every other day. So, since it had been awhile the Vets said I could try weaning him off and stopping it.
Well, good news! He's been off his Prozac for about a month. Bad news, he has jumped at me a few times. But, still not at the frequency he was doing it before the medication.
Now, with all this backstory info about my crazy feline I can inquire about the NEW behavior he is doing. New-ish. He has always occasionally come up and gently bitten the back of my heel when I'll be sitting in my computer chair.
Since stopping the Prozac he does it at least once a day, sometimes multiple times a day. And now it's not always as gentle. He hasn't broken the skin, it's still pretty tame - but he does it a LOT. To the back of my heel, to my calf. Earlier he tugged on my jeans. -.-
He has food, he has water, we play.
What is he trying to tell me!? lol
And of course everyone's favorite thing - cute pictures of the little man himself! This is Gage