Experience with cats on Prozac/fluoxetine?

[aelovina]

Yesterday I took our 7yr old fixed male, Sunny, to the vet. He's in good health, but has some anxiety and has been displaying territorial aggression with two of our other cats.

The vet recommended Prozac to help with the aggression. We'll be trying pills first since that's the least expensive option. If he refuses to take them (picky cat) I might go with the liquid or transdermal gel, although the vet warned the gel isn't always as effective.

I'm looking for anyone who has experience with cats on Prozac and if its effective/helped in any significant way. We've already tried Feliway and environmental modification but nothing has helped so far. Just hoping to hear stories, good and bad, to know what I might expect.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

not sure if you already did a search here on this site under "prozac", but in case you didn't, here it is:

Search Results for Query: prozac

 

[Adnil95]

Hi! I have a cat that has anxiety - especially food one that transforms in agression to my other cat. Same here, tried with a lot of behviour modifications but no answers here. He also displays some OCD behaviour especially around food area/food hours when he repeatedly licks and bites his paw.. sometimes for a long time..

Can I ask you what does he do? How did you understood he had anxiety?
Now I'm trying CBD oil.. it takes a long time but it seems working for now at least a bit.

 

[KittyFriday]

Did your vet mention there may be a loading period of about 4-6 weeks where his anxiety may be heightened, he may be sleepier, may not eat as much, etc.? I'm not sure if it applies to cats or not, but I know when I started Prozac (and when my dog started Prozac) the first few weeks while the meds loaded into the system were a little more stressful.

 

[aelovina]

Hi! I have a cat that has anxiety - especially food one that transforms in agression to my other cat. Same here, tried with a lot of behviour modifications but no answers here. He also displays some OCD behaviour especially around food area/food hours when he repeatedly licks and bites his paw.. sometimes for a long time..

Can I ask you what does he do? How did you understood he had anxiety?
Now I'm trying CBD oil.. it takes a long time but it seems working for now at least a bit.

At his old home Sunny was very skittish and shy; terrified of people and scared of the other cats he lived with. After we took him in we socialized him and his people-anxiety is almost completely gone. He's super friendly now. However, he will randomly and loudly scratch at doors/walls around the house. The paint on our front door is worn off. He's locked himself in rooms and even cabinets with this behavior. Its very strange.

The biggest problem is him going from being seemingly ok with the new cats to aggressively chasing and attacking them. We tried OTC/holistic approaches (although not CBD) with no results.

 

[stephanietx]

One of my cats was on Prozac during the summer because of litter box avoidance issues. We had also tried all the things and it just wasn't helping. We did Prozac once a day for 30 days then every other day for 60 days. It didn't help him. He's still avoiding the litter box for pooping. It did make him extremely lethargic for about 2 weeks, then he gradually became perkier. His overall anxiety was reduced, but it just didn't help with the litter box issue.