Experience with fluoxetine?

[Freddieandchip]

My cat was recently prescribed fluoxetine and I was just wondering how other peoples experience with this medication was. He is taking it for anxiety, he developed cystitis due to his anxiety so from now on he will be on medication and a prescription diet. I work in the human medical field so I’m familiar with the medication, I’ve just never had a cat that takes any anxiety medication so I’d like to hear how other peoples experience was giving this to their cats . He has been crying a lot lately and I can’t find any specific cause for his anxiety so I’m really hoping this helps

 

[silent meowlook]

This is a tough question, and it all depends on your cat and situation.

Short answer is that yes, I have seen Fluoxetine (Prozac) used to treat, usually aggression, in cats before. with varied results, usually good. Of course, nothing is without side effects as you know. And unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, there haven't been many studies on cats with many different drugs that are used on them. If studies are done, they are extremely limited.

I am going to assume that all other medical causes of his urinary problems have been ruled out with blood work, urinalysis and ultrasound.

I looked at some of the other posts and I think I understand a bit more. Your cat is around 2 to 3 years, neutered male and is an indoor cat living with you and your boyfriend and 2 other cats. It looks like your cat may have some issues with ECG (eosinophilic granuloma complex) but you have done your best with no plastic dishes and now he is on a urinary diet. It also looks like he was bottle raised by you and all the cats get along well. Is all this right? If not, please let me know.

Since you have a medical background, I think you will be able to understand this article written by an excellent veterinarian I had the good fortune of meeting once. She is awesome. I am also assuming you have read the information here.

Feline interstitial cystitis: Its not about the bladder

Inappropriate urination, straining, hematuria, loss of appetite, hiding. You want to blame the bladder, but it may just be collateral damagean innocent victim of stress and a hyperexcitable nervous system.

www.dvm360.com

I also want to add that you need to have one litter box per cat plus one. I know it takes allot of room, but it is important. I have 2 cats and 3 litterboxes.

 

[Gizmobius]

My 1 year old orange boy was put on it in September to help with anxiety and inappropriate urination. He had bloodwork and a urinalysis and everything came back normal so we decided to try it and were prescribed Reconcile. I've noticed a lot of really great results just in his general personality. He was on 4mg at breakfast time and I noticed a difference in his sleeping habits (he finally slept, I used to hardly ever catch him sleeping,) he's more affectionate and purrs more and over all just seems much more playful. The inappropriate elimination didn't start to show signs of improvement until recently when my vet suggested we up the dose to giving him another 4mg at dinner time on a count of he is prone to a bit of stress colitis, so now he gets 8mg total for the day and he's started to completely fore-go the pee pads and hop into a litterbox 9 times out of 10 instead of the other way around.

So personally, I've noticed a great change with mine. I'm a 3 cat household with one outlier kitty who doesn't particularly like the two boys so there's clearly stress in the home as they all try to figure out how to co-exist. He does vocalize much more when he's bored or looking for something to do. I do hope that sometime in the future maybe he can be weened off it once he becomes more comfortable but I try to remind myself that it does appear to be working wonderfully for his general happiness.