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- Sep 30, 2015
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hey yall! firstly, i have 10+ years experience working with/owning cats. I'm more well versed on animal nutrition, health and behavior than the average person but I'm still at a loss with my cat. She is 5 years old, completely blind, and spayed. She had her eyes removed at 6 months old and is extremely well adapted. After we moved she began to display a lot of anxiety and fearful behavior with my male cat who she has always lived with and got along with well. They were best friends and I used to joke that my boy cat was her emotional support animal because he was always with her since I was fostering her and all throughout her healing process after her surgery. Her anxiety got so bad that she would actually lash out at him in defense, even if he wasn't doing anything to her. He would just walk by her and she would swat at him, hissing and growling. We tired EVERYTHING. Private behaviorist, supplements, feliway, separating and reintroducing, hiding boxes, calming music, vertical space, you name it. It was so bad at one point that my partner and I couldn't move if she was in bed with us because she would get so scared and frantic, we thought maybe she thought us moving was my boy cat and she would hiss and growl and jump off the bed and try to hide, even when he was not in the room with us! But when we would pick her up or pet her she would be fine and act normal again. We ended up having to move a second time. (first move was 2020 second was 2021) It got way worse when we moved the second time and we finally put her on fluoxetine which was a night and day change. I wish we had started it sooner honestly. She went back to almost completely normal. She never went back to being best friends with my boy cat but she could be in the same room with him and sleep in our bed with him without issues. It's been mostly fine for the last three years with the occasional hissing and growling if my boy cat tried to play with her.
Now however, it seems like the fluoxetine is wearing off. It's not as affective and shes starting to hiss and growl at him way more frequently, on a daily basis. She's hissing at me and my partner now too again. Whenever she gets upset and is hissing at my boy cat, one of us gets up to get her and calm her down but she hears our foot steps and begins to run away in a panic and bumps into shit which makes her even more frantic. We try to be as calm as possible and say her name really softly and not get angry with her but idk it's like she thinks WERE my boy cat coming after her? Once I pick her up she is a baby again though it's so strange. And she will still lick my boy cat randomly? She will go over to him and begin to groom him but then after a few seconds she stops and hisses suddenly at him. I've observed them do this time and time again. No ones body language changes, my boy cat wont be moving, sometimes he's sleeping when shes grooming him and she just out of nowhere starts hissing. And I am not usually one to say an animal "did something out of nowhere" because most of the time, almost always, animals give us a lot of signs, but Luna is like a switch flipping on and off suddenly...
Aside from this she seems like a really happy normal cat. She plays, eats, cuddles, purrs, grooms herself, and follows me around the house like a shadow. We also have a dog and she is not scared of the dog the same way at ALL.
I consulted my vet and he said we could take her off fluoxetine and switch her to amitriptyline, but I'm worried weaning her off fluoxetine is going to be really really bad. And worried that amitriptyline wont be affective. I have another vet who says we could do amitriptyline and fluoxetine at the same time? But I can't find anything about this online. I don't want to do something that is going to make her worse or accidentally cause an overdose or something.
Details: shes on 5mg of fluoxetine, weights about 8-9 pounds. I am home with the animals almost always. i leave the house maybe 1-2 a week, sometimes more but majority of the time im home with them. whenever no one is home, luna goes in her own room. we have a spare bedroom and she has her own litter box, she eats in there separate from my boy cat who eats on a separate floor, a cat tower, a bed, and plenty of toys. she is never alone unsupervised with my boy cat. We think maybe she might have some sort of head trauma that MIGHT be contributing to this? The only reason we think this is because she bumps into things due to her blindness? When she had the surgery to remove her eyes she had a lot of weird behaviors like head tilting, walking in circles and being stuck in loops, wanting her eye sockets pushed.... things that are usually indicative of a stroke. We have not gotten a CAT scan or MRI for her though because my vet said even if we did find out she had a stroke, there isn't really anything they can do about it? She had her eyes removed due to having corneal ulcers that ruptured and damaged her eyes to the point where she couldnt see and they were very painful for her.
any help or advice or other folks experiences would be welcome! thanks everyone. I am willing to do anything to help her. right now we have to just put her in her bedroom when she gets like this because she is so frantic and upset. I do not like having to put her away though because she is such a people cat and loves being with us. but i also dont want to put my boy cat away either because he is almost 15 and is having weird urinary issues.
Also Luna has been to a vet recently, she's had blood work done within the last sicks months and everything is normal. She has no other issues that we know of.
forgot to add, i have posted a few times about luna's situation prior to her being on fluoxetine if reading those posts would be helpful/give more insight.
also toulouse my boy cat has had urinary issues on and off since he was four years old and had issues multiple times in the two years he and luna lived together well. the fear and anxiety did not happen till we moved and i think that is the biggest factor her. i know animals pretty well and i really do not think her fear/anxiety is due to his health problems. another reason i think this is because i had a third cat and she was anxious and fearful of this one too and this one did not have any health issues. i rehomed her to my old partner since we had gotten her together
Now however, it seems like the fluoxetine is wearing off. It's not as affective and shes starting to hiss and growl at him way more frequently, on a daily basis. She's hissing at me and my partner now too again. Whenever she gets upset and is hissing at my boy cat, one of us gets up to get her and calm her down but she hears our foot steps and begins to run away in a panic and bumps into shit which makes her even more frantic. We try to be as calm as possible and say her name really softly and not get angry with her but idk it's like she thinks WERE my boy cat coming after her? Once I pick her up she is a baby again though it's so strange. And she will still lick my boy cat randomly? She will go over to him and begin to groom him but then after a few seconds she stops and hisses suddenly at him. I've observed them do this time and time again. No ones body language changes, my boy cat wont be moving, sometimes he's sleeping when shes grooming him and she just out of nowhere starts hissing. And I am not usually one to say an animal "did something out of nowhere" because most of the time, almost always, animals give us a lot of signs, but Luna is like a switch flipping on and off suddenly...
Aside from this she seems like a really happy normal cat. She plays, eats, cuddles, purrs, grooms herself, and follows me around the house like a shadow. We also have a dog and she is not scared of the dog the same way at ALL.
I consulted my vet and he said we could take her off fluoxetine and switch her to amitriptyline, but I'm worried weaning her off fluoxetine is going to be really really bad. And worried that amitriptyline wont be affective. I have another vet who says we could do amitriptyline and fluoxetine at the same time? But I can't find anything about this online. I don't want to do something that is going to make her worse or accidentally cause an overdose or something.
Details: shes on 5mg of fluoxetine, weights about 8-9 pounds. I am home with the animals almost always. i leave the house maybe 1-2 a week, sometimes more but majority of the time im home with them. whenever no one is home, luna goes in her own room. we have a spare bedroom and she has her own litter box, she eats in there separate from my boy cat who eats on a separate floor, a cat tower, a bed, and plenty of toys. she is never alone unsupervised with my boy cat. We think maybe she might have some sort of head trauma that MIGHT be contributing to this? The only reason we think this is because she bumps into things due to her blindness? When she had the surgery to remove her eyes she had a lot of weird behaviors like head tilting, walking in circles and being stuck in loops, wanting her eye sockets pushed.... things that are usually indicative of a stroke. We have not gotten a CAT scan or MRI for her though because my vet said even if we did find out she had a stroke, there isn't really anything they can do about it? She had her eyes removed due to having corneal ulcers that ruptured and damaged her eyes to the point where she couldnt see and they were very painful for her.
any help or advice or other folks experiences would be welcome! thanks everyone. I am willing to do anything to help her. right now we have to just put her in her bedroom when she gets like this because she is so frantic and upset. I do not like having to put her away though because she is such a people cat and loves being with us. but i also dont want to put my boy cat away either because he is almost 15 and is having weird urinary issues.
Also Luna has been to a vet recently, she's had blood work done within the last sicks months and everything is normal. She has no other issues that we know of.
forgot to add, i have posted a few times about luna's situation prior to her being on fluoxetine if reading those posts would be helpful/give more insight.
also toulouse my boy cat has had urinary issues on and off since he was four years old and had issues multiple times in the two years he and luna lived together well. the fear and anxiety did not happen till we moved and i think that is the biggest factor her. i know animals pretty well and i really do not think her fear/anxiety is due to his health problems. another reason i think this is because i had a third cat and she was anxious and fearful of this one too and this one did not have any health issues. i rehomed her to my old partner since we had gotten her together