Kitty Prozac

[shannashoff]

My 10 year old boy has always been somewhat temperamental but lately he has been downright aggressive for no obvious reason. He bites so hard, he draws blood. For example, one day I simply sat next to him on the couch and he lunged at me. He bit my daughters leg when she was walking past him...

I took him to the vet and they took blood. He said if the tests come back normal, he will prescribe Prozac. Has anyone had success with this? I cannot figure out what brought this on. There have been no changes - environment or food...

 

[tdonline]

Definitely go the extra mile to discover the reason behind the change in behavior.  It could be something so tiny that it is easy to miss.

Yes, prozac has worked for my cats. Long story short (check my post history for the long), my introvert cat freaked out when she saw another cat outside our home and redirected her aggression towards her sister.  One was put on prozac for aggression and the other for trauma and fear of her aggressive sister.  It worked and they were on prozac for about 7 months.  I weaned them off but the introvert aggressive cat was spooked one day and started beating up her sister again.  Back on prozac.  After a year, I weaned the beaten up sister off prozac recently.  She seems to be doing fine.  The introverted one who gets aggressive when spooked--she will be on prozac indefinitely.

She's always been easily frightened, but she would run and hide under the bed.  Ever since that sighting of the outside cat, her reaction to being scared is to lash out violently. And since I can't control what spooks her, I feel (and the vet agreed) a low dose of prozac is probably the best thing for her well-being.  I think the last time she got spooked was something as simple as the dropping of a utensil or dishware.  She gets 1.6mg every other day.  I also give my cats theanine.

My cats suffered from constipation from prozac--it was manageable after I lowered the dosage to 2.5mg every other day.

 

[shannashoff]

Thank you for your reply. Thankfully he's not aggressive with the other cats, but he did pick a fight with our 50 lb dog. The cat started hissing and growling at the dog - the dog was just laying in her bed. Then rhe cat swiped at the dog so I took him upstairs. Two minutes later the cat came down and lunged at the dog. The dog was stunned and just stood there. I hope we can find something that works so we can all live peacefully again.