Major cat anxiety help

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Mochiandme

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My opinion for what it's worth and as a Gabapentin user is that calming treats are not going to help at all in this instance (if at all)

Gabapentin has a very specific amount for best effectiveness. As I already said, 100 mg is the standard for adult cats unless one uses it daily in which case I've heard people say they use smaller amounts.

However, for a one shot kind of thing like going to the vet 100 mg is the most effective amount. And even that sometimes won't work - our girl was so anxious once that it didn't do a thing for her which our vet confirmed is a possibility. Probably also because she had eaten a full meal before we dosed her.

We tried doing 50 mg and 75 mg and neither helped at all but the 100 mg is perfect. I only use the liquid type, not pills so I don't know if that makes a difference.

Any vet should be able to dose the cat properly for their age/weight/size.
Yes the vet had the weight on the bottle. But liquid sounds so much better. I was given pills for her. I will definitely ask for the liquid one next time. Thank you.
 
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Mochiandme

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I tried gabapentin for the first time for this purpose very recently--to keep my cat calmer during a vet visit. It was like a miracle. My cat gets so freaked out and stressed by the car trip and the vet visit. She seems very sensitive to the sedative/drowsiness effect of gabapentin, so I gave her 50 mg about 2 hours before we needed to leave for the vet appointment. I have never seen my cat so calm in the car before. She didn't even meow. I was so relieved, and I wish I had known about this earlier.
Me too lol. It was a long day for her the first time in the er vet but I’m glad I wrote a thread and have so many helpful cat lovers trying to find a solution for Luna’s anxiety.
 
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Mochiandme

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You can put Bach Flower Remedy directly in her water, since she does drink water. Try it. She may or may not tolerate that.
Feliway spray is preferred here. I had to airlift cats internationally. It was a 100-mile journey from our home to the airport, partly over sand and boulder road. We lined each carrier with clean foam (bought from a big-box store, often used in pillows) and I sprayed each with Feliway. They did not meow once during the journey (no tranquilizers) and they arrived cool, calm and collected after the flight. I'm sure I was much more stressed than they seemed to be. And they had never been on an airplane before.
We have NaturVet Quiet Moments Calming Aid plus Melatonin "tasty soft chews" "calming aids" "Helps Reduce Stress and Tension" "Promotes Rest and Relaxation" bought at Petco. To be honest, I'm not sure how effective it is. It was put in my cart and I paid for it by mistake. My cats have really never been high strung. But you might try these treats given as directed. Quiet Moments® Cat Soft Chew - NaturVet
Thank you for the suggestions! I will definitely try them all but not all at once and see what’s best for lil Luna.
 

danteshuman

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I would try calming music or soft music. I know we can’t talk politics in the car or Jackie gets upset. In the past I played soft classical mysic on the way to the vet.

Jackie wouldn’t eat the calming treats. Maybe you can try a liquid version instead?
 

danteshuman

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Oh and Cami (mom’s cat) is really nervous in the car. I keep telling my mom to drug her up before the car trip.

However not feeding her any wet food 6 hours ahead of her trip & no dry food 3 hours before really helped the poor dear not throw up in the car in her crate.
 
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Mochiandme

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I would try calming music or soft music. I know we can’t talk politics in the car or Jackie gets upset. In the past I played soft classical mysic on the way to the vet.

Jackie wouldn’t eat the calming treats. Maybe you can try a liquid version instead?
I will try the music every chance possible. Thank you. I will definitely try the calming treats as well!
 
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Mochiandme

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Oh and Cami (mom’s cat) is really nervous in the car. I keep telling my mom to drug her up before the car trip.

However not feeding her any wet food 6 hours ahead of her trip & no dry food 3 hours before really helped the poor dear not throw up in the car in her crate.
Yes I won’t be feeding her before the trip anymore. I know it makes her thirsty and probably makes her feel terrible as well. Thank you.
 

TardisDance

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Reading this thread and it’s interesting that 100 mg is standard. I just brought Sango today to the vet after a huge stressful battle. She ran into her cat cave, so I thought it would be easy enough to basically purrito her and drop her into our top loading carrier. She clawed me, ran around the room after trying to grab her several times. When I finally got ahold of her, she peed on me, clawed and then nearly bit me. This is the first time she’s tried to bite and pee on me, but she fights me hard on nail trims. I was wearing grooming gloves and she actually clawed my hand right through them! I told the vet and she prescribed liquid gabapentin at 250 mg/5 ml. I’m supposed to put it in her wet food the night before and the morning of vet visits and nail trims.
 
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Mochiandme

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Reading this thread and it’s interesting that 100 mg is standard. I just brought Sango today to the vet after a huge stressful battle. She ran into her cat cave, so I thought it would be easy enough to basically purrito her and drop her into our top loading carrier. She clawed me, ran around the room after trying to grab her several times. When I finally got ahold of her, she peed on me, clawed and then nearly bit me. This is the first time she’s tried to bite and pee on me, but she fights me hard on nail trims. I was wearing grooming gloves and she actually clawed my hand right through them! I told the vet and she prescribed liquid gabapentin at 250 mg/5 ml. I’m supposed to put it in her wet food the night before and the morning of vet visits and nail trims.
I'm sorry about your cat troubles! Interesting name, it wouldn't be from Inuyasha would it? Luna is smallish 9lbs so maybe that's why? I'm definitely asking for the liquid next time lol. I don't nail trim any of my 8 cats lol they would kill me. They have many scratch boards and 1.5 cat trees. I know the scratch boards are messy but maybe it can help with less trips/stress?
 

TardisDance

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It’s from Inuyasha. LOL the vet techs kept saying her name like it rhymes with mango and I’m tired of correcting them! She started at 7.6 lbs. and weighed in at 9.7 lbs this time. Unfortunately I think she’s horrified of the grooming gloves I wear to grab her but if I don’t wear them, I get really scratched up. It’s been getting worse and worse. I am hoping she is knocked down enough that nails can be trimmed while she is sleeping. I’ve tried before with sleeping and she is way too alert and she runs.
 

danteshuman

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TardisDance normally there is a long process of trial & error before people recommend mood stabilizers for the cat. However in your case I would ask the vet about it. Prozacc takes weeks to start working so plan on at least 2 months to get it to the right dosage/get in his system. They make prozac cream.

I would also work in training your cat to be picked up, every day. Do what they do for feral cats. (Maybe sit next to her first) Lift under her ribs, raising just her front paws for a second , lower her paws back to the ground & immediately give her her favorite treats you have right next to you. You can gradually over the next year get her to used to being picked up & for longer.

I had one cat that didn’t like being picked up. So I picked him up, walked a few steps, put him down & gave him some treats every day for months until he just got used to it. Then again I never needed protective body wear with my cat. So I would take it very slowly and patiently with your cat.
 
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It’s from Inuyasha. LOL the vet techs kept saying her name like it rhymes with mango and I’m tired of correcting them! She started at 7.6 lbs. and weighed in at 9.7 lbs this time. Unfortunately I think she’s horrified of the grooming gloves I wear to grab her but if I don’t wear them, I get really scratched up. It’s been getting worse and worse. I am hoping she is knocked down enough that nails can be trimmed while she is sleeping. I’ve tried before with sleeping and she is way too alert and she runs.
I can definitely see the name struggle lol. I would use the gloves around the house because I think she knows it’s grooming time when those come out. It seems silly but it’ll be almost like a surprise attack for grooming if you show them more often. Maybe feed treats out of the gloves so that way the gloves aren’t associated negatively or pet her in the gloves. Sango from inuyasha is a strong fighter so I’m sure your Sango is too!
 

TardisDance

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danteshuman danteshuman , I think the vet nearly prescribed Prozac when I told her what happened when bringing her to the office. The vet called her feral when I explained her hoarding past. However, once I told her how much progress she’s made, she decided that high dosage gabapentin is only needed for vet visits/nail trims only. She really is a sweet cat, but she turns into a banshee when being handled.

M Mochiandme , I may give this a try in a week or so once she’s had time to calm down. She’s even running away from me as soon as I put on jeans (I wore jeans when I put her in the carrier). I think part of the issue is that she can read how anxious I am about handling her and always knows something is up. I think I could use some gabapentin too!

Unfortunately, she needs to go back to the vet again for a teeth cleaning and will probably need to have 1 or more teeth extracted.
I seriously doubt I can give her the gabapentin for this because she’ll need an empty stomach and the vet said to mix the liquid in her wet food. Maybe I can drop her off the night before? I need to call the vet tomorrow to setup the appointment and hope I get her within a few weeks. Her nails were trimmed on Friday so at least she won’t be able to claw me as bad!
 

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M Mochiandme Have you tried putting Luna's carrier in different places in the car? None of my cats are difficult to get to the vet, but I do take them on long trips going to cat shows. One guy yells at me the whole time if he can see me, so his carrier has to go directly behind my seat. Another kitty cries if she can't see out, so her carrier goes in the middle of the back seat where she can look between the front seats to see out the windshield.
 
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Mochiandme

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danteshuman danteshuman , I think the vet nearly prescribed Prozac when I told her what happened when bringing her to the office. The vet called her feral when I explained her hoarding past. However, once I told her how much progress she’s made, she decided that high dosage gabapentin is only needed for vet visits/nail trims only. She really is a sweet cat, but she turns into a banshee when being handled.

M Mochiandme , I may give this a try in a week or so once she’s had time to calm down. She’s even running away from me as soon as I put on jeans (I wore jeans when I put her in the carrier). I think part of the issue is that she can read how anxious I am about handling her and always knows something is up. I think I could use some gabapentin too!

Unfortunately, she needs to go back to the vet again for a teeth cleaning and will probably need to have 1 or more teeth extracted.
I seriously doubt I can give her the gabapentin for this because she’ll need an empty stomach and the vet said to mix the liquid in her wet food. Maybe I can drop her off the night before? I need to call the vet tomorrow to setup the appointment and hope I get her within a few weeks. Her nails were trimmed on Friday so at least she won’t be able to claw me as bad!
That’s good that her nails were just trimmed but definitely changing things every time she has to go to the vet will help. I hope things aren’t too bad with her teeth appointment!
 
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Mochiandme

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M Mochiandme Have you tried putting Luna's carrier in different places in the car? None of my cats are difficult to get to the vet, but I do take them on long trips going to cat shows. One guy yells at me the whole time if he can see me, so his carrier has to go directly behind my seat. Another kitty cries if she can't see out, so her carrier goes in the middle of the back seat where she can look between the front seats to see out the windshield.
That’s really interesting. I haven’t thought of that. I thought her seeing me would help her anxiety but it could be making her more anxious. Thank you!
 

TardisDance

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That’s good that her nails were just trimmed but definitely changing things every time she has to go to the vet will help. I hope things aren’t too bad with her teeth appointment!
The vet said I can give her gabapentin mixed with a small amount of food the night before and if I can, the morning of the vet visit as long as it’s not too much food. I have to drop her off between 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. on April 5th. This is very early for me so I may just try a feeding late night before the appt. She’s only been eating a quarter of a 3 oz. can per meal since the vet visit and barely even that (she favors dry food and even with that, she picks at it a little bit). I feed her wet food twice daily. She has a small wound on her cheek bone, so the vet thinks she’s pawing at an infected tooth.

I asked about trying it out on her in before this visit and the vet said go ahead. I may try a 1/2 cc since 250 mg seems so high and see how she reacts. I’m hoping her appetite gets better first before I try this so she actually ingests it.
 
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The vet said I can give her gabapentin mixed with a small amount of food the night before and if I can, the morning of the vet visit as long as it’s not too much food. I have to drop her off between 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. on April 5th. This is very early for me so I may just try a feeding late night before the appt. She’s only been eating a quarter of a 3 oz. can per meal since the vet visit and barely even that (she favors dry food and even with that, she picks at it a little bit). I feed her wet food twice daily. She has a small wound on her cheek bone, so the vet thinks she’s pawing at an infected tooth.

I asked about trying it out on her in before this visit and the vet said go ahead. I may try a 1/2 cc since 250 mg seems so high and see how she reacts. I’m hoping her appetite gets better first before I try this so she actually ingests it.
Maybe the morning of you can give her a couple treats and then squirt the medicine in her mouth then a couple treats after. Usually 7/8 of my cats don’t fight me but if needed and if I’m by myself. I’ll grab the difficult one by the scruff and almost “sit” on them. My thighs keeps them from running from the sides and my butt keeps them from backing out while “sitting” on them and holding the scruff, lift the head and just syringe their mouth. Then I know Sango is a scratcher while still holding her scruff, quickly get up and release. She’ll hopefully run off and give her some treats. Or put her into her crate for vet transport. Unfortunately, if you miss the scruff they know somethings up and it’s a chase from there. Also, one of my cats doesn’t eat any wet food at all and I’ve tried a lot of different kinds. He gets treats as a meal (the spoiled brat) and has access to dry 24/7. Temptations just made a squirtable treat. Maybe you can put some on top of her food.
Hopefully that made sense but I don’t mind sharing a video.
 

TardisDance

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The gabapentin in Sango’s case is mainly to help her anxiety with being handled so putting it in food is a must. If I could handle her easily, there wouldn’t an issue. She was an abused cat from a hoarding situation. She thrashes violently while scruffed even when I try to restrain her legs and even jumped on the walls once! I think she can sense my anxiety and to make things worse she always knows what’s up because I have to use gloves now. She basically acts feral when handled. I just don’t want her to hurt herself and me!

I really, really hope she’ll eat her wet food with the gabapentin mixed in. I did some searching and it seems like I misunderstood the labeling. The liquid form is always sold as 250mg/5ml. Giving her 1 cc is a 50 mg dose so not so scary sounding!
 
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