Would an SSRI help?

[NewKitty18]

A few months ago we took in an adult cat (about 6yo, neutered when he was an adult but well before we got him) who had been sort of an outdoor/stray cat most of his life. There's a thread about him in strays and ferals with more background.

He has adapted very well to being an indoor-only cat, and is quite attached to me. He's much less fearful than he was, but there are some behavioral issues that suggest to me that he's anxious, and I'm wondering if an SSRI would help. The two main issues, which are likely related, are 1) he appears fearful of our other three cats, and 2) he almost never leaves our upstairs, which is basically just our bedroom. We approached introductions very slowly, and we aren't seeing any concerning aggression, but it's pretty common for him to do a lot of posturing and sort of chase them off. We suspect that he was the odd man out when he was still a stray. He'd get chased off by other cats a lot of the time, often the last to eat, etc. So we suspect his behavior now is a way to maintain what has become his safe space: our bedroom.

We are seeing gradual progress. One of our other cats who used to sleep with us has started doing so again, but the new cat has moved back to sleeping under the bed in response. And the new cat only goes downstairs to the rest of our house when it's close to mealtime. And when he's down there he's very skittish.

Does this sound like something an SSRI might help with? We've tried gabapentin and it definitely chills him out, but it also makes him so sleepy and it's very temporary.

 

[ArtNJ]

I may be biased because when I was a practicing lawyer, I defended drug companies for a living. But my take is this: even safe drugs have a nasty list of potential side effects. For example, did you know that statins can literally cause your flesh to fall off? That is called Stevens Johnson syndrome, a very rare side effect of a bunch of different drugs, including statins. My uncle actually got it. Anyway, there are a LOT of rare but highly problematic adverse effects. The laundry list of nasty stuff mentioned in drug commercials isn't just for show, and that isn't all of the rare possible problems either. My strong advice is to only take non-OTC drugs when a doctor tells you the benefits outweigh the risks, and after personally thinking about whether that is really true. And I would approach medicating a cat the same way.

I think that general guidance is relevant here, because your cat is not doing that badly in the scheme of things, and he is making progress on his own, albeit very slowly. SSRIs are not particularly dangerous drugs in humans, and it seems they aren't particularly dangerous in cats either. Much like statins aren't generally dangerous. You get the analogy I'm sure.

I think SSRIs should be considered when a cat just can't integrate and there is a risk of violence or severe anxiety causing problems like hot spots, not eating, etc. From what I'm hearing, I think your well short of that, so personally I wouldn't do it. Again, I may be biased, but that is my take on it.

 

[Alldara]

Time and patience if you are seeing gradual progress.


I agree that medications like that are usually a last resort.

Have you tried Feliway Multicat?

Also I suggest taking a short you've worn and petting each cat with the same part of it and then running it along the baseboards of your home.