Cat Community Wisdom: Pet's anxiety meowt of control? 13+ Real-life stories of pawrents who put their cats on Prozac

4 hours ago 1
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    Has anyone had their cat put on prozac and did it make a difference?

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    georgethebarbarian One of my sisters cats is on Prozac and it actually helped immensely! So much less. anxious aggression.

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    EfficientAd9452 My boy ended up having a bad side effect so I wasn't able to get a good idea if it helped. There are other options if it doesn't work but let it take time, I think it can take like 6-8 weeks if I remember properly.

  • For our cat, it took even less time. We started to see the effects start around four weeks in, but the comment is ultimately correct - it does take a significant amount of time before you see the full effects on their purrsonality!

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    famous_zebra28 Both my cat and dog are on prozac and it put my cat's overgrooming into remission and my dog's separation anxiety is a lot better. It's definitely a big tool to have when this type of stuff goes on

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    Nyararagi-san I had a foster cat who went on Prozac for severe anxiety, and it helped immensely with it! Takes a few months to really take effect but it was like night and day with him

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    eseld My cat was put on Prozac for the last two years of his life. He was diagnosed with dementia. He had become aggressive at times with me when he had always been a very loving boy. He screamed

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    at times when he was normally quiet his entire life. Forgot where he was in the home. He would be snuggly with me then attack my face. The doctor said it happens to the best of cats and he was amazing. He lived to be 17.

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    gerbera-2021 Former vet tech. Prozac is excellent! Lately vets seem to jump on Gabapentin but Prozac is excellent long term and does not have a sedative effect. However, it takes about two weeks for it to start working.

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    Educational_Mess_998 My senior cat went on Prozac for over grooming. She was literally making herself blod. Once it had enough time to get to the right level in her system, it worked great. She was so much calmer and completely quit m lating herself.

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    It's a great dog when it works properly. I know not all animals have the wanted responses but it was great for us.

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    DutyAny8945 Prozac has helped my cat immensely with hyperesthesia.

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    Admirable_Lecture675 My mom's cat (now mine) was put on it when she was younger and it helped her a lot. She was less aggressive and ride lol. As she got older she didn't really need it as much.

  • Now that she's a Prozac girlie, she's much less fearful, which means much less fear-aggression. She may never be a “cuddler”, but she does seek us out more for attention when she's feeling anxious, as opposed to hiding away and staying in her “fear bubble”, as we like to call it.

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    Littlepotatoface Prozac works very, very well with anxious cats.

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    Debidollz Yes! My aunt's male cat was put on it and no longer sprays. He hates it but w

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    ca77ywumpus • 1d ago My last cat was on Prozac. She'd been peeing all over the house, even on the bed while we were sleeping. We tested for kidney & bladder stones, and she was perfectly healthy. The vet suggested we try

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    Prozac for anxiety, and it was almost miraculous. She stopped peeing outside of the litterbox entirely and her grooming became a lot less frenzied and excessive. She was on it for about 6 years, and seemed much happier.

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    She never got along with other animals, before or after starting the meds, but she seemed more relaxed and happy.

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    emo_sharks I've never been through this with a cat but I had an extremely anxious foster dog that I went through quite the medical journey with in terms of treating her anxiety.

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    In my experience, a lot of vets try prozac at 1 dose and then dont really know what to do from there. Prozac can absolutely help, but just like people, not every medication affects every dog or cat the

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    same way. Some work for some pets and some dont. Fingers crossed that prozac will just be the one and you'll get it first try. If not, absolutely ask your vet if you can either adjust the dose or wean off prozac and try a different ssri.

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    For my foster pup, prozac did nothing. She was on it for a full 8 weeks and I saw no changes. Eventually I got her to a specialist and we swapped to sertraline (aka zoloft) and that ended up being much better for

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    her, especially after fiddling with the dosage and adding some other dogs to her cktail lol (buspirone and clonidine, for anyone curious. The buspirone especially when combined with everything else

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    was the one that really made a big impact on her behavior, it was added last and a couple weeks after starting it she was so much more confident about trying new things it was insane). But I had multiple vets who only wanted to do prozac before we saw the specialist. So sometimes you have to advocate for your pet yourself.

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    And again hopefully prozac ends up being the right one for your kitty! It takes several weeks to take proper effect so give it a fair shake. I think it's like 4-6 weeks off the top of my head (it's been a while though...) but I'm sure your vet

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    told you this already lol. If after that time you're not seeing any changes then consider changing something with the medication itself. Sometimes just the dosage, sometimes to an entirely different dog. Anyway, good luck! Treating mental issues in pets can be

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    kinda difficult sometimes, my experience is that regular vets didnt know how to do it beyond the most basic treatment. And these are not like bad vets, they were otherwise great and very knowledgeable. It just seems to be a niche that veterinary schools generally dont cover in depth I think

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