Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Prozac Nation


As planned, we took Kitters to the vet today. I LOVE our vet. She listened to our concerns and believed us when we told her about the redirected aggression, even though Kitters spent every second that he wasn't being examined cowering in my arms, one front paw over my shoulder, his head in the crook of my elbow, and his body tucked as close to mine as he could get. He was the very picture of abject pitiful cuddliness. Little shit.

The vet said that our best initial options would be to try Feliway, a pheromone plug-in diffuser, or to start him on Prozac (not making that up, I promise). The two options were close to the same price, with the Feliway costing a little bit more but getting extra credit for not requiring that half of a small pill be crammed down the cat's throat every day. We decided to give the Feliway a try, but went ahead and had the pre-Prozac bloodwork done, in case the Feliway doesn't work. He was going to have to get a slightly less exhaustive blood workup done in July anyway when he goes in to have his teeth cleaned, so we figured we might as well just get the whole screen done now in case he needs meds.

The Feliway diffuser has been purchased and installed, so cross your fingers that it will help Kitters find his happy place. The diffuser insert is supposed to last four weeks, and his dental appointment is in four weeks, so I figure unless he gets really tantrum-y before then, we'll probably just give this a month before we decide about the Prozac. As a bonus, I found out that for an extra $5, the techs will comb out Kitters's coat while he's under sedation for his teeth, and should be able to take care of the mats. Score! That is SO worth five bucks.

Anyhow, many many many thanks to all of you for your well wishes and kind words. They really did help!



8 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:15 AM

    I'm so glad you have a sweet vet. AND kitty prozac, that's classic!

    xo

    Great pic, btw.

    (My evil rabbits are also snuggly at the vet.. go figure..)

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  2. Feliway really helped our cats adjust to the new house and living with my husband and his 2 dogs - we noticed a difference right away. I have an extra diffuser (we didn't need it after the first month) if you need it (somewhere in this mess?). If not I've known cats on prozac and they were night and day compared to before it.

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  3. You know... that would always drive us crazy when we'd go to the vet. My cat had an attitude, and it would take no less than 3 people to shove his little 6lb body into the cat carrier and most times someone was bleeding by the end of it (he was like an octopus with claws trying to stay out of the carrier).

    At the vet? Polite as can be. Had to be dumped out of the carrier and then would scurry in without any fuss at the end of the visit.

    Hope Kitters is feeling better! Maybe need to rearrange some house plants to get his feng shui all in allignment ;)

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  4. Anonymous9:40 AM

    Glad to hear it! I was thinking about you guys yesterday.

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  5. I meant to ask when I stopped by; feeling a little dumbass-ish for not asking. Anyway, glad you have some good options to try.

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  6. That's a super cool offer, Heather. :) Drop me an email if you stumble across your other diffuser, but don't go out of your way to search for it if you don't want to...I'd feel bad!

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  7. We put our cat on Prozac due to his recently developed need to talk constantly to us first thing in the morning (starting when the sun comes up before the alarm goes off).

    He's much better now. Still very chatty at other times, but now much more likely to sleep in than tell us about his night. Phew.

    BTW, if you can bring yourself to step foot in the store, generic Prozac is on the W@l-M*rt $4 prescription list. So cheap!

    (I'm a some time stalker; linked here from Alyndabear)

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  8. I am SO late in lettin gyou know but I am so freaking happy to hear this. xoxoxoxoxoxo

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