Quote: Laura Dobson

There is no way to test a cat for blood pressure so we put her on bp pills and here now almost a year later she has never went outside her litter box. Who would have known.

Actually, the vet I work at has a bp machine thats pretty accurate. Within the last month I had to get a cats bp to see if it had decreased with the meds it was on... and the bp was!

Molly is on cortisone tablets for a flea allergy. She's fairly easy to give pills to. I just play around with her until she goes to chomp on me and then throw the pill in and hold her mouth shut till she swallows. Medicating the cats is another matter. Long term medication for them causes a lot of blood loss. My blood. I'd hate to have to give them medicine long term. They come from a long line of feral barn cats and are not your normal docile little kitties.

Prozac is an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) which is a culprit in many brain based behavior problems. While the problem might be chronic due to a chemical imbalance in the brain. Brain based behavior problems are often expressed as anxiety and the person or animal will relieve the anxiety by a compulsive activity. The activity doesn't matter. It's just there to relieve the anxiety and it can change over time. For example someone obsessed with hand washing can sometimes become obsessed with counting things like ceiling or floor tiles.

In the field of psychology abnormal behavior isn't considered clinical until it affects the quality of life, poses a danger to the patient or others. So if a dog or cat has for example a brain based anxiety related habit such as chasing it's tail for 30 seconds or so if it gets excited that isn't considered a problem even though it is abnormal and/or compulsive. If however the dog starts chewing on it's tail until it bleeds or chasing it non stop to the point of exhaustion then the problem becomes clinical.

Reduce the anxiety with medications and the person or animal can be taught a less destructive outlet for the anxiety. It doesn't mean that the anxiety isn't still there once the medication is removed but it can then be expressed in the new less destructive way.


Edited by Matt Wyrick (07/09/2008 08:06 PM)
Edit reason: spelling

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

Did the vet mention what he suspected? I can't grasp what the idea was (although obviously he was correct and successful).

Well, I had just moved into a new house about a month before it started. I'm sure that probably had something to do with it.