On Thu 15 Dec 2005 03:46:52p, JB wrote in rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
):

Some of you may remember that I posted quite a while ago about
one of my kitties, Buck, who has occasionally displayed
heat-like behaviour in spite of having been spayed. Well, after
some examination and discussion, the vet suggested it could
simply be a symptom of anxiety, and when I thought about that,
it did occur to me that she's always been a fairly anxious cat.
Apparently the fact that she's "in heat" during the winter is
kind of a giveaway, since I'm told that's not supposed to
happen. So the vet prescribed amitriptyline (aka Elavil) and
recommended a Feliway diffuser. After a month of daily
amitriptyline (10mg), she's down to every other day. She was
pretty whacked out on the daily, not really ever playing or
interacting with the other cats, though she seemed to be
adjusting toward the end of the daily doses and at least wanted
attention from me. I'm very happy with the every-other-day
schedule--now she's back to chasing paper balls and washing
Jimmer's face, even if only every other day. If she doesn't
have any more problems on this schedule, she could get cut back
to a couple times per week. Hard to say how things will go
long-term, but if I can keep her reasonably playful and not
acting goofy with a minimum of pilling, I'll be happy enough.

Other stuff at the forefront of things is the integration of the
new guy, Jungle Jack, whom I posted about early last month. His
big day was a week before US Thanksgiving: snip, chip, baseline
workup, FIV/FeLV test, and 2nd PCRP. He got to come home the
same day, so he was very groggy and wobbly, kept falling over
when he tried to walk. But he was pretty much as good as new
within three days or so.

Since a couple weeks after the snip, he's been acting better
towards the other cats, no more of the not backing down when
hissed at or taking an unnecessary interest in one of the cats
going out of his sight. It probably helps, too, that the others
aren't quite so growly/hissy any more, though they still do if
Jack gets too close. I'm his only playmate, so I feel bad for
him. And when he's not in his room, which is whenever I'm home
and awake, he "can't" come cuddle because the other cats are
usually already with me, and he's very cautious about getting
too near them. Jimmer usually just hisses and growls; Grizzly
will sometimes cautiously exchange a nose-sniff with Jack, but
then she either backs away suddenly or hisses/growls; and if
Buck is lying just off Jack's path as he chases after the Kitty
Kong I throw for him, she'll sometimes jump out and swat at him.
Still, he wants to make friends--he keeps trying to entice
Jimmer into chasing him. Until things become more harmonious, I
just have to make sure he gets some "daddy" time and good
playtime away from the other cats every day. Ah, well, it
hasn't been that long, really, only a couple weeks since I've
been letting him out a lot. And I'm probably spoiled by the 3-4
weeks it took Jimmer to completely accept Grizzly and Buck when
they came along. But things are basically good and seem to be
improving little by little, so I'm not too concerned overall.

Just four new pics of the jungle kitty since the last time I
posted about him:

http://web.mr-happy.com/~jfb/randompics/couchcats.jpg (not in an
album yet) http://web.mr-happy.com/~jfb/ablum/pets/jack07.jpg
http://web.mr-happy.com/~jfb/ablum/pets/jack08.jpg
http://web.mr-happy.com/~jfb/ablum/p...er-jack-01.jpg

The last two were also posted to abpa recently. The first one I
basically took out of surprise at seeing a sleeping cat so close
to Jack. (All three were zonked when I came upon them.)

Pictures of all my cats can be found at
http://web.mr-happy.com/~jfb/ablum/pets/ , should anyone be so
inclined.

Jeff


Hi Jeff. I will look at the pics later as I've had the week from
hell, but wanted to write you about what you wrote. I'm so glad
Buck is helped with the drug therapy. Please be careful about
cutting back to every other day, or worse, every third day. I tried
that with Shamrock. He's not on Elavil, but Clomicalm. Still, mood
changing drug. Come to find out, it can cause severe problems if
these types of drugs aren't in the body's system at a consistant
rate. If trying to cut back the dose, cut back the daily dose
rather than skip a day or two. Shamrock totally freaked out on me
on day after being on every other day Clomicalm. It was in the
morning one day, and I had to put him downstairs by himself because
I had to leave for work and I was worried about my other three
because of how he was acting. I didn't have time to figure out what
was bothering him. When I got home 10 hours later, and let him out
of downstairs (fully finished living area with plenty of windows
and doors) he was under my feet every step I made, crying, and
acted as if I had punished him, and he was desparate for
forgiveness. He was a total mess. After that, I went back to daily
Clomicalm but just started cutting the dose by minor degrees. He
hasn't had that type of day since.

--
Cheryl