Feliway and our dog.

[Carouselfish]

Situation:

New cat coming into house. Cleared his room. Plugged a feliway calm into his room and a feliway 'friends' into our original cats room.

Collie disappears from garden and can't be found for half an hour. Not usual.

Problem:
Collie (11yrs old, neutered male, has MDR1 gene) starts panting and looking with wild, white eye at the door leading to cat area. Goes off food. Wants to be outside ALL the time. Won't eat. Won't poop.
Next day, worse. Shaking in his bed. Panting.
Could it be the feliway? All internet hits say it doesn't affect dogs, so write this idea off. Worried he is in pain - maybe he ate something when he disappeared? Take to emergency vet.
Vet presses his spine at which point he almost bites her. Conclude it's a back injury. Maybe happened when missing. Not poisoned. Bloods normal. In pain ties with panting etc. Prescribes him mega painkillers and nerve pain injection. Seems a bit calmer but still weird eyed and not himself.
Back to vet the next day. Spine doesn't seem sensitive now. Tummy does. Maybe from not pooping? Prescribes laxatives. Squeezes anal glands.
At home still the same behaviour. Panting, rushing to the door, wild eyed staring. Not eating. Freaky look in eye like he's seen a ghost.
Back to vet's for urine sample as not drinking or peeing as usual. All fine medically, suggests psychological. £500 down.
Back home still the same, despite drugs. Door to cat area creaks a lot. Is he scared of creak? Seems to go extra nuts when door opens. Is he scared of new cat? Show him the cat. Neither of them bothered.

Finally. Finally. At end of guessing. We unplug the Feliways.

Ten minutes later, he stops panting.
Then he eats dinner.
Half an hour later - WE HAVE OUR NORMAL COLLIE BACK!!!!!!!

So. Feliway doesn't affect dogs. A line the vets also echoed. I think they need to add an EXCEPT CAROUSELDOG disclaimer.

Am so relieved he is back.
Moderately furious at £500.
Mind boggled by lack of online sources about this. Surely he can't be the only one?!!!!!!!

Just for clarification - entire day between showing him the cat and the unplugging - totally nuts all that time.
The only variable is the Feliway, We might do a test in a few weeks and plug them in when introducing the cats, just to prove it. Then again, that's too mean, isn't it?

Interesting.
Our collie has never seemed affected by Feliway.
I don’t think it’s cruel to try it again for a short while. Then you would definitely know.

Just because other dogs aren’t affected, doesn’t mean yours isn’t. I know a child who is allergic to garden peas. I mean, what are the odds? But still, there it is.

I know, but the advertising, the vets' knowledge - all hinges around it having no effect on dogs.
They need to have this information on their product.

Things never have an ‘effect’ until they do.

If your dog cleared up when the Feliway was unplugged and was clearly suffering before, I think you’d be cruel to try and plug it in again.

Dogs are like people - all are individual. Nothing is truly ‘dog/cat safe’ in the sense of 100% certainty it won’t negatively impact them.

Please don't plug it back in just to experiment - you saw it affect your collie - that should be enough.

There are lots of other calming sprays and plug ins you can get instead.