Cat anxiety meds

[HereLiesBetelgeuse]

I've got an extremely anxious 3 year old spayed female outdoor cat.
She's always been timid and skittish but I feel it's getting worse and it's almost impossible for her to settle down and do anything.
If she's home and hears the slightest noise she either shoots under the nearest bed/sofa or out the cat flap like a bat out of hell.

Over the last year I have tried changing her diet to raw food instead of mass produced food (I read somewhere that certain brands were believed to cause anxious behaviour) and tried the plug in things and nothing has made a difference.
I'm now at the point of thinking about medication for her.

At the moment she is so stressed all the time she barely has any quality of life. She hides outside most of the day as she's too nervous of the noise of the house. She never manages a full meal in one and she just dashes off out the cat flap at the slightest noise. She also doesn't appear to sleep as deeply as my other (extremely laid back cat) and it's like she can't switch off.

Does anyone have their cat on long term anxiety medication? I assume I need a prescription from the vet and then I either order online or from the vets?

Looking for an idea of rough costs of prescription meds and any success stories?

Have you tried pet remedy? I found it quite effective for my anxious cat. More effective than feliway.

Hi, no I haven't tried that one. The problem I have now is I don't think any kind of plug in diffuser would work as she doesn't spend long enough in the house for it to have any effect. When I tried the Feliway last year she was in a lot more but now she's only really coming in for food and pretty much living outside.

Have you spoken to your vet about referral to a behaviourist - there are specialist feline behaviourists.

You can rub it into their ear. My friends groomer does this and it calms the car immediately. Or you can get zykelene capsules that you sprinkle in food. It's supposed to be the equivalent of a mug of horrible at bedtime.

You could try something like yucalm from lintbells or scull cap and valerian/valerian compound from dorwest herbs, these are all oral treatments and non prescription.

Otherwise speak to your vet about prescription medication, though they will want to do a physical examination to check for signs of Ill health and may suggest a behaviourist input.

Also, try to adapt her environment to increase her sense of safety, think about how she moves through the house to access resources (food/water bowls/beds/access to outdoors etc) and whether there may be scary things en route, whether that is low grade tension with another animal in the house, a small child, a big patio door with a cat staring at her from outside etc.

make sure she isn't being expected to share litter trays/beds with other cats or feels exposed to toilet or eat. Cats generally like to be able to move quietly and do things privately, also high up spaces to retreat where they feel safer. Try to limit loud or unexpected noises if possible (eg putting plates in dishwasher or allowing doors to bang) and allow all her inter-actions with humans to be gentle and initiated by her.

Just popped a PM over with some info that might help OP.

I've ordered some Pet Remedy spray to try.

Her food is directly next to the cat flap now as she won't come any further into the house.
She gets on well with the other cat and they often are outside hanging around together...until someone walks past then shes off.
She will run away from me in the street and would never come if shouted.

She doesn't like our dog but she's been like this since before he came. It's a fairly busy house with kids and is generally noisy all the time. She does like to sleep in my daughter's bed but it's a challenge for her to navigate the house to get upstairs.

Even from a kitten she was never the lap cat type, wouldn't sit on your knee.

I'll try the pet remedy first before the vet. It would be a logistical nightmare to get her to the vet as she only comes in the house at 6am and 6pm. She also hates the vet and went bananas having her jabs, two staff to get the needle in and both were bleeding by the end.

Poor cat, it does sound like the house is stressful for her. How old are your children? Are things likely to quieten down a bit in the years to come?

My rescue cat comes from a house where there were children and a dog - it was too much for her and she became terribly anxious and spent most of her time outside. Now she lives in my quiet flat with just me and is very happy and affectionate. It may be worth thinking about if you know anyone with a quieter household who could look after your cat for a while and see if she became more relaxed.

My cat is very similar to yours OP. She overgrooms because of anxiety. We've seen the vet a few times about it, and they were adamant that feliway was the best/right course of action.

We did try a short course of steroids, which helped with the grooming, but she started again after a while.

The vet said the only thing was to remove the cause of stress, but we have no idea what it is! I assume it's another cat, but keeping ours in just stresses her out more.

I think she had a very bad start in life (was 3 when we got her), and I'm not sure she'll ever get over that.