My mother-in-law is going to stay several weeks at my house to recover from surgery (we still don't know how long she will be with us).
I have two cats (female and male) and they get along fine, but the male is really afraid of strangers. When guests come over, he always hides under the bed or under blankets and only comes out when they go away.
I thought about buying Feliway, but my house has an air ventilation system to control humidity and odors, so I don't think it will be very effective.
I've heard about calming collars as well, but I can only find the herbal ones where I live (I'm from Portugal). Have you ever tried them?
Since I live in a rural area, I let my cats go outside on weekends (during the day) when I'm at home. The male cat really loves the outdoors and does a lot of exercise. If I talk to my vet and give him any kind of anxiety medication during this period, will it be safe for him to go outside, or will he be too relaxed and not see dangers he would avoid in a normal state?
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Hi Jessica,
Feliway does make a calming collar, though if your kitty goes outside, I would be extremely careful with the collar. If it's only on the weekends that he goes out, I would remove the collar (I just never consider collars completely safe for outdoor cats, even with break-away features). Feliway also makes a spray, which can be applied to particular areas, perhaps that might be a good alternative to the diffuser.
As far as a sedative/anxiety medication goes, you can consider a short-acting one that works for 8-12 hours. That way, you could avoid giving it on the weekend when he goes out. Some examples could include gabapentin, trazodone, and alprazolam. The long-term anxiety medications like fluoxetine (prozac) and others like it don't usually cause so much in the way of drowsiness as long as they are started at properly low enough doses and only increased if needed. However, these can take up to 6 weeks to be fully effective. It wouldn't be a bad idea to discuss some of those choices with your vet. You may also find that given a full week or two your cat will adapt to your mother-in-law's presence and no longer consider her a stranger. That might be another reason to consider only a short-term medication, that way you could stop it if it's not longer needed. Longterm medications must be slowly weaned off.
Thank you so much for your reply! Feliway spray sounds like a good alternative. I will discuss short-term medication with my vet, if needed.
Thank you again, very helpful and informative 🙂