Feliway diffuser: Did it help your cats?

[happybird]

It arrived from Amazon today!

I have big hopes for integrating our one guy with FHS and related anxiety/OCD issues into the cat herd. All previous attempts have failed, both miserably and viciously.

I've seen mostly positive reviews, but also many negative ones. Already feeling antsy about waiting a week+ to see if it will work on my guys.

Did Feliway help your cats, or was there no noticable difference in their behavior?

[Sanity Claws]

1. Didn't work for my troubled cat

I have a foster cat who is very anxious. It shows up as inappropriate peeing. Prozac worked but we had to take him off it after about 1.5 years because he had become anorexic. We slowly weaned him off Prozac with smaller doses and when he was completely off, he was put on CBD oil and Feliway was used in the apartment. He resumed inappropriate peeing about 4 weeks later. Sigh.
He is now on another drug and it seems to be working. I don't think Feliway helped at all. The cat rescue for whom I foster also does not think Feliway works.

[catrose]

2. I notice it when it runs out, because everybody starts fighting.

So I keep using it.

Have you isolated the OCD guy for two weeks before introducing him? That's worked for me before, but if they've already developed Opinions, it might not in this case.

Some of my rescue friends suggest dabbing tuna juice on every cat's forehead, the idea being that New Guy smells good, just like tuna, just like the tribe.

Some vets prescribe amitryptoline cream that you rub on their ears. Supposedly everybody chills out. YMMV

[hopeforchange2008]

3. "Opinions"

so true!

[catrose]

5. You think it's hard to change a deplorable's mind? Try to change a cat's mind!

[yonder]

7. Opinions, you got that right, all the way down to the capital "O".

I'll probably have to steal that someday.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. It seemed to. Something did, anyhow.

One of my cats was peeing on stuff he shouldn't have been peeing on (typically any soft object left on the floor), and there was nothing wrong with him, so I finally concluded he was having territorial issues that weren't obvious to me from other behavior (cat politics is complicated and subtle). So I got a Feliway diffuser and put a Sentry calming collar on him. I'm not sure how long it took (and the results aren't immediate; the pheromone has to sort of soak in), but it's been months now and he hasn't been thinking outside the box - as it were - at all. It's possible that it affected just the one cat, but maybe also all of the cats so there weren't any more sub rosa territorial squabbles.

You might get some calming collars for your herd as well. Maybe that's what was working. Or all of those things.

[applegrove]

6. Try separating them by a door. Curiosity will drive both sides nuts and when you finally

Last edited Thu Apr 25, 2019, 02:48 AM - Edit history (1)

sllow them to see each other it might go better.