Trying feliway for the 1st time with my cats

Sburke

My eldest cat Kitty has been a bit stressed lately....not sure why but I reckon my other 3 are bothering her a bit more as she's getting older. I heard about Feliway and have decided to give it a go. I got the diffuser and spray. Would love to hear of anyone else's experience of it ie how soon should I expect to see results, having sprayed the outdoor flap will it attract other cats?? Etc etc :-)

Heroditas

We're using it again because one of our guys has been very stressed and peeing in the living room.
We have a plugin one and sprayed the area where he was peeing.
He's been absolutely blissed out/stoned all day!

TehDagsBass

We use it whenever we've to bring himself to the vet or elsewhere in the car. Generally give his bedding area a few sprays a while before the event, then spray the inside of the cat carrier so it's there when he's in it.

Works well, I have to say.

planetX

I tried it and found no difference.

Alun

planetX wrote: »

I tried it and found no difference.

Ditto, for the diffuser, at least. We've had some success with Zylkene for our nervous cat, but the main reason she's so nervous is she keeps being beten up by her sister, and neither solution seems to help with that, she's just a bully

MaryK666

We found that you have to use either a lot of diffusers or have them around for quite a while before they have any effect.
Because of that, we now just use the spray and find it works a treat. It has helped the new cats settle in as the family grows and is has stopped a few incidents of furniture scratching and also helps to calm the 4am rampage and singing competitions that happen in our house.
It's also good for calming our two nervous cats when travelling in the carrier to the vets.

I'd advise buying it online though as it can be very expensive when bought from a vet or pet shop here. I usually get mine when I'm bulk ordering the food and litter so there's no delivery charges to pay.

Sburke

Thanks for your post MaryK666. Could I ask what site you order the feliway from? Can't find an Irish site that has it. Thanks!

Sburke

Kitty is still showing signs of stress even though I've sprayed the house twice a day for the last week and have a diffuser in her safe room! She's an indoor / outdoor cat though so it may take longer to have effect? Really unsure what to do next but I guess a trip to city vets is on the cards yet again! We're keeping them busy of late!

MaryK666

Hi Sburke,
I get my Feliway from zooplus online (apologies mods - if names are not allowed, please delete). I don't think they sell it on the Irish site but they have several european sites so check all of them to see which is the cheapest and work from there. I do the same thing with their food, litter and scratching posts and it saves me a fortune.

Our oldest girl has always been a bit peculiar and is not fond of newcomers to the pack or strangers in the house and she has been very stressed in the past. Luckily we've now found the perfect balance in numbers and personalities in the house and she's happy again. The problem with stress it can be hard to diagnose and figure out what's causing it. But stress can lower the immune system leaving the door open to other things and that can be a much bigger problem.

I do agree that a trip to the vets might be the way to go. Better to be safe than sorry. It might just be that old age is catching up with her or it could be something more serious that she's hiding from you as cats are very good at hiding things.
We spend a lot of time in our vets too as we have 5 indoor only cats and some people say that I'm overly cautious but I'd rather take them down there than run the risk of anything being wrong and not finding it.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for your poor little girl but please do let us know how you get on.

Sburke

Thanks for the advice MaryK666. Kitty seems to only have issues with one of our younger rescues Milly....who is prettier and not full black like the others....pure coincidence by the way! Still can't recall how I ended up with 3 black cats :-) I'll definitely try that site you mentioned for feliway as I spent €80 last week on sprays and diffuser. Will get her to the vets this week as I'm worried the licking of her undercarriage is indicative of something more serious.

Sburke

Hi maryk666, thanks so much for recommending that site. Got my first delivery of high grade wet food, feliway, petguard and of course some toys this week. Couldn't get kitty in to the vets the last 2 weeks but she's booked in tomorrow and at least I have the feliway spray to lessen the stress! She's eating really well but def not herself. Have been researching mange in cats as she's quite allergic to mites but the frontline spray isn't working this time. Muggins, one of other rescues, now had a bald patch on his underbelly so its def time to get the vet involved. Otherwise they're fit as fleas...excuse the pun! Have you any experience of alopecia? Maybe it's something else. Bedding etc all washed/sprayed! Thanks again.

MaryK666

Hi Sburke,

Glad you found what you wanted for the furbabies and got the Feliway.

I wouldn't like to try and guess what the problem is without seeing the symptoms to be honest. And even then, I'd be reluctant to offer a diagnosis as I'm not a vet and my only experience is from by own furbags and their many and varied ailments over the years.
There are too many amateur/wanna-be vets out there and something serious can easily be mis-diagnosed causing even bigger problems down the line.
Better that they see a vet and get the problem sorted properly.

It might be ringworm which is easy enough to spot once you've seen it once and I can testify to that. The patches are usually circular and totally bald and can range from small areas to being quite large and they can appear anywhere on the body.
There again, it could be over-grooming caused by stress. It could be alopecia or an alergy to anything from dust to food. It could be some form of mammary tumour. It might even be a reaction to medication used to worm or de-flea them....

Hopefully your vet will tell you straight away what the problem is and offer a solution but, again, please let us know how you're getting on.
And in the meantime, it's always helpful to give them all a little one-to-one time and special treats to help combat stress.

mintoffdom

How do you know if a cat is stressed?!

(We have 4 of them btw)

And a dog called Max.

Sburke

The signs are really in the behaviour Mintoffdom. Excessive licking, mewling....that kind of thing. I find I sense when something is wrong a lot of the time as I know when their behaviour changes. Not very scientific I know!

Sburke

Back from the vets MaryK666 and all is good barring the stress! Vet recommended Calm Aid (sorry if I'm not supposed to name it!) to sort her out. I'd started her on it already so that was good to hear. No sign of ring worm which is good. Luckily she's been taking the calm aid in wet food as a lot of cats won't.

A good outcome as I was worried it was something internal and serious! Just need to sort her out mentally now :-) btw I agree with your comment re not diagnosing her myself....I didn't spend 7 years studying veterinary science so how would I know her symptoms?

Now all I need to do is get Muggins' bald patch checked out :-) no clothes shopping for me this month!!

MaryK666

Delighted to hear that the vet visit went well and I hope that the Calm Aid is doing it's job.

Sometimes bald patches can be caused by excessive grooming as a result of stress so hopefully that's all it is.

I know what you mean about the no-clothes thing too. Our Bailey was in for a biopsy on his chin and some blood tests last week to rule out any auto-immune problems and is now on a heap of medication to try and cure a bad dose of folliculitis so I'm in exactly the same boat.
Still - I'd rather see my furbabies well than have new clothes, especially as with the vet bills, I couldn't afford to go anywhere to show off new clothes, even if I could afford them.
Sad but true!