Saturday, August 8, 2009

Is the Paxil successful?

Got me. I haven't seen this cat - whose litter box habits I monitored twice a day for FOUR YEARS - use the litter box one single time in almost two weeks. I have NO idea where he's going now. He apparently must be, or he would have exploded by now. (Although, he does look significantly more "rounded" than he did...) I have added two more cement-mixing trays, one in the living room and one in the dining room, in what seem to be two of his favorite target spots.

I am pretty sure that he was, at some point, peeing on my beloved heart-shaped braided rug in the laundry room. So, I threw it out. He does stroll in a leisurely fashion down the steps in the middle of every meal, which I would assume is a very bad sign, but I have no proof.

He started the Paxil on Saturday, August 1. The culture and sensitivity urine test was negative, which meant that there was no bladder infection to contribute to the problem. (I had been told that Prozac would be more effective, but my vet was insistent that we try Paxil first, and since I had already filled the prescription for Tootle, I agreed.) The dosage is 2.5mg. The pill is 10mg, so that's 1/4 of a pill. A teeny-tiny, minute little dose. And, for the last week, that tiny little pill has turned poor Scruffy into a zombie. He sleeps virtually non-stop. Well, yes, I know he's a cat, and that's what they do, but this is EXCESSIVE. Nothing like his usual pattern. As additional evidence, there's a huge difference between what Scruffy seems to be doing with Paxil and what Toot's doing with it. She's minimally calmer and less aggressive, unless there is food involved, and she's awake; she's patrolling the food dishes, she's guarding the bathtub, she's watching the kittens through the screen - in essence, she's still got a life. Poor Scruffy - I'm not so sure.

So, here's my dilemma: 1) I don't know if it's working. 2) It's turning him into a fur-covered log. While it is absolutely necessary for the peeing and spraying to stop, I feel a need for Scruffy to have some of his normal life going on - looking out the screen door, trailing around behind me in case I might sit down and he could sit on my lap, playing with the occasional toy, knowing when it's time to eat without having to be poked....

What to do, what to do? Well, for today, and possibly for much longer, until I gather some evidence that the litter box avoidance problem has returned/never left, I didn't give him any Paxil. And he still slept deeply virtually the entire day, but I figure that's because he's got some quantity of the drug left in his body.

I don't want to ruin the quality of his life because I haven't found homes for the kittens. He deserves much better than that. He's been a patient, loving, placid cat through all of the disturbance of feline diabetes, and herpes, and laser surgery for what was probably a melanoma in his eye - I owe him something for all that, don't I?

(That said, the annoyance - nay, possibly "rage" is a better word! - I felt the day he backed up to my bookcase in the dining room and sprayed right in front of me makes me more than a little concerned if there's some long-term fallout from stopping the drug so early.)

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