Man I had no idea so many of us had cat problems. One of our cats overgrooms and has a bald stomach, after numerous vet visits, changes to litter and food we gave up. I thought it might be an allergy and liquid steroids do stop her but I have changed everything else and he always goes back to licking his belly bare.
I’ll ask the vet for the medication although I suspect my wife will be against it because she’s against most medicine in general.
Gabapentin is usually our first choice for problems like inappropriate urination/defecation, barbering/self trauma, ‘excessive’ hiding / fear /stress or fractiousness.
It’s not the only medication we trial, but its generally first as it’s inexpensive and as it has a wide safety profile, it’s pretty low risk.
Others therapies include amitriptyline, clomipramine, fluoxetine, pheromone defusers (feliway)
The ‘theory’ is allergies - and steroids- however it seems more often than not we can’t determine an actual allergen as the cause. Which makes me wonder about a behavioral/mental component to the problem, since we know steroids can have some brain/behavioral effects as well.(though usually they are negative ones, like restlessness, pacing etc).
D26’s ED1 comes out Thursday. The portal astrology thread on the school’s page is nuts. I can’t believe people have that much free time on their hands. Mine’s training and then going to work.
I’ve really been trying not to take advantage of your being a vet but this is an issue with our scaredy-cat. Do you think we should ask our vet to try it? (I assume prescription needed?)
Every year. And it’s always completely unreliable!
Aww. We used to have one like this almost two decades ago. We adopted a big 20-pound tabby intending to name him Herman, but we found one who came named Fred, and it stuck. Eventually he came to be known as The Fred.
But yes, he was scared of absolutely everything, and he would yell at us about it. Every time there was a thunderstorm, he would go and sit in the litter box. My husband would see this and say, “The Fred’s in the sh*tter again.” 
Mine will hear from one next Monday! It’s a school that she still likes a lot although I’ve been down on it for several reasons. I haven’t said a word, though – just want her to have all options in hand, and then she can think through her decision.
That’s it until end of January.
Can it work for high anxiety / high stress cats? Certainly. And often you’ll know in the first 3-5 days…so unlike the SSRIs, you don’t have to give it for 30-60 days before making any assessment.
Will it work for your cat? Unknown.
But, it’s inexpensive, and has a pretty wide safety profile - so other than turning your cat into a throw-pillow for 24-36 hours at higher end dosing, it’s pretty unlikely to cause harm.
You should have blood profiles done before starting Gabapentin (or fluoxetine, amitriptyline, etc) - as renal excretion in needed so we are more conservative with dosing in Stage 1/2 renal cats. Unfortunately something like a 1/3 of all cats over 10 (I think) will develop Stage 1/2 in their lifetimes.
And yes, at least here in the US a prescription is needed.
You should definitely talk with your veterinarian about options THEY recommend.
If I remember correctly, back in the day, schools released their ED decisions on December 15th, so if that were still somewhat of a thing, the end of this week would make sense. We’re not especially waiting on any school but I think one or two of the schools my daughter applied to may release EA this week.
D26 has 2 coming out this week. One is a top-ish choice (maybe #2?) and the other less so, but for the honors college it would put it higher up and she should hear same day about that (it was a separate application).
Clemson (EA) is on Thursday at 6pm, Ohio State University (in-state?) comes out on Friday & UTK (OOS) next Monday. Also hoping to hear from Quinnipiac and Penn State this week or next. Then we have to wait another month to hear from anyone else.
Has anyone heard from Penn State University that applied for Industrial Engineering? My daughter is trying to be patient, but we’re all getting antsy waiting to hear back. Would love to hear stats from anyone that got in.
My daughter has her ED school expected this week (not confirmed yet, but if following previous years, should be Friday) and EA results for another school coming out on Friday. She is anxious, and honestly, so am I. Friday can’t get here soon enough!
D26 is expecting one sometime before the holidays. No announcement yet. That said, she’s not really paying attention to it. Too focused on semester finals in a couple of classes and a Christmas concert she’s in this coming weekend.
BUT, she did get an offer for basketball tickets to our local flagship, Rutgers! She’s not interested (in going to the game, she IS interested in going to the school) but has kindly passed on the email to me to take the two S29s. So, me and two younger high schoolers will be cheering for the Scarlet Knights in the student section, lol!
On cats- we have 2. I am NOT a cat person. DH would not get a dog when we first married due to living in a townhome with no yard and cray work schedule.
So we got a cat who thought he was a dog. I loved him because he met us at the door, played fetch and was just friendly.
when he died we had 2 kids and again DH said no dog. So we adopted 2 sibling kittens. One is more friendly the other just says in her condo. It’s gotten worse since during Covid when my biz was closed my DH finally caved (to help my depression maybe?) and we got a dog.
Dog and cats do NOT get along. We now have all sorts of issues and the male cat constantly protecting his scared sister. Dog wants to play… cats don’t get it. They are complete frenemies.
I would be fine if we got rid of the cats but that’s not happeningp
just found out D26 ED1 comes out Monday. I’m grateful to know the date and prepare. This could go any way because it is a highly rejective school and no way of knowing. We JUST calmed down from the GT stress and here we go again. At least it’s comp week for Cheer and she’ll be busy / not able to stress over it.
And S24 will be home from SAME school. I want him to be there if she gets in but that’s also another layer of pressure .
Good luck to everyone with imminent decisions!
Yes you do. Sending you so much love love and wishes for a more peaceful 2026❤️
I’m so sorry about your kitty. That is tge worst part of being a pet parent, and having to do it alone must have been awful. Sending you hugs and wishes for gentler days ahead.
Do y’all have twins? Solidarity! 
Yep, twins! Definitely keeps life interesting!