Feli friend

Re: Feli friend

Tracey Louise — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:33:54 GMT

[quote user="rubyshoes"]

You need to sort out their environment if they are fighting there is conflict of resources make sure each cat has their own set of litter tray,food,water,and separate sleeping areas. feliway plugged in at all times! Kalmaid is very good in stressed cats wouldnt use clomicalm!

[/quote]

All of the above already done. Clomicalm has definately helped, no more spraying, but its the aggressive cat that is still the problem unfortunately.

Re: Feli friend

rubyshoes — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:49:33 GMT

Re: Feli friend

Tracey Louise — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:03:54 GMT

Well i tried bought some felifriend and tried it lastnight. I sprayed it onto my hands and rubbed them together, waited for the alcohol smell to dissapear then approached my cats let them sniff my hands and stroked them.

No fights lastnight whatsoever! Just not sure how often i need to spray it so was thinking of doing it morning and evening and see how it goes

Re: Feli friend

Tracey Louise — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:08:27 GMT

I found this and i think this is what the guy at BVNA was talking about and that it can make things worse if done wrong.

The other facial fraction in the cat which has been used to help improve cat welfare is F4 (Felifriend; Ceva Animal Health). This too is applied to the environment or the potential handler and seems to encourage animals to approach unfamiliar people (Pageat and Tessier 1997). It also helps cats adapt more readily to being moved to a shelter environment (Kakuma and Bradshaw 2001).

In the majority of cases F4 dramatically reduces the risk of aggression while being handled, but in a few cases increased aggression has been reported. In the small number of cases that we have seen this reaction, the aggression was directed towards someone that the cat already tended to avoid and had shown aggression to in the past. We hypothesise that in these cases the cat was receiving conflicting signals (chemical signal encouraging it to approach and visual one to run away). It then froze and panicked when touched as a result. Thus F4, like F3, appears to work best in mild threat situations or those involving uncertainty rather than real aversion. It could therefore be quite useful in the show environment where it may help reduce the risk of aggression towards show judges and stewards from anxious cats. It can also be very useful in helping to introduce a cat to new people in a new home. In a small number of cases we have also used it to help introduce cats to each other by applying it to a piece of non absorbent material and then to the each of the cats' coats. This should only be done after careful consideration of the individual circumstances as these products are not produced for direct application to a cat and so any adverse consequences of their use in such a way is entirely the responsibility of the consulting veterinarian. F4 may make a cat which is anxious about someone in particular more approachable, but it will not change its personality, ie, an aloof individual is likely to remain so, as this appears to be a genetic trait.

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Re: Feli friend

Tracey Louise — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:00:33 GMT

[quote user="Carol Cottrell"]

EEkk! Think you'll find (+ am more than happy to be corrected!) that you aren't supposed to spray it on your cats!! FeliFriend is to ease handling ie. put on your hands, then rub them together & enable your cat/s to sniff at your hands!

[/quote]

I originally thought this too, which is why i didnt use it.

I went to a talk at BVNA about behaviour and the guy was mentioning the use of felifriend and that you could use it that way, i just cant remember what he said and which way round he said. And also cant remember his name!

My cat is very unhappy, and believe me i have tried alot of things to help, and i mean ALOT.

Its such a shame as i have another cat that gets on with them both, so im baffled

Re: Feli friend

Heidi O'Toole — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:52:21 GMT

Your cats sound unhappy, id get some behavioural advice really and check you are doing everything for them...theres lots of advice out there.

http://www.fabcats.org/behaviour/index.php

try sarah heaths journals and bookas as well! xx

Re: Feli friend

Carol Cottrell — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:50:34 GMT

Have you checked out feliway.co.uk (or message Lucy Brett?)

Best of luck in what sounds like a very tense situation! oh! & there are some very interesting notes / case studies on the FAB website of similar scenarios

Carol x

Re: Feli friend

Heidi O'Toole — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:46:46 GMT

felifriend is to use on your hands/blanket when handling fractious cats...it only lasts about 15 minutes but is amazing!