Anti-spraying Drugs

Until 1991, the most common veterinary treatment to stop a cat from spraying was to administer a drug that mimics the female hormone progesterone. This treatment proved effective in controlling spraying behavior in about 50 per cent of neutered male cats but was much less effective in female cats. In 1991, Amy Marder, a veterinary behaviorist in Boston, introduced the notion of treating spraying cats with the human tranquilizer diazepam, also known as Valium. In a clinical study reported in March 1992, Cooper and I found that diazepam controlled spraying in 55 per cent of male and female cats.

Diazepam has side effects in cats, however, just as it does in people. The drug often causes excessive drowsiness and a temporary lack of coordination. Diazepam also produces physiological and behavioral dependency. In 1992, I —working with Robert Eckstein and Karen Powell at the University of California, Davis, and Nicholas Dodman of Tufts University in Medford, Mass—found that the tranquilizer buspirone, another drug gaining some popularity for the treatment of anxiety in people, is at least as effective as diazepam in controlling spraying behavior without producing the side effects of diazepam.

The need for drug treatments shows that as we remove cats from their natural environment, the expression of their normal behaviors may conflict with our human-oriented environment. Veterinary behaviorists may have to use ingenuity, and sometimes borrow from the area of human drug therapy, to help felines adjust to our environment.