Green tea for cats?
Green tea calms cats. Anxiety in cats is fairly common under a wide range of circumstances and a cat may be timid and therefore anxious quite a lot of the time at home even though the environment is okay.
The active ingredient in green tea is L-theanine. The pharmaceutical companies manufacturing pet drugs and food supplements have manufacture one called Anxitane® S which contains L-theanine.
You can see a picture of the packaging at the head of this page. In a study that was published online in The Journal of Veterinary Behavior, Dr Amy L Pike studied two dozen dogs with a history of sensitivity to storms. These are dogs who are frightened by the sound of storms. She treated their fears with Anxitane.
There was a significant reduction in anxiety. L-theanine is a nutritional supplement. There are no known side effects. It modulates brain function resulting in a calming effect.
The study by Dr Pike indicates that it is an effective treatment for storm sensitivity. I suppose it will also be an effective treatment for cats and dogs who are frightened of fireworks or any other environmental noise and activity which causes distress. Fireworks are an annual problem for some cat guardians and their companion animal alike. In the UK fireworks go on for a much longer time than in the past.
The study also found that L-theanine was effective in reducing specific anxiety symptoms and dogs. It helps to return dogs to normal behaviour quicker after a storm.
The study found that owner satisfaction of this product combined with a desire to continue using the product was 94%. On Amazon it receives a four-star rating out of five.
The first review one reads (I will presume this review is genuine) says that Patricia adopted a dog from a shelter. The dog was at that time afraid of sudden movements, children messing around and loud noises. Pat gave her dog Prozac for 18 months which helped. It did not help to alleviate the dog’s fear of men which included her husband, sadly.
Her dog would not voluntarily go near to her husband. She began to give her dog Anxitane. She reports that within about 3 weeks her dog was calmer around her husband and she did not bark. She even takes a treat out of his hand which Pat found very surprising.
She believes that Anxitane has had a dramatic effect on improving her dog’s anxiety in less than one month. She continues to use it. This is simply one review of many and clearly people must make their own judgements on its effectiveness and whether it is suitable for their cat or dog.
A cat owner remarked that it helped her cats on a drive:
Hi, I have only used it on my cats on a 7 hour drive and it does take the edge off. All of my cats except for one responded to it very well. It makes them relaxed but you do have to give it as directed. For my cat it was a 1/2 tab every 6 hours. Sorry I don’t have dogs but it should help. I liked it because…..
On a simple evaluation having read about this product it appears to be less troublesome then classic anti-anxiety and mood enhancing drugs such as Prozac which have side effects.