• Neuroscience & Pharmacology Discussion Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Recent Journal Articles Chemistry Mega-Thread
    FREE Chemistry Databases! Self-Education Guide

  • N&PD Moderators: Skorpio

cats' reactions to drugs (aside from pot!)

B

bingalpaws

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Dec 5, 2005
Messages
3,653
Figured add would be the best subforum for this because I'm actually curious about how drugs work with cats. (already searched 'cat' titled threads and nothing)

We all know cats smell catnip / eat catnip and act crazy. I'm pretty sure this is because the scent stimulates some 'mating/relationship' receptors.

But what about other chemicals? For instance, I dunno if many know this, but cats react *very* strongly to valerian root. I don't even let my cat consume it, just get whiffs of it out of the bottle of pills, and he'll seem sedated for at least 10 minutes.

So, just how similar are we? Would a cat be able to trip? Is my cat's reaction to smelling valerian truly sedation? (btw, this isn't meant in any way, shape or form to experiment on cats lol. I've just found that my cat wants near the valerian more than the catnip, and am hoping some people who know more about how cats are 'wired' could help me understand these things a lil better!)
 
Funny buggers, aren't they? =|D

I've read that nepetalactone (from catnip) has some properties in common with feline pheremones, but with valerian it's just plaijn sedation. I'd bet that if you gsave the cat a choice when it was feeling totally relaxed (just eaten & in front of a warm fire) it'd most likely choose the catnip. Cats are prone to neuroses (they get used as an animal model of human neuroses in pharmacological testing of anxiolytics), so a sedative is obviously going to be attractive to them - I think it's having to live in close quarters with other humans/cats/other animals that makes them a bit edgy at times as they're solitary creatures in the wild (as opposed to fetral cats)
 
interesting! I actually did a 'speedball' for him recently lol! I put catnip and a few valerian pills in a bottle for him to smell, he didn't seem to like it over either of the two individually (think it confused him!). Hmm I wonder how frequently it's okay to let him smell the valerian?! I don't want a little benzo junky cat on my hands lol!!!!
 
fast- any others you can think of? Valerian was a surprise to me, I've gotta imagine there's a handful of other less than common things people have found cats to like and respond to.

If nobody's seen the valerian reaction from a cat, it's *crazy*! When he sees me get the valerian bottle, he goes *much* crazier than when he sees his bag of catnip, and that's saying a lot!
 
i have some valerian tablets (with hops too) that don't work at all and just give me a headache.
so i shall try this lol

i've never noticed my cat get any degree of high off of weed (even when smoking copious buckets) ... then again they don't do much else but lie down and eat ay?
 
monstanoodle said:
i have some valerian tablets (with hops too) that don't work at all and just give me a headache.
so i shall try this lol

i've never noticed my cat get any degree of high off of weed (even when smoking copious buckets) ... then again they don't do much else but lie down and eat ay?
Click to expand...

your cat smokes weed?
I think your cat is clever, does it dial out for pizza at 2am too? :)
 
not only does his cat smoke weed it does buckets! amazing lol

thats interesting about the valerian root. ive seen my cat go nutz over cat nip once it was great
 
acetaminophen will kill a cat very quickly if they ingest even a small amount. So next time you're prepping that CWE on like 50 T3's, be careful!

Any others to add besides valerian and the nip? Someone's gotta have something else in their cat's arsenal!!!
 
I hada kitten eat some valium... UNINTENTIONALLY and the goddamn thing stumbled around for two fucking days. I put the valium back in the bottle and away from the dumb thing.
 
Yeah, even though benzo are safe, animals should only be given drugs on a vets instruction )[/public service announcement].

One of my cats who has now passed away loved the smell of fresh buds, especially fragrant strains like bubblegum (he even stole a few , snaekily he thought!). Otherf than that can't think of anything other than valerian & catnip unless you want to try washing someting down with bleasch - they seem to like that smell a lot (obviously keep them away from the neat stuff!).

Just another example of why animal models are only approximations to a human one
 
I wounder if my cats would enjoy it if I gave them a cat friendly recreational dose of ketamin?
The most I have seen animal wise is my cat coming round from K and a friends dog who get constant blow back (ended up running into a door)
 
Any others? I'm thinking of things less harsh, IE not giving him benzos lol! I know cats can do benzos, but i'm looking for more plants/substances that he may enjoy, and the only solid ones thus far seem to be:
- catnip
- valerian


There's gotta be more out there! Domesticated cats live the good life compared to their feral counterparts, it'd be cool to have a better arsenal to let them enjoy things even more. On that note, think I may just let my hybrid cat (he's part jungle cat!) have some valerians tonight!!
 
There are a number of different species in the catnip family, and some of the others such as catmint (Nepeta mussinii) and giant catmint (Nepeta grandiflora) have the same effect as catnip (Nepeta cataria)

Another one is silver vine (Actinidia polygama) which contains a different chemical similar in structure to the nepetalactone thats in catnip.

But it looks like all of those will have pretty much the same effect as normal catnip does, just slightly different flavours for the true connoisseur cat...

Of course there are lots of good drugs that humans like that are approved for veterinary use on cats (ketamine and oxymorphone for instance) but the cats aren't going to search those out themselves in the same way!
 
mad_scientist said:
Another one is silver vine (Actinidia polygama) which contains a different chemical similar in structure to the nepetalactone thats in catnip.
Click to expand...
interesting, the same family as the kiwi fruit.. does kiwi fruit or its leaves effect cats??
 
mad_scientist said:
There are a number of different species in the catnip family, and some of the others such as catmint (Nepeta mussinii) and giant catmint (Nepeta grandiflora) have the same effect as catnip (Nepeta cataria)

Another one is silver vine (Actinidia polygama) which contains a different chemical similar in structure to the nepetalactone thats in catnip.

But it looks like all of those will have pretty much the same effect as normal catnip does, just slightly different flavours for the true connoisseur cat...

Of course there are lots of good drugs that humans like that are approved for veterinary use on cats (ketamine and oxymorphone for instance) but the cats aren't going to search those out themselves in the same way!
Click to expand...

damn coolness! I'm actually growing some catnip right now (edit - gonna sow the seeds today lol), I wonder if it's the same variety he has in his bag of organic cat nip from petco...

Yeah I know they'll get doped on narcotics and stuff, I'm thinking more along the lines of 'if a cat was wild, and chanced by some random plants, which would he like the best?'. I'm still putting my money on valerian, the reaction and desire for it seems to outweigh catnip most of the time..
 
2c-buoyant said:
Sorry if this derails your topic in any way, but here's a creepy link that could be of some interest to your query.

Ahh, the many reasons I'm a practicing vegan.
Click to expand...

I don't think dosing your cat is a good idea. Even with catnip or valerian it will get a catnip habit and steal your wallet sell all your furniture, it might then go on the game to pay for the habit, stand on street corners and bring any old cat home, or it will sit around the house, railing gram after gram of the good stuff, and not going to work. do you want to be your cats dealer?? 8)

the other issue is that cats have different metabolism and enzymatic pathways to humans, so something that might be OK in humans might kill or severely damage a cat or other non human creature, dogs for example cannot deal with xanthines.
from the various cats on acid videos on you tube it seems that cats lose co-ordination and motor function much more than humans. why this is so I have no idea.

I am struggling to make the link between being a vegan and dosing cats? since you became vegan have you found that you don't dose cats as much?? :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top