Behavioral medication for cats with anxiety disorders, compulsive disorders, and cognitive dysfunction can profoundly transform quality of life, yet veterinary and owner resistance to feline behavioral pharmacology remains a welfare barrier.
Feline behavioral pharmacology is an area where significant welfare improvement is available but underutilized due to owner reluctance and insufficient veterinary advocacy. The transformation seen in cats with genuine anxiety disorders when appropriately medicated — from chronic hiding, aggression, and stress-related illness to relaxed engagement, social interest, and behavioral diversity — represents one of the most striking welfare improvements available in companion animal medicine. The common concern that medication will change a cat's personality reflects a misunderstanding: anxiety is not personality, and medication that reduces anxiety does not suppress personality — it removes the anxiety that was suppressing it. Gabapentin pre-medication for veterinary visits is a particularly high-value intervention because it dramatically reduces the acute welfare harm of veterinary-induced fear while improving examination quality and diagnostic accuracy.