# Licking door frames, walls?



## OsnobunnieO (Jun 28, 2004)

Skylar has been back to her normal happy lovey self lately, almost annoyingly so, since being off Prozac. Its been about a week or so with no medication and the change is dramatic. 

However, she's developed a weird new "habit" (as I'm not sure what else to call it at this point) of licking on things. She's never been one to lick much of anything. I have two that like to groom the dogs and sometimes me, but not her. 

I've noticed for a couple of days when I'm in the bathroom that she's come over and licked at the door frame. Initially I thought maybe it was condensation from my shower that was on the frame, didn't think much of it. But the last two days its been first thing in the morning before I shower or do anything. I admit, I'm not much for cleaning so its possible there is something (althought its probably gross dog funk or something) she's attracted to. None of this was really too strange to me.

Tonight though, I was in the kitchen cooking and she was up on the cabinets. She started licking at the wall. At one point she actually tried to bite down and chew, scraping a small spot of paint off with a tooth. I swatted at her with a towel to shoo her away and normally she'd run off and not turn back. Had to swat at her several times as she kept immediately going back to lick the spot. 

She also just reminding me about her digging in the couch. I have throw blankets over the couch to keep them clean. The last few days she has been digging at the blanket where the two cushions meet. Again, normally if I give her a little touch she'll stop what she's doing. With the digging she does it repeatedly until I pick her up and put her off the couch. Last night she came back a couple of times to the same spot. Tonight its another spot, but still between the cushions (two different ones this time).

The only thing I can relate it to is hunger. She's always had a bad habit of chewing on strings - usually the cord to the blinds or finds a stray thread from a pillow or blanket. She doesn't do it much, but usually when she's hungry and feels I'm not moving fast enough to get her food. And I will admit the only times I've seen this was right before I would feed her. She's eating very well lately too, much more so than she has been. And has been crawling all over me for food that I have.

Do you think its anything to worry about? I scanned around online and mostly found people asking if anyone else had cats that liked to lick things like walls, doors, etc but none that specifically just pick it up obsessively one day. I'm going to try a simple solution of feeding her more and see if that stops, but in the mean time would like to hear if anyone else has had similar experience.

(cats are driving me crazy lately!)


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## jusjim (Jun 30, 2009)

Prozac can be a vicious drug as I found out and I was only on it for four weeks. You could be right and iit's food related as Prozac dropped my appetite and I became quite weak. Unfortunately animals can't complain about side effects of drugs -- they almost all have them and the makers say these are 'well tolerated'. I don't like that phrase.

I would tend to go bymy instincts here. Make sure she's getting all she wants to eat for a while; perhaps try her with different food types. 

Good luck to both you and Skylar.


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## my5kitties (Sep 13, 2005)

I don't know. My Smokey was getting enough to eat, but he licked everything, too. If the extra feeding doesn't work, take her in and have her tested for anemia. Looking back on the things that Smokey licked (metal, lime scale, plastic bags, walls, etc.) I think he was trying to tell me something.


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