Thundershirt Classic Cat Anxiety Jacket, Heather Gray, Medium (9 to 13 lbs), THU-009

My cat Lewis is a big boy; we just went to the vet recently, and he measured in at 16 lbs.We just adopted a kitten, and Lewis was not happy about it. He is already a menace to our other cat, and the only thing that has worked historically is Prozac, which I was not excited about restarting due to side effects and the daily maintenance (Lewis hates pill pockets). Being so large, he definitely has a size advantage on the kitten, and I really wanted the kitten to feel safe in our apartment without having to separate them.When I was younger, our family dogs were scared of fireworks, and they wore Thundershirts to tremendous effect. The way Lewis was behaving made me curious about potential solutions to aggression and anxiety, and I came across people talking about how the Thundershirt helped calm their cat, and decided to give it a try.Lewis LOVES his Thundershirt. He protested me putting it on him the first few times, but the effect was IMMEDIATE. He went from stalking the other cats to cuddled up on the couch within minutes. He's never been particularly affectionate beyond rubbing up on your legs, but in his Thundershirt he will climb up in your lap and purr -- something I've NEVER encountered in the six years we've been together. His movement is slightly restricted, and especially at first there were some growing pains as I had to learn how tightly to bind the elastic-y straps that secure with velcro, but today he walks (very deliberately and slowly) with dignified and normal form. He doesn't complain when you put it on him anymore, so long as you don't pull too tightly on the straps. His demeanor is instantly calmer when he's wearing the Thundershirt, and he is far less interested in picking fights.We haven't tried a car ride yet, with which Lewis has always struggled with anxiety, but I have high hopes.The shirt itself is high quality, and my biggest gripe is that it holds on to the loose cat hair, which I don't think can be helped. It might also be to the benefit of the garment, holding onto his smell? It feels very sturdy, and I fully expect that it will survive at least 6 months, hopefully a year of near-daily use. I have not washed it in the washing machine yet, and haven't needed to-- he's got plenty of room to use the bathroom unimpeded, and it can be easily spot-cleaned of dust, etc with a damp rag.TLDR: I would definitely recommend the Thundershirt to anyone who's cat struggles with anxiety or aggression or some combination thereof. Lewis loves his!To the manufacturer: now that I know he likes it, I would definitely pay a $10 or so premium to get assorted fabric patterns and colors. Just saying! :)

Quick backstory:-My orange cat is Sammy, he's two now, had him for about a year and a half, always happy and playful but developing fear of noises and things like that.-He was so overly playful I decided he needed a friend and after a couple months looking around I got a hyper little 6 month old kitty who is nice to everyone, cats and dogs included.-Sammy did not like her, however, and it took some time getting used to but they play together and are great friends.-Now, problem is Sammy was so stressed from this new cat that he lost a ton of weight(I was scared for him and made sure to get all sorts of blood tests and things like that, he's fine physically). And on top of the weight loss he was also extremely anxious and scared of everything. Literal scaredy-cat.-I did lots of things to try to chill him out but the pheromones did pretty much nothing(except for a spray one I use in his crate when he gets brought to the vet, which works well, but only in the crate).-I always saw dogs wearing the anxiety vests and they looked like they worked pretty well. At this point I'm already thousands of dollars deep in medical testing and pheromones and I constantly have to be careful not to scare Sammy and stress him out further, let's try a vest.-It WORKED the first wear but it works even better after a few more times. The instructions were pretty much to feed your kitty a few treats on the folded up vest so they associate it positively with food, then lay it on their back without strapping it on and let them walk around till it falls off(I did this twice)-all along Sammy seemed very unphased. I fed him about 5 treats up till now-any time he came into contact with the vest- and I then strapped him in. It was easy but I have well trained cats who (honestly) have never scratched me out of anger- sometimes accidentally during play but still rare. So this might not be super easy for everyone. Once I got him in it he did not do the flop that everyone talks about. He's psycho for the laser pointer so I had that out to distract him. Other cat locked in room so that he didn't stress out any. We played about 10-15 minutes and he was only confused two or three times(backing up like something was on him) and I just distracted him with play. Took the vest off after playing, no struggling, seemed very relaxed. Later that night we did the same thing. I left it on an extra ten minutes while he and my other cat played. I removed it again.-We are at the point now where he just wears it most of the day. I have to say it's amazing. It's like I hit the off button on his anxiety. He was so spazzy that if I walked too quickly towards him when he was lying down, he would bolt away in pure fear until he realized he wasn't about to be murdered. Flight reaction 24/7. I should mention he's all indoor so he's never had a threat to his life to have this kind of fear. NOW seriously I could drive my car through the house and he'd be like "that's neat." (Not that he's apathetic or depressed lol, just that it's taking a lot more of a scary stimulus to make him jolt up or be afraid).So, random pros and cons at the end hereCONS:-Sammy kind of gets Hat-Hair when he wears it for a couple hours.--- Solution: I give him a quick brushing when I take it off and he fixes it himself when I'm done.-it MIGHT get hot in the summer. He is pure indoor but I live in California and sometimes the heat strikes. I feel like I should note that the material is shockingly breathable. I would compare it to a thick under armor shirt, that kind of sporty material. I really like the material, this is a very high quality vest, BUT it will probably be coming off if temps go above 80F inside.-Slight risk of it getting stuck on something and slight choking risk because it has the neck strap(Velcro that most cats would be strong enough to kick off if they got adrenaline).I haven't seen any risk truly but i am aware it is there, so I will simply take it off of him if I am leaving the house.PROS:-It worked and WELL.-Material is high quality, looks like it will last a few years.-It looks pretty adjustable if you have a fat cat. Sammy is skinny and I bring it pretty tight on him(two fingers still fit under every edge and he does not act uncomfortable).---side note: Sammy is about 8 pounds but he should be about 10-11 when he gets fattened back up. See pictures for how it fit him.-Sammy still has FULL mobility. Runs, jumps high, plays, poops, you name it. Took him a few times to learn how to jump up high while wearing it but no big deal.Final picture is him sleeping next to me literally the entire time I was writing this review(about an hour lol)Anyways, it worked for me. I will probably update this in a few months when Sammy hopefully fattens back out :) thanks for reading.PS since it's not that easy to tell if a review on Amazon is real any more(including most of the thundershirt reviews lol) I purchased this vest cash and believe it's worth the 40$. It was NOT given to me free to review, and I do NOT work for thundershirt.

I finally realized my cat was dealing with anxiety when I read about cats and loose poop. For 2 years I have tried all the suggestions: more beds, more litter boxes, toys, sprays and anything else. Nothing worked and it was affecting all the other cats.Within 5 minutes of putting this on George was back to his old self which was sweet and cuddly. It has been 1 week and all the kitties are so happy and playful again. His tail twitch and biting has completely stopped. He hasn’t stalked anyone in days or attacked either. He meows when he doesn’t like something instead of reacting and biting or scratching. Thank you!!!!I ordered a second one on day 3 of him wearing this.George is 11 pounds so I bought the size medium. He is quite long and lean so I am going to trim 1/2 inch of the armpit area so he has a touch more room. He wears it with no complaints and has been fine having it on all day.Seems to be really nice quality, Velcro’s is sturdy and it’s easy to get on. I’m only giving 4 stars because it came in a plastic bag with no information or directions