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    Cat having exceedingly strange behavior, Help!

    Let me start off by saying that the behavior is absolutely new, I have never experienced this level of anxiety from my cat ever in her life.

    My cat is just over 3 years old, she is fixed and up to date on all of her shots. My cat is fairly mellow, she does not meow or make a lot of noise, with very few exceptions. She only hisses at the dogs, and even that is rare, she only really does it anymore when they appear to be threatening the other (smaller) cat.
    This afternoon, my cat has spent much of the day under the bed, I went to the bed and she hissed at me. This is beyond new, this cat literally crawls into bed with me to sleep in my arms, and she hissed at me for getting near the bed. She hissed at me again later when I walked into the bedroom while she was grooming. She ran from there into the family room, and hid under the kitchen table.... not a great hiding place. As my husband approached the table she started making sounds like howling, this cat does not make noise when I BATHE her, and she was screaming at the approach of my husband. At this point I became really concerned, and got down on the floor to get her, fearing that she may be injured, I wanted to look at her. she continued to scream and went down into what was basically a fear related attack posture, ears down, fur begining to stand on end, and basically howling. She made no move to retreat and did not attack me, I lifted her up and checked her over, nothing visible, no pierced skin, or swollen areas, she stopped making noise when I held her, but she remained on alert. When I prodded areas of her stomach, and other soft tissue areas, there was no reaction or change in posture. When I scratched her back she reacted normally, and accepted treats from my hand as per usual. I set her down to see how she was walking, trying to see if something was amiss, or if I could notice anything odd. There was nothing odd in the way she moved, and she moved to the middle of the room and laid down balled up and half ready to run away. She howled every time my husband walked past, she did not run, she just put her ears back and howled at him, watching him. She howled at me as well, every time I walked past. I gave her some catnip in an attempt to calm her down, she is now back under the bed.... This behavior is very odd, and I did not receive a paycheck this month, so I don't have the cash to take her to the vet without borrowing from someone, (probably my mother.) If I need to take her to the vet based on this behavior, I will find a way, I just don't know if I am panicking for no reason.


    Seriously, any suggestions as to WTF is going on with my cat are appreciated. It is just really strange, but the behavior has not been going on for a full 24 hours yet, so I dunno if maybe she is just in some sort of odd mood.
    http://catcrowsnow.blogspot.com/

    But they were doughnuts of darkness. Evil damned doughnuts, tainted by the spawn of darkness.... Which could obviously only be redeemed by passing through the fiery inferno of my digestive tract.
    ~Jim Butcher

    #2
    Re: Cat having exceedingly strange behavior, Help!

    Is she eating, drinking & eliminating normally? Any drooling, spotting or accidents?

    Have you had any new people in your home lately, or is she an indoor/outdoor cat who may have been startled or attacked by something or someone?

    Any new smells in the home? New cat food? Have any of your neighbors gotten a new pet or kid? Or have there been any reports of coyotes, mountain lions or other predators in your area that may be prowling around?

    Any chance she may have eaten something foreign or toxic?

    Whatever it is, I hope she calms down soon & it's much ado about nothing!
    The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

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      #3
      Re: Cat having exceedingly strange behavior, Help!

      She is an indoor cat, won't even try to go outside... No one new in the house, dunno if she may have eaten anything odd, she is eating the same food, and eating it normally, I got up this morning and she was sleeping with me normally, No drooling or odd defecation. I was worried about her having been attacked by the dog... but no signs of that, and that dog has a soft mouth, and has never broken skin on people or a cat or otherwise... so far nothing other than the noises. She is still even willing to come out from hiding to watch the printer print, (odd fascination she has had for bloody ever...)
      http://catcrowsnow.blogspot.com/

      But they were doughnuts of darkness. Evil damned doughnuts, tainted by the spawn of darkness.... Which could obviously only be redeemed by passing through the fiery inferno of my digestive tract.
      ~Jim Butcher

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Cat having exceedingly strange behavior, Help!

        To update, the kitty calmed down significantly, dunno if the catnip helped or not, but she is calm now, and acting like a normal (for her) kitty again, and mommy (me, cause they are my babies.) Is feeling significantly better...
        http://catcrowsnow.blogspot.com/

        But they were doughnuts of darkness. Evil damned doughnuts, tainted by the spawn of darkness.... Which could obviously only be redeemed by passing through the fiery inferno of my digestive tract.
        ~Jim Butcher

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Cat having exceedingly strange behavior, Help!

          Glad to hear that!
          sigpic
          Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Cat having exceedingly strange behavior, Help!

            I'm a bit late to this and it sounds like she's calmed down but I'll let you know my thoughts either way.

            That sort of behavioural reaction is either extreme pain, or extreme stress. The fact that you got to pick her up and she had no reaction when you were prodding and poking makes stress more likely than pain, as does the fact that she's calmed down after 24-48 hours. But pain is still a potential culprit.

            Pain can come from lots of different things that don't require wounds or swellings. They can have back pain from falling or twisting the wrong way, arthritis (though very unlikely in a 3 year old kitty), stomach pain from eating something unusual or a foreign body, muscle pain from running a fever or a virus... all sorts of things. If she gets any new symptoms, or her eating, drinking or toileting habits change, please take her to the vet.

            Extreme stress seems more likely in this case, and again, that can come from lots of things. Cats are highly anxious animals in general, and every little thing can set them off. They are also well known in the veterinary industry for escalating... getting worse when you try to calm them down or push them further. Stress in cats doesn't work the same as in dogs and people - it actually takes the adrenaline and cortisol and stress hormones about 24-48 hours to reduce in the blood stream. That means that it takes them 1-2 DAYS to calm down. And any potential trigger during that time can be making them more and more stressed.

            We may never know what happened to trigger her off. It could be something as simple as a bird hitting the window, or the dog frightened her when she wasn't expecting it, or the dishwasher started a loud cycle just as she was standing next to it. It's not always big changes that cause stress in cats, sometimes it's little, seemingly innocuous things. Then once the stress hormones have entered the blood stream they can escalate quickly, even though no-one is 'doing' anything... to a stressed cat, walking past her, peering under the bed, even talking to her can be causing more stress. There's a bit of a self-perpetuating cycle that happens, and the only way to have it settle down is to leave them alone for as long as it takes (or use medications or synthetic pheromones if it's an ongoing thing). Overnight helps with that, because there's usually a period of 6-10 hours of alone time with no triggers.

            Let her take it easy, don't force her into anything she doesn't seem comfortable with, try not to take it personally and if it happens again in quick succession then we can talk about what to try next. But hopefully it was just a once off and she'll be okay now.

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              #7
              Re: Cat having exceedingly strange behavior, Help!

              Well, whatever caused it, glad to know your kitty's feeling better, Maria
              The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

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                #8
                Re: Cat having exceedingly strange behavior, Help!

                Huh. That's pretty normal behaviour for my surly cat...


                Mostly art.

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