My 4 year old cat that was born feral, has seemingly lost his mind in the past week.
He was born under our house and was abandoned by his mother due to being super big for his age and slightly “off” mentally.
We took him to the vet, got his upper respiratory infection treated, got him all his shots and neutered.
He has lived with our other two cats since he was a kitten. One is a year older than him and the other is the same age and also a former feral kitten.
Back in the spring Binky started loosing weight and having issues breathing. The vet diagnosed Histoplasmosis and put him on heavy anti fungals.
Starting last week he began to behave oddly around my mom. Mom is in her 60s and a cat lover, she has done nothing to this cat besides pet and feed him. He would jump onto her lap, making strange vocalizations, attempt to paw at her face, and bite her. He was “soft” pawing, his claws were always retracted. He would also become frantic if she told him “No” and pushed him away. It got to the point that we had to lock him in another room. The whole time his eyes would be “glazed” and he’d have this possessed look.
He also started to attack one of the other cats at random. That cat had done nothing to him and would attempt to run and hide from him. He’s more of a “peace not war” cat, who has never even hissed.
He’s seen the vet, who is as confused by this behavior as we are. They could find nothing wrong with him and he is now on Prozac.
He’s crazy because he’s a cat. What further explanation do you need?
The behavior with your mother sounds like he’s reverted to infancy (not all that extraordinary; the process of domestication has left all housepets somewhat infantilized), and is treating her as his mother. I don’t know about the aggression to the other cat, though.
I wonder if he’s having some issues since you said he was mentally off as a kitten. It’s strange that something took so long to develop if that’s the case, though. I wonder if a second opinion is in order? I’d also ask on some of the cat groups on Facebook if you’re a member, even OT ones as most likely someone will have some suggestions for you. Is the Prozac having any effect yet? If that doesn’t work, while my cat’s just a jerk to the other cat and doesn’t have issues like yours, he’s really settled down with a calming collar I got on Amazon. I zip-tie half a collar to a breakaway collar for safety and it lasts about three weeks. They’re three for $10 so you’re not out much if it doesn’t work.
I really hate to break this to you, but your mom might not be long for this world.
Have you heard about the cat at the old folks home who always befriended the next old codger who was going to shuffle off their Mortal Coil? He was always right!
I was playing with him once (Like I have a hundred times before), he got a little too rough with the play biting. I gently swatted him on his head to get him to let go. Which only made him bite harder. So I swatted him again, this time a little harder.
He got all butt hurt and ran away. He NEVER forgave me for that. Every time I got near him after that point, he would hiss at me.
And ironically, before that incident, he favored me over the GF. And it was her f’n cat!
Anyway, maybe your mother accidentally stepped on the cats tail with out realizing it and the cat is still pissed about it.
The vet thinks it might be an after effect of the Histoplasmosis + his weirdness. He’s been off the meds since June and they just started him on 1ml of Prozac once a day.
Can you find out if the meds can cause seizures? If he were a person I would have guessed that considering how common both random aggression and a glazed expression are signs of absence seizures in people with intellectual disabilities.
Children can exhibit bizarre behaviors when they have a bacterial infection like strep. Most kids are also other symptoms of the illness too, like fever and sore throat, so two things happen: 1) the illness is treated quickly, and the behavior never gets extreme; and 2) the behavior is chalked up to fever and feeling bad from the discomfort of the illness.
However, you very rarely get a child whose ONLY symptoms are behavioral, and the bacterial infection doesn’t get picked up on, but continues, and the behaviors get increasingly bizarre. There have been rare cases where a kid who really needed a dose of penicillin got diagnosed as autistic, or hyperactive, and put in spec. ed., or on Ritalin before someone figured out what was really going on.
It happens in the elderly too. Especially with UTIs. So basically, the two groups least able to self-advocate have this problem.
Now, I have no idea whether the same thing can happen in cats, but it seems worth exploring. Ask the vet if it’s even remotely possible that he could be having a behavioral reaction to an infection, and if a trial of an antibiotic would be worth a try. The worst she can do is say no.
Cats do unusual things because they get messages from the Cat planet. You can tell when they are receiving messages because they get a blank expression and then do inexplicable things. Typical messages include:
“Go claw the speakers.”
“That pencil is your enemy.”
“You no longer like Seafood Supreme cat food.”
“All humans are out to get you.”
“There’s something under the blanket and it must be killed.”
