Worried about my cat (long)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This is really a GQ, but I’m starting it here because it’s kind of a fuzzy question. (pun intended.)

Something really strange is going on with my cat.

He was a local orphan kitty when we moved in here. Oddly enough, I never saw him until we discovered that we had mice. A lot of mice! I was telling a friend about the situation, and she mentioned that there was a homeless cat in the yard of a house down the street that she had looked at while shopping for a house. So I put a bowl of food out on the porch, and sure enough, he showed up. I actually heard him meowing down a long flight of stairs with the door shut. I went downstairs, and invited him in. That was almost two years ago. Needless to say, there are no more mice!

Over time, he gradually lost his skittishness and fear of people. Two weeks ago, he was sleeping on my bed every night. When I was at the computer in the living room, he would sleep on a suitcase next to me. Whenever I went into my bedroom where his food is, he would get up and follow me there, hoping for fresh food. When I came home from work, he would greet me at the top of the stairs. When I went into my room to go to sleep, he would follow me in, nibble a little kibble, then settle down on the bed.

Now, this week, everything has changed. He flat out refuses to go in my room at all. If I pick him up and carry him there, he immediately goes out my window. (his former mode of egress & ingress.) If I put food in his dish and call him, he will sit down six feet away from the door and look at me. He will only eat out in the kitchen. He will not go near the suitcase. He spends all his time on a rug in front of the kitchen sink. He exits and enters through any window but the one in my room. Weirdest of all, if I had steak, he would always beg for some, and demolish whatever I gave him. Last night I had steak. He begged, but would not eat what I gave him. This is too damn weird. I’m really worried about him.

The only thing that has changed is, we did a massive spring cleaning. But no furniture has been moved, and that was a week ago anyway. All I did in my room was vacuum really thoroughly. He doesn’t seem to be hunting mice, because I never hear him pounce or see him with any prey. When he’s on the kitchen rug, he’s not in stalk mode, he’s just reclined. He doesn’t seem sick at all. Does anybody have a clue what might be wrong? He is fixed, by the way. About three years old.

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2

Is the kitchen nearest the exit? Sounds sick, loss of appetite, no hunting, and desire for solitude. Vet time.

3

When he eats, does he do it with his normal gusto, provided it’s in the kitchen?
Can you tell if he is going to the bathroom as usual?
When you say he spends all his time on the rug, do you feel that he is actually lethargic? Or just that he doesn’t follow you around?

4

Yes, he seems to be eating fine. And I don’t think he’s lethargic. It really seems more like a psychological thing. He has always been really attached to me, and now he’s acting like he doesn’t want to be around me. He doesn’t have a box; he goes outside, so I can’t tell about that. But he is drinking water.
There is an open window in the kitchen, and one in the bathroom, and he also meows at my roommate’s window to get out that way if he wants to. All windows lead to the same roof. I don’t know why he would suddenly start avoiding MY window.

5

Since he’s indoor/outdoor and was originally more feral, there are a lot more options on what he might be up to compared to an indoor only, bottle-fed cat.

Going to the vet isn’t a crazy idea. You said you’ve had him 2 years. Any guesses as to his real age? Do we have the potential for some geriatric issues?

At the least, a trip to the vet will get you some dewormer, which he likely needs since he’s out eating mice.

If you want to do the wait and watch approach, I would try locking him in the house and putting his food in the bedroom. See exactly how much of the behavior change is him teaching you new human tricks. But, that is on the caveat that everything else about him appears normal.

6

Did you by any chance travel? Spend a weekend away?

7

Thanks, Pullet. He’s three or four, I think. No way he’s over six. I hadn’t thought about worms/mice. That’s a good possibility, because he caught a half-dozen mice a few weeks ago. I’ve been wondering, actually, if he might be avoiding closeness so as not to spread some vector to me. Maybe that’s a bit anthropomorphic, but he’s that kind of cat. :slight_smile:

I have a friend who works for a vet. (She doesn’t know enough about cats to help with this, though.) She says that Revolution gets worms too; I’ll try that just on GP.
No, Marienee, he doesn’t ever stay gone more than a few hours at most. I think he goes outside when I’m not home, but he always seems to know when I’m coming back. My roomies say he comes in a few minutes before I do, every time.

8

No, I mean did you travel? This looks like the behavior of a betrayed kitty who is trying hard to trust you despite your having done The Dreadful Thing. The Dreadful Thing I did to my adoptee was to go away overnight. So that’s what I thought of.

9

My guess is that it’s psychological/environmental, related to the spring cleaning. Cats are very sensistive to odors beyond our range. Did you use some cleaner? Take a item of bedding out of storage for your bed? Wash bedding in a different product?..You get the drift, think about all the small things you did while you were cleaning the bedroom. Most likely something has put him on alert. Having spent time as a self-sufficient feral he will always be more skittish than a domestically raised cat.

That said, the de-worming and possibly a trip to the vet are not bad ideas either.

He’s a beautiful guy. Sending good wishes your and his way!

HillKat

10

Vet time! Any major unexplained personality change that lasts for more than a few days should certainly be checked out. It doesn’t sound like it’s a major health issue but you might as well rule out things like worms and so on.

Once you get the all-clear sign, and if you still don’t know what to do, I recommend giving Farnam’s Comfort Zone with Feliway a try. It’s a liquid with feline pheromones, an odorless product that you either spray around your room(s) or use as a plugin, and it can help to calm cats and prevent stress-related behavior.

I adopted a small family of cats (mom and her two kids) and one of 'em, Sophie, was a skittish little thing who wasn’t adapting well to the change from the shelter. She was hiding and urinating in unpleasant places. I used the plugin and the poorly-placed piddling stopped altogether. Seriously, it was like turning a tap! Plus all three started to get along again.

Sophie’s still a bit skittish and shy – it’s not a cure-all or a personality-changer – but she never went back to her old ways, even after I stopped using the plugin after about a month.

My point is that maybe the cleaning spooked your little guy and perhaps the Feliway can calm him down a bit. Good luck whatever happens!

11

Sorry, Marienee, read you wrong. I did in fact go away overnight, actually a few times lately because I have some relatives who just moved into a house in the hills where coming back is hard at night. You’ve got a good point there. HillKat, too. And thanks, he is a big beautiful pot of honey.

That being said, wow, choie, I have never heard of that stuff!! It sounds like just the thing!! I will talk to the vet about worms etc., and definitely get some of that stuff.

Thanks, all. I feel much better, having consulted the board’s cat owners – IMHO the best source of informal cat advice around.

12

Another thing I’m wondering is if you changed soap/shampoo, or have been eating anything different lately…things that may make you smell (to a cat) different may change his reaction to you.

Also, how much outside time is he getting? He may be a little bored. If all of his mice are gone, he may want more to do.

13

Missed the edit window – just talked to my friend at the vet’s. She’s going to get me some, & I’ll let you know how it turns out. :slight_smile:

14

Revolution will get roundworms and hookworms, but not the more common two kinds of tape worms that your cat could have picked up from fleas or by eating mice. To get the tapeworms, you need a course of Drontal or Droncit from a vet.

Revolution also kills heartworm. Now, your cat isn’t showing signs of heartworm infection, but if he has some, and if you give him Revolution, you can kill him. Revolution kills the worms too quickly, and they clog up the lungs and have toxic break down products.

I’m not trying to terrify you. What I just described would be the really rare outside case, especially given your cat’s clinical signs. But, it would suck to be that one case.

If you want to start him on Revolution, get him heartworm tested first. The clinic your friend works for can likely help you. The test is cheap and can be done in minutes.

In short, if you want to do anything other than behavioral modification, you need to take him to the vet.

15

Just tried to give him some sliced breast of turkey lunch meat. His favorite thing. He wouldn’t eat it in the bedroom, but he ate it in the kitchen. Big question marks. Thanks for the headsup, Pullet. (Cat advice from a chicken. Heh!)
Swampwolf, almost missed your post. Hmmmm, good question… my eating habits by now are quite standardized, because I know what I want, and I know how to cook it. :wink:

I have been using a new perfume, occasionally. It’s lavender-based. Do you think that might be putting him off? If so, the cat-pheromone is looking like a better & better choice.

16

Just a quick add - I’ve had several cats over the years and it always seems that the altered males seem to go through some behavioral issues at around 3 or 4 years. I have a friend going through it with her cat right now. Changed his eating patterns, started marking when he never had before, would go through extended sulks. He seems to be getting over it now, but the vet found nothing wrong at all. I’ve been through similar things with some of mine - sort of like hitting teenage-boy moodiness or something, They’ve all worked through it eventually.

I’ve never had my girl cats go through it. They all start out bossy & bitchy and stay that way.

17

It’s possible that you have a ghost or something evil in your bedroom.

Sorry. :stuck_out_tongue:
Sometimes if cats have a bad experience in a certain area or with a certain object they will avoid it like the plague. Was the kitty anywhere around while you were vacuuming thoroughly?

I have a set of 3 scars on my left inner arm from one of my cats. I made the mistake of carrying him past one of those small ShopVac vacuum cleaners that was sitting on top of a dresser. As soon as he saw that vacuum he freaked and scratched my arm with his rear legs to get away. He was only a year or two at the time, he’s going on 18 years old now and I still have those scars. I call them my Clan of the House Cat marks. I don’t remember his first vacuum cleaner scare but he obviously was scared by one at some point.

Nature abhors a vacuum … so do cats.

18

The perfume could definitely be it. My cats asbolutely hate this one lanolin hand cream I use. If I dare to go near them after applying it, they scatter. My little guy Geoff gets visibly angry, with dilated pupils and furrowed brow.

Try going without the perfume for a day or so and see what happens. I also think checking out the worm thing is a good idea, especially for a kitty that spends time outdoors.
Oh, I almost forgot the obligatory cat link. Geoffrey