My cat's been acting a little strange lately, and I'm hoping maybe I can find some help here before I give up and take her to the vet.
Since maybe Sunday, she's been acting kind of lethargic. Moreso than her normal cat self. She'll pick weird spots like the bathroom, or cat beds she doesn't normally use to just hunker down and sleep or space out. She sorta doesn't have much of an appetite either. She's a fatty cat (losing weight tho) and has to eat in a room separate from the other cats because she gets a special diet food. Usually when I let her out of the room the bowl is empty, but lately she doesn't even touch it.
So here's why it's confusing:
It's not an all the time thing. The reason I'm hesitant to take her to the vet is because she just had a check up 2 weeks ago. I figured maybe she caught some ick from the vet's office and it would pass in a couple days. Her nose is cold and wet, though, and she's not coughing or sneezing or anything. She'll also do her normal routine of getting exciting with the other cats when it's feeding time, and chases the laser pointer around with tons of energy. I'm thinking maybe it's her mouth or a tooth?
Today when I fed the cats, she didn't eat any of her food. She went to one of the other cat bowls and ate some of the left over morsels from it. I put another cat bowl down that had more left over food in it and she pigged out on it too. After she finished, she kept rubbing her paw against the side of her mouth. Something she apparently did yesterday morning as well. So, I dunno what the heck's going on with her. He check up went well. The vet said she was doing great, anfd she even lost a pound. He also said her teeth looked fine, just a little plaque but nothing bad.
I also looked in her mouth this morning, and didnt notice anything immediately bad. Her teeth looked ok, and her gums didn't look red or inflamed. She was like "why are you doing this, this is weird" but not overly sensitive to me poking around in her mouth. So yeah... I dunno what's up. I'm hoping someone here has any possible suggestions. Otherwise I'm just going to have to take her back to the vet =/
One last thing: I have 4 cats total and the other 3 are their normal selves. The last time one of the cats got sick, it spread through all of them super quick, so if it was some kind of ick I feel like the other cats would be displaying similar symptoms/behavior by now.
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sleeping in new places is an indicator of illness, but it can also be a sign that she's just too hot due to summer rolling around. My oldest cat, Cat, will start sleeping in the bathroom if she's too warm, cause it has the coldest floor.
She's not eating her diet food. She's been eating it less and less since Sunday. Today was the first time I've noticed she didn't eat her food at all. I normally pick up the other cat bowls before I let her out of her room, but I didn't today. She went right up to check for any leftovers and ate them with no issue.
Out of curiosity, is there any difference in texture between her food and the other cats' food?
If her food were dry kibble and the other cats got soft food, then I'd suspect a mouth problem. If they both get the same texture of food, then nah.
BTW, I used to have a cat with a chronic tooth problem due to an old injury and she would eat dry food if it were available, but she would tilt her mouth to one side so the kibble would fall towards her non-injured teeth.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I wasn't sure if the floor pooping was related so I didn't mention it earlier.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
It's actually good to mention because it means she most likely doesn't have a blockage, which is one thing that can occur to make cats stop eating (or at least, did for mine).
Sounds more like a mouth problem, if she's preferring soft stuff and rubbing at her face.
I'm trying to think of a way to troubleshoot this that doesn't cost a lot of money. Odd that she'll eat both the other cats' dry kibble unsoftened but also the diet food softened.
This feels like a logic game.
It's just rough because when the cat's act different or get sick, my anxiety riddled brain immediately goes to feline leukemia or something awful like that...
Either way, if you're concerned call the vet's office. They should be able to give you much better answers even moreso because they just saw her.
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The fact she's eating, drinking and pooping means it will be fine tho. It very easily could have just been something stuck in her teeth or gums that she may have gotten from eating out of her bowl which is why she started avoiding it
She was back to her isolated grumpy looking mood when I got home today, and when I was checking her out I noticed a long strand of drool just hanging from her mouth. Did a more thorough check of her mouth, and there's some kind of reddish looking flap of skin along her lower jaw on the left side. She really didnt like me touching on that area either, and hid under a table when I let her go. She kept making a weird clicky noise in her mouth, and looked like she was trying to push something out of there too. Dunno if it's a tooth or the gums, but I made her an appointment with the vet for tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully the mystery is solved!
My mom took her to the vet, so far the vet's saying two puncture wounds on her stomach, multiple lesions/sores in her mouth and on her tongue, and possibly a paw injury. Not sure on the paw, she could've been licking it or drooling on it. Vet says the lesions are something they typically see when a cat chews an electrical wire, but I cant find any chewed wires in the house. Don't know where the hell the puncture wounds would come from either... I pet her and roll her around while petting her tummy all the time, and I've never noticed any blood on her or the floor.
Like... WTF?!
Edit: Vet says the punture wounds and the mouth thing are unrelated. Most likely a bite mark. I'm guessing she got into a scuffle with one of the others while no one was home. No clue on the mouth sores though... they gave her some antibiotics and a steroid to help with the inflammation. She should start feeling better by Monday he said. My poor little cat's been suffering with this stuff for a few days now... I feel like a horrible jerk!
I mean, kind of, yeah. Who makes a cat thread with no pictures?
And we'll need photos of all of them. Not just the wire chewer.
Happy to hear the kitty will feel better soon
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I was going to let you slide this once, but as long as it's out there...
I can offer a final update on Lucy though!
She is doing 100% better since the vet. Playful, sociable, and back to her normal self. She's been eating all her food with no issues. We've still been softening her food, but tomorrow she's going back to just having it regular. Thanks to all who replied offering suggestions. Happy to say my cat is no longer acting strange
If it's any consolation I'm literally nine months overdue on kitten pictures on our no longer so tiny Roxie girl who is both adorable and a terrible creature that delights in terrorizing big kitty and old dog for her amusement and/or access to a warm spot to curl up in.
Also like three months overdue on pictures of the rescue kitten we took in for a week while he found a new home that when his new family came and picked him up it suddenly got super dusty in here for the entire night shutup I wasn't crying you were crying what do you want from me he literally slept cuddled up with me the entire week
Something to consider as cats get older also is that they can actually go through a tooth resorption. My cat went through this recently and we've had to switch her over to a mainly soft food diet now (she's about 15 years old). The vet we go to says there isn't an exact reason for it but as cats age they can at times have their teeth re-absorb into their jaws, causing the teeth to fall out of be swallowed and giving the gums a more swollen appearance as the jaw is enlarged due to more mass now in it. Something to keep in mind should you notice the behavior later on as she ages.