Behaviour Problem Or Something Else?

gilmargl

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I hope this won't be too long an introduction, but in 3 months we (my foster and I) have had 4 visits to vets and I am no nearer coming to a decision on what this young cat requires than when I took her (Meghan) into my home at the end of last year. In just over 3 months, her behaviour has changed from noisy and affectionate (according to the woman who found her), to friendly and quiet, to indifferent, to "normal cat behaviour" and now back to restless, affectionate and noisy (meowing day and night).

Her history, as far as one can believe what the finder of the stray cat described, is as follows: Meghan had been roaming the streets for at least 20 months, she was always hungry and grateful for food, followed people about, sat in the middle of the road, ignoring the traffic and cried non-stop. The woman who eventually brought Meghan to us was prevented from keeping her as her own cat wouldn't let her near the house.

I first met Meghan, with her finder at the vet's. Meghan has a dreadful squint, has quite a severe heart deformity and was estimated to be at most 3 or 4 years old. Her fur had been partly eaten away (probably by fleas) but there was nothing acute requiring immediate medical treatment. I brought her home and housed her in her own room (cellar, with window and heating) away from my own 3 cats. She settled down quietly, I treated her for fleas and worms, she was no longer always hungry but, whereas she had been super-friendly, she slowly became almost indifferent to any attention. She was however always cleaning herself and the fur on her back legs was also disappearing. The woman who had found her came to visit and was astounded how quiet she was, lying peacefully on the cat tree.

I felt she was unhappy so left her door open and within a few days she was running around with my own 3 female cats. There was some hissing at night but no fights. Occassionally she would have her afternoon nap in the cellar but she was quite happy to lie on the sofa or in the middle of the living room floor. She was still not particularly interested in me or my family, moving discretely away if we sat too close to her.

As I was worried about her getting out of the house (she was so inquisitive) we had another visit to the vet to get her chipped. This second vet, confirmed the heart diagnosis, checked again for fleas as she obviously didn't believe that at least that problem had been solved. Finding no traces of parasites, she suggested that Meghan was nervous and would probably be happier without other cats around. I knew it would not be easy finding someone to take on such a young cat with health problems but I thought this was probably the only solution.

I then had an emergency visit to another vet as, what I thought was a small scratch on Meghan's throat, had developed into a rather large hole. After once more searching for the non-existent fleas, after looking at this wound and the bare patches in her fur (alopecia), he said quite plainly, this cat is unhappy she must go to another home where she will be on her own. He gave me 20 days supply of hormone tablets (Megestoral) and I was expected to return again when she had finished the treatment.

By this time Meghan had been with me for 2 months, long enough so that I could risk letting her go outside. I let her out on a fine sunny February day and she had a marvellous time. She even responded to her name when I called her. Unfortunately, after being fed she was off again and didn't want to come indoors until 4 am. Since then, she would only go outside at night. The weather got colder, wetter and more windy so that she was now coming home before midnight. I could not get her to change this habit: during the day she slept and as soon as it started to get dark she would climb the walls, scratch the furniture, act as if she wanted to use my bed as a litter box until I let her out! Where on earth do cats learn these tricks? But at least she was friendly and content.

So 2 weeks ago I went back to the vet. The alopecia was not so apparent. The vet believed that if she can go outside when she wants to, the problem will probably solve itself. This time she was given a heart ultrasound and ECG. The diagnosis was not good but she does not require medication yet (no loss in blood pressure). In six months she will need to be reassessed. I asked about spaying/neutering, but having shaved even more fur from the unfortunate Meghan, I was told that there is a scar so it has already been done. I then took her home fairly optimistic that she would continue to settle down.

The weather has got worse. She has not been outside recently, she cries loudly, puts her nose out of the door and comes scuttling back. And now for the third day running, she's meowing day and night. She is nervous, excellent at doing vertical take-offs from our laps, follows me around everywhere wanting to be picked up. At night she jumps on us, gives us head bumps, gets under the bed clothes but will not settle. During the day she comes with me into the cellar which is now home for 2 of last year's kittens who were found together with their owner who had died during the cold weather. (Originally there were 4 kittens, but - success! - 2 were rehomed a week ago.) She finds the kittens interesting to watch and is quiet while I tend to them. Occassionally one of the kittens gets excited and makes her tail fat and bushy, and there maybe some slight hissing. But it's quite harmless.

And now at last my question which concerns her rather eratic behavior: her present nervousness, loudness and restlessness at night is quite nervewracking. She is, however, the only cat in my household who is not frightened of the vacuum cleaner. She has started to play with cat toys and tabletennis balls, but they no longer keep her attention for long.
I did wonder if this meowing and nervousness could be due to a bad or insufficient spaying? Maybe she isn't spayed but has other congenital deficiencies so that she never really goes "on heat" just gets nervously affectionate. Her behaviour is so extraordinary. At the moment she is climbing over my laptop and meowing, jumping off the table and meowing, lying on the floor and meowing...... when will she finally fall asleep?

Sorry, that this is so long. If she didn't have a heart problem, I would pay for an OP just to make sure that she is spayed so that at least that uncertainty has been removed. I can't believe that she is influenced solely by the weather, and not wanting to go out.
Here is the poor cat. I no longer notice her unfortunate squint, which she was probably born with. As I have 2 other black cats, it does at least help to keep them apart.
IMG_20190317_193035.jpg
 

Furballsmom

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Hi!
Thank you for taking in this kitty, and caring for her :heartshape:

I cant' say why she acts the way she does - perhaps there's a little brain damage.

In any case, try some music. Low volume classical harp music, there's an app called Relax My Cat, and there is MusicforCats . com, all sources of ways to help your kitty to be more calm.

Could you try a litterbox that has litter plus some soil from outside in it? That might help her as well.

:vibes::crossfingers:
 

ArtNJ

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Problem is mostly out of my league, but I can tell you one thing, that isn't a squint, its normally or at least sometimes referred to as crossed eyes, and it has a ton of different causes, including some that could easily explain/correlate with erratic behavior. Crossed Eyes in Cats - Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, Recovery, Management, Cost.

Have you considered buying a little cat house that you can plug into an outdoor outlet? They are not that expensive and seem relatively highly rated on amazon, so are probably a decent product.
 

rubysmama

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I don't have any answers to your questions either, but did read your entire post, and wanted to thank you for caring for her. :hearthrob: :petcat::hearthrob:

I am curious about her eye. Did any of the vets ever suggest what may have caused it, and if it might have been an injury that is causing some of her current behaviour quirks.
 
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gilmargl

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Hi!
Thank you for taking in this kitty, and caring for her :heartshape:

I cant' say why she acts the way she does - perhaps there's a little brain damage.

In any case, try some music. Low volume classical harp music, there's an app called Relax My Cat, and there is MusicforCats . com, all sources of ways to help your kitty to be more calm.

Could you try a litterbox that has litter plus some soil from outside in it? That might help her as well.

:vibes::crossfingers:
:thanks:Thank you very much for reading my long report and for replying. I wrote a long answer for you yesterday but for some reason the site broke down and losing my text I could not face starting again from scratch. I’ll try to be quicker and shorter this time, to lessen the risk of things breaking down.

I also wondered if Meghan has some brain damage. She may have been abused. When I accidentally knelt on her tail, she just kept very still. My cats would have reacted quite differently!

She has her own special litter: by chance I’d bought some pinewood-scented litter which she took to immediately. Unfortunately, it is very heavy so not very attractive from my point of view! I will take up your idea of mixing normal garden soil with other (lighter) cat litter as soon as I run out of her present supply. Now, our garden soil is waterlogged – not much use as cat litter.

I do have music for cats. I play it in the cellar to semi-feral cats and kittens. I quite like the music, so will play it here when she next has a spell of restlessness. This morning she was peaceful and later, while I was out, she started meowing and licking her bald patches, so my daughter spent time with her picking her up and tickling her stomach. Meghan knows where the cat treats are kept and is a real nuisance when I am busy in the kitchen. I’m afraid I will turn her into a treat-junkie just to keep her quiet and from under my feet.

Thank you so much for your time. I will keep people informed. This evening (full moon) Meghan has chosen to go outside. I just hope she doesn’t stay out too long.
:dancingblackcat:Meghan cannot purr but I sometimes think she's vibrating
 
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gilmargl

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Problem is mostly out of my league, but I can tell you one thing, that isn't a squint, its normally or at least sometimes referred to as crossed eyes, and it has a ton of different causes, including some that could easily explain/correlate with erratic behavior. Crossed Eyes in Cats - Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, Recovery, Management, Cost.

Have you considered buying a little cat house that you can plug into an outdoor outlet? They are not that expensive and seem relatively highly rated on amazon, so are probably a decent product.
Thank you for reading my text. I did not go into details about the first trip to the vet with Meghan. Here's the story, from the very beginning.

We’d been sent photos of a stray, cross-eyed cat last summer. These were posted on our website in order to try to trace the owner. Fortunately, the woman who was feeding her was willing to continue doing so until someone was able to foster the cat. Last year was a record year for unwanted kittens and there was no space available for adult strays. As soon as my foster kittens had found new homes, we made an appointment with a vet, who specialised in eye problems. She had operated on 2 of my previous foster cats. The woman who had been feeding the cat took the cat to the vet, where she met the chairwoman of the animal charity and myself, who was going to foster the cat.

I have a short, handwritten medical report, which is not easy to read because of the poor handwriting and not because it’s in German. Translation of the parts I can read: Retinal detachment -none; squint due to previous infection or injury but possibly genetic; bright light (sunshine) dazzles. There is far more information on her heart problem. There was never any discussion on a possible eye operation. When an animal does find a home, the new owner gets the medical report and can take the matter further if necessary. But, as a charity, with limited funds, we do pay for life-saving operations – we try to find sponsors for those which are very expensive (ca. € 2000).

By the way, Meghan's eyes cannot be so bad. She has already caught at least 3 mice. Two of them she let loose in the bedroom. We managed to rescue all 3. We now keep all doors closed until we're certain she's not smuggling in another toy from outside.:yummy:

I will investigate the possibility of cat house. Many years ago, I would leave the garage door open to provide for a semi-feral cat which I used to feed. She never took advantage of it even in winter – perhaps because a fox used to prance around inside.

Thank you for your help.:thanks:
 
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gilmargl

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I don't have any answers to your questions either, but did read your entire post, and wanted to thank you for caring for her. :hearthrob: :petcat::hearthrob:

I am curious about her eye. Did any of the vets ever suggest what may have caused it, and if it might have been an injury that is causing some of her current behaviour quirks.
Thank you so much for your reply. According to the vet, the problem could have been the result of a previous infection, an old injury or is genetic (we did talk about inbreeding in cat communities). The retina is intact and the only difficulty could be that she has double vision and she is definitely blinded by bright light.
You are right, a head injury could easily have affected her brain, causing uncatlike behaviour.

I'll just have to wait and see how things develop. :crossfingers:
:bouquet:
 

ArtNJ

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With healthy cats, I've found that allowing a cat outside can have a wide range of positive impacts on behavior, because it gets the energy out so they are not so bored and stir crazy when they come in. Obviously, your cat, it is hard to say, but if outside access seems to help this cat, hopefully you can get the cat to use a heated cat house. If your worried about predators, can you get a catio built or installed?

Not that it matters, but it seems I was wrong -- I thought that "squint" meant *only* droopy/half-closed eyelid, but no, it has two meanings, and crossed-eyes is the second. I agree with you that it is probably not cost effective fixing since the cat sees well enough.
 
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Furballsmom

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She has already caught at least 3 mice.
GO Meghan!! LOL

she started meowing and licking her bald patches
You could try chamomile tea - any that you buy in the store (garden grown chamomile isn't safe) will be good. Brew it, cool it and apply to her bald spots with a cotton ball or something similar. The tea is anti fungal, anti bacterial, will ease itchiness, and if she ingests some it's safe :)
 
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