Cat is way too calm

[lovely2011]

We recently adopted cat #4. We're told she's a little over a year old.

The problem is, she's VERY relaxed.  She sleeps all day, in the same spot, if I move her, she goes right back to her spot.  She doesn't care about the other cats.  Never plays.  She eats and uses the litter pan, and we've taken her to two vets to make sure she's ok - and they say it's just how she is.

I've had two other cats in the same age range, and they were nuts until they got older, so I'm really confused.  Is this truly normal for a young cat?  She acts like she's 15-16, at least in my experience.

 

[stephanietx]

Is there a way to contact the place you adopted her from and find out if she was like this before you adopted her?  Did the vet estimate her age for you?

 

[brandy rowe]

What food do you feed her? Maybe something in it is making her sleepy?  Does she eat a lot all at once?

 

[jcat]

How closely did the vets check her out? Was she examined for heart or thyroid problems? If it hasn't already been done, it would probably be a good idea to get a "senior" blood panel done to check out her organ function.

 

[lovely2011]

Why a senior panel?  She's only a year old.  She has a heart murmur, but so does one of my other cats and it doesn't seem to affect her. 

No history on her.  She was dumped at a kill shelter, and brought out by a rescue.

 

[mrblanche]

I have seen cats like this.  At the shelter, we see the full, wide spectrum of cat behavior.  We have cats like our Flambe, who is the picture of frantic activity.  And we see cats who are closer to pillows than to animals, even in the stressful environment of the shelter.

 

[p3 and the king]

Why a senior panel?  She's only a year old.  She has a heart murmur, but so does one of my other cats and it doesn't seem to affect her. 

No history on her.  She was dumped at a kill shelter, and brought out by a rescue.

Shelters sometimes don't put accurate information on their stats if they have no history and it's just a stray or dumped off.  Senior cats don't get adopted much at all.  So if someone sees the stats on the cage and it says the cat is over 7 yrs old, normally they will pass by and go for a younger cat.  Statistics show that the most adoptable ages are young kittens- 2years old.  With 1 year being the highest adoptable age.  People figure, they can pass the destructive kitten phase and still have an older kitten. 

Your vet will do a more accurate accessment of age.  They have several tests they run.  They will get a closer guesstimate of age than a shelter will.  You need to take any new pet to the vet anyway, just to get them checked over and evaluated.  Usually you should do this within 24-48 hours.  But take him to the vet and have him looked over.  The vet will usually do the tests to figure out a closer age guess if you tell them that it's from a shelter.  Just for precautions and because they need it for their records. 

 

[jcat]

Why a senior panel?  She's only a year old.  She has a heart murmur, but so does one of my other cats and it doesn't seem to affect her. 

No history on her.  She was dumped at a kill shelter, and brought out by a rescue.

A "senior" panel for two reasons: 1) Age estimates at some shelters are often way, way off, and 2) such tests can sometimes pick up problems that aren't usual in young cats, e.g., thyroid problems. You say she has a heart murmur; were an echocardiogram (ultrasound) and EKG done? If not, was at least a proBNP blood test done to look for cardiomyopathy?