Cat Suddenly Act

[mlevant1965]

Hi there!

Our 11 year old female cat suddenly seems spooked going into our kitchen. We have had her for 5 years now, and she never acted this way before. Her food and water dish is on the floor. She would go eat and drink with no problem.

We have our dining room table close to our island counter. She always jumps from the table to the island counter to greet us when we walk in the door. She often likes to eat her food on the island counter first, so she will again jump from the table to counter.

About a week now, we heard her make a sudden half sneeze half cough. Just once a day for a couple of days, but it stopped. Nothing changed in the kitchen. She suddenly became very hesitant, reluctant, and scared to go or stay in the kitchen. If she does start eating in the kitchen, after a minute, she will turn around and run upstairs.

She will eat if we bring her food to her in another room or on our steps, but something is making her not want to go in the kitchen and stay or go on the island. I tried to root her on to jump to the island, but she looked at me and then ran upstairs. It is so weird.

A vet examined her, but didn’t see anything wrong. She did have some teeth pulled, but she was fine. We thought maybe there is more teeth issues, but the vet didn’t notice any issues. We don’t know if a bug scared her, if she jumped and missed, or if she heard something that scared her. We are confused.

Besides the kitchen fear, she acts normal. She Is loving, cuddly, and sweet. She sleeps with us.

Has anyone experienced this? Any advice? Could this fear go away?

Thank you!

Mark

 

[di and bob]

The fear will most likely subside after a time, but it could be months. I would say SOMETHING happened, it is just unknown. Can she see outside from the island? she may ahve seen a coyote, dog or tom cat that scared her. That half sneeze, half cough may be a clue, maybe she fell or slipped while doing it? that half sneeze could be terror from her seeing something. Maybe jumping up on the island caused her to cough and it scared her. It could be anesthesia related too, they often have slight coughing, breathing troubles after surgery. If a cat gets hurt jumping down from somewhere it may make them afraid. Maybe putting a small table or something for her to jump to that is lower may make it easier for her.

 

[rubysmama]

I've never had anything like that happen myself. But members have posted about Re-Directed Aggression In Cats [Insight And Solutions] - TheCatSite, when something scares their cat and they act aggressively towards another pet or even a human. So I wonder if something like that happened with your cat, except she's thankfully not being aggressive, just scared to go to the place where the fright happened.

You'll probably never know what scared her, but hopefully in time the fear of whatever it was will fade

You could try putting a Feliway diffuser in the kitchen. Reviews on Feliway are mixed though.

A quick site search found this thread, though not the same as your case, is similar as it happened suddenly.
Suddenly Scared Cat

 

[Kris107]

I agree that something must've happened - maybe when you were away or asleep. Some cats just get the willies about things. I have a cat who is terrified of the foam roller we have. To our knowledge, nothing bad has ever happened with him and it. It is secured in the top of a closet unless we're doing to use it. Never dropped it on him or anything accidental. But he will get up and run under the bed if we get it out. He also doesn't like any big movements from us. Arm waving, dancing, etc. You can try desensitizing and it might help over time. Use food/toy or whatever motivations she has to slowly warm her back up to it.

 

[Caspers Human]

About a week now, we heard her make a sudden half sneeze half cough. Just once a day for a couple of days, but it stopped.

This stands out for me. Why was she sneezing? Could it be what's causing her to be afraid of the kitchen?

Did you use some sort of cleaner that "got up her nose," so to speak? Did you, maybe, burn some food? Could there have been some bad food or something in the garbage can that smelled bad?

I don't know but it seems like there might be a connection. What do you think?