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?

 

[mlevant1965]

Good afternoon.

First of all, I apologize for not replying to all of your responses. I thank you di and bob rubysmama K Kris107 Caspers Human for your input and thoughts. I really appreciate it.

I am sorry for not getting back sooner, as this has been a very hard month.

It is with a broken heart and me writing this while crying to let you know, that we had to put our beautiful Tillie to sleep. It grew to be cancer in the mouth. She was in such pain, but tried so hard not to show it. The cancer was eating at her jaw bone.

To give the story line...

On November 6th, we took her to the vet. They said her gums looked a little pink. They did a thorough examination, blood panel. and 2 x-rays. They found nothing else wrong. We hoped things would change.

Took her back on November 15th to say that nothing changed. She still seemed afraid of the kitchen and food and we had to bring some food to her. The vet opened her mouth and saw the gums inflamed and was bleeding to the touch. They gave her steroids and anti biotics. That day she seemed so much happier and started acting normal. Then she went back to the same way being afraid of food.

November 24th, took her back again. The vet checked her mouth again, and the swelling and redness had gone done. We explained she still was not acting herself. She gave us some other pills to give her to help the pain. We bought soupy foods for her and tried to hide the pills, but she wouldn't eat them. She would eat a little food and then run away from it.

Tillie would ly on me and purrrr. She would ly on my fiances arm in bed. During the day, she would hiss at my fiance if she walked near her. We thought maybe she was mad or scared she would try to get her into the cat carrier to take her back to the vet. She didn't hiss at me. She sometimes hid under our bed or in my fiances closet. She didn't take her pills. When she hissed, it came out with a lisp. We never saw her drink water. We were very concerned what was going on.

On December 2nd, she ran when we tried to put her in the carrier, but we got her in and took her back to the vet so they could do further testing. The vet called as we were driving home, saying Tillie was fighting to open her mouth. They gave her something to relax her and got her mouth open. They said it looks like a tumor and they will do further checking.

A few hours later we got the dreaded call. She didn't say it was cancerous, but she would bet it is. She was in such pain and the tumor was eating at the bone. They can try radiation, chemo, pain meds. We didn't want to put her through all of that. They told us that we can take her home with the pain meds, but we would be bringing her back in a week to put her down. She dropped 2 pounds, from 10 to 8 pounds in a month. We didn't want her to suffer. We didn't want to be selfish. She deserved to be at peace. That beautiful girl. The vet felt we made the right decision.

We drove back to the vet to say our very very tearful goodbyes and told Tillie how much we love her. She was sedated on the table - eyes opened. They gave her the Euthanasia and she was gone in about 20-30 seconds.

So hard to type and cry.....

Came back home to our single cat, Emmy. I am sure she notices Tillie is not around.

Every room I walk into, I think of her and where she was and how we interacted. Oh the pain and grief.

Anyways. That is the story. Darn cancer. Thank you again for your thoughts and input. Have a great holiday and New Years. Always love your pets.

Mark

 

[di and bob]

I am so so sorry for your pain over losing your beloved Tillie. It takes a long time to heal a broken heart. Please come to our Crossing the Bridge forum and leave a tribute to your beautiful little girl when you are able. My thoughts and prayers are with you all, RIP precious Tillie.

 

[rubysmama]

Oh, I'm so, so sorry. I was not expecting to read that, and I have tears running down my face as I type this. Sending hugs to you and your fiance. RIP dear Tillie.

 

[mlevant1965]

I am so so sorry for your pain over losing your beloved Tillie. It takes a long time to heal a broken heart. Please come to our Crossing the Bridge forum and leave a tribute to your beautiful little girl when you are able. My thoughts and prayers are with you all, RIP precious Tillie.

Thank you thank you so much! Kathy and I really really appreciate the support.

 

[mlevant1965]

Oh, I'm so, so sorry. I was not expecting to read that, and I have tears running down my face as I type this. Sending hugs to you and your fiance. RIP dear Tillie.

Thank you thank you so much! Thank you for your support. This is so painful.

 

[DeesCats]

I am so very sorry to hear about Tillie's passing.

 

[mlevant1965]

I am so very sorry to hear about Tillie's passing.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. This just happened so fast. Still can't believe it. At the beginning the vet didn't think it was cancer. So devastating.

 

[AbbysMom]

On behalf of the site Team, we are all so sorry for your loss. I just had to do the same yesterday. It's so hard. We close threads after a loss like this as a sign of respect. When you feel up to it please consider starting a memorial thread in our Crossing the Bridge Forum.

Rest in peace, Tillie.