Cat suddenly scared of everything?

[MoochNNoodles]

Wow @Pookie16 !! I've used Nutmeg many times and this is definitely the first I've heard of this! It does have a strong smell if you inhale it. I always liked when my grandmother would grate fresh nutmeg for her recipes. I always use the jarred kind.

I'm glad Pookie is about back to normal!

 

[T Haas]

I just started my cat on Taste of the Wild dry food last night. This morning she was showing the classic signs of FHS as described below. She'd never, ever had this before. Threw out the rest of the bag.

I've read all the replies here, and am still confused.

You all seem to have a lot of good advice but the search phrase I used to find this thread was "cat suddenly is afraid of everything".

FHS symptoms are:

• Rippling of the skin over the back
• Muscle spasms and twitching
• Twitching of the tail.
• Cats may exhibit strange behaviors in response to touching such as tail chasing, biting at the tail, flank and sides, to the point of self-directed aggression. They run, jump, hallucinate, vocalize, and even turn around and hiss.
• They may self-mutilate with extreme biting, licking, chewing, and plucking of the hair (sometimes called “barbering” or “fur mowing”). This behavior leads to hair loss and sometimes to severe skin lesions.

and Zoey seems to have none of that.

I would be very interested to know if anyone has just the "afraid" symptom going on. Zoey is a possibly 3-year old female, most likely neutered (the vet said most likely, since she hasn't had kittens). She found me one morning in December after I'd seen her wandering around in the neighborhood for about 6 months, so I've only had her for 4 months.

This behavior started about 3 days ago and hasn't gotten any better, but there is no panic or spasms or frantic running around... or any other of the above symptoms. Just afraid. Of doorways, my room, area rugs and corners.

Anyone out there who has had this happen, I would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, I will try a different diet. Currently using Taste of the Wild food.

 

[kbtn24]

I wanted to share that my cat has been going through the same things everyone has been talking about in this post. I have a 2 year old calico. She has always been timid but a week ago she has been more timid than usual.

She is scared of regular things such as slippers or a shirt. I noticed she is scared of things that are darker in color but I'm not too sure if it is just a coincidence. She won't move much but when she does she is low to the ground and very wary. She usually is right by her bowl when she is hungry and we feed her but now she will only eat and drink if we bring her bowl to her. She will also only go to the bathroom when we physically carry her to the litter box.

She will not play with our other cats or even pay attention to her favorite toys. Currently, she will not move from the window sill for anything. She would only move around if we carry her down and move her all the way downstairs. But she won't walk up the stairs because she is too scared.

I will be taking her to the vet today but I'm scared that they won't even know what is going on with her because it seems that no one else in this post has had any luck. I will update if I have anything new but it seems that this isn't uncommon in cats since there have been a few cases in this forum

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I wanted to share that my cat has been going through the same things everyone has been talking about in this post. I have a 2 year old calico. She has always been timid but a week ago she has been more timid than usual.

She is scared of regular things such as slippers or a shirt. I noticed she is scared of things that are darker in color but I'm not too sure if it is just a coincidence. She won't move much but when she does she is low to the ground and very wary. She usually is right by her bowl when she is hungry and we feed her but now she will only eat and drink if we bring her bowl to her. She will also only go to the bathroom when we physically carry her to the litter box.

She will not play with our other cats or even pay attention to her favorite toys. Currently, she will not move from the window sill for anything. She would only move around if we carry her down and move her all the way downstairs. But she won't walk up the stairs because she is too scared.

I will be taking her to the vet today but I'm scared that they won't even know what is going on with her because it seems that no one else in this post has had any luck. I will update if I have anything new but it seems that this isn't uncommon in cats since there have been a few cases in this forum

Poor thing! I'm glad you are talking to your vet. Would she do better if you isolate her in a quiet room? Have a litter box and her own food and water bowls there? It's hard to know if something happened while you weren't there or what could be going on. If only they could talk!

Welcome to TCS! Please let us know what your vet says and how she is doing.

 

[Balha]

Hey Everyone,

Same issue here. Our rescued (russian blue by chance) cat of 3.5-4 years, called Balha, was looking through the window at the opposite building when he suddenly did what me and my gf refer to "throat singing" (an alarming meowing sound) and the onset of fearful skittish behaviour began. There was nothing moving or alive at the window except some static stink bugs on the outter side of the net.

He would see the potential of danger at many places, stare into corners and drawers with distrust.

He is normally very confident and curious and considers every inch of the house conquered and under his command.

We've narrowed it down to possibly 4 things:
1. Nature's Menu cat treats (we've discontinued all treats now). We don't normally give him those but we've had some brought in as gift and gave him some the day before and he vomited in the evening before he got scared.

2. Possibly one of the stink bugs got squashed by the window or by him or it just released its scent on its own and this triggered his sudden meow, fear and consequential behaviour.

3. During outage in the shops of his wet food we had to increase his dry food intake for 4 days until online order got delivered. Dry food was: Applaws Grain Free 80% Free Run Chicken with extra lamb, 20% veg and natural extracts, hypo allergenic, prebiotic and pro biotic". We normally give him some in the evening to clean his teeth.

4. Fall has also set in, with amounts of sun drastically dropping, he is a different person when there is sun, always bathing in it and moving with it around the house, so may be this too contributed.

May be it's a combination of all 4, who knows.

I've read someone's advise here that drawing attention to the objects that frighten him is not a good idea, but in our case demonstrating that there is no danger at the places he is looking at has helped convince him those places are already cleared.

On day 3 we've made a little progress and he has resumed playing now and again, but every unusual or drastic background sound is a good enough reason for him to stop.

Hope a strict diet, attempts at getting him back at playing games and encouragement will get him back to his normal self.

We're moving to a new flat soon and I hope this will be a reset button for him, especially since he will have access to a garden this time.

I'll let you know how it goes with time, but from what I deduct this is not a FHS, symptoms seem to be only psychological for most of the described cases unlike FHS symptoms which seem to be at least partially physical too.

Sorry to be from those people who only join the community when they need help, but at least I will try not to be from the ones who leave it after getting the help they needed.

 

[Balha]

Quick update - all seems to be back to normal. It actually got back to normal within 4-5 days by sticking to his regular food, no treats. Actually I think letting him get a bit hungrier than normal helped. When he thought much about food he stopped caring about possible "invisible" danger and just became his normal whining self when he was hungry.

Good luck all.