This is a very long story that I have posted about before, so I will have to omit a lot of details to keep this short.
Pretty much 8ish months ago I tried to get my outdoor cat (not my house, not my rules) spayed but the person on the phone wouldn't let me schedule an appointment to do it. By the time the vet finally let me schedule an appointment, my cat was supposedly 4 weeks pregnant and I didnt want to do a spay abort that late into it. I decided to wait it out and spay her after. However, she never gave birth and the vet said it was either a false pregnancy or miscarriage.
Anyways, during that time that she was 'pregnant' she suddenly became extremely aggressive towards all of my other cats and dogs (these are big dogs). Previously, she had always been the most friendly, extroverted cat in the world. She loved everyone and everything and was a very boisterous, excited, happy cat. But almost overnight she had become extremely aggressive towards everyone except for humans. She was still extremely loving and cuddly towards humans. I had her checked at the vet before getting spayed and they said the spay will likely help balance out her hormones and help her return back to her happy self.
Except it didn't change anything after she was spayed. So I went back to the vet many times (my regular vet as well as a cat only vet I found) and they ran some blood tests and urine tests and nothing is out of the ordinary. A physical exam also shows she is perfectly healthy and not in pain. So because she supposedly isn't sick or in pain, this is what we/I have tired so far (some stuff the vet recommended, some stuff I experimented with myself):
- gabapentin (did not affect her at all)
- zylkene (made her aggression worse)
- feliway spray in the eating area (did not affect her at all)
- calming collar (did not affect her at all)
- cbd oil for cats (made her more relaxed but also more happy to be aggressive)
- changing her diet (did not affect her)
- simply waiting to see if her hormones needed time to settle (did not change anything)
- and now, the vet prescribed clomicalm
Over time, she has only been getting more aggressive to the other cats and she even scratched my mom for no reason, which is extremely unusual (I really mean no reason, my mom was simply sitting down and she came over to her and then scratched my moms hand when she reached out). She also growls now when I pick her up which she used to never ever do. She used to never leave the property ever too (we have a few acres) but lately she has started disappearing for half a day, once even for 2 days straight, which is highly unusual. I think she is just getting too fed up with all the other animals and doesnt want to be around them anymore. She has been on clomicalm for about 3 weeks now and so far it has not helped at all. I know it can take up to 2 months for it to take effect though so I am still holding out hope. But ever since she had started the clomicalm, she has started disappearing almost every day (she used to follow me around all the time any time I was outside. She was like a little shadow to me but now she is gone all the time). She doesnt want to come eat anymore either, and she never purrs when I pet her anymore (she used to purr all the time). I am worried that the clomicalm is making things worse, but I dont know if this is just a temporary side effect still. And as a side note, I cannot bring her inside to isolate her because its not my house and I am absolutely forbidden from bringing any of the cats inside, not even to my bedroom.
Anyways, I am very worried for her but also I am pretty sure that this is a hormonal problem. The issue started when during a 'pregnancy went wrong' situation and has never resolved. It's perfectly normal in humans to check out hormone levels and that is often the issue with humans, so I asked my vet to do some hormone tests but she said those tests dont exist for cats unless they are pregnant and are doing tests to check on the unborn kittens. She said there are no tests to just check out other stuff like testosterone or estrogen etc levels in a cat.
So I am wondering if that is actually true. I have a very strong feeling, that my medically educated friends have also agreed with, that at the root this is a hormonal problem (possibly a brain problem, but less likely). So is it really true that there is no way for me to test her hormone levels and sort that out? I feel like medicating her is wrong when there could literally be a solution with some more tests. And I am also worried the medication wont even work.
I am considering that if absolutely nothing works, I could build her a catio, but I really really would hate to do this. She has a looot of energy. Out of all of 5 cats, she is the most energetic from all and absolutely loves running around and climbing trees all the time. She normally always follows me around everywhere I go and if I confine her to a catio, she will never get to do any of the activities that she loves so much. I also will not rehome her because my pets are for life and I will do whatever I need to accommodate her until I move into my own house and can keep her inside away from the other cats.
I am just feeling so discouraged here that I am dealing with mystery aggression that the vets cant figure out, and that all the treatments ive tried so far have not helped. If clomicalm doesnt help, the vet said we can try prozac. But Im just getting worried, what if that doesnt help either? And I am worried about her now always dissapearing and not wanting to even be with me anymore. It's like she now hates everyone and everything. She used the be the most friendly cat in the world, she loved playing with and cuddling with my other cats, enjoyed everyones company, and was a constant little shadow by my side whenver I was outside. Now she turned into a completely different cat for no explainable reason.
So in the end, are there actually any hormone tests I could do for her elsewhere?
And does anyone have any other ideas for what could be going on or what I could do to help her?
Pretty much 8ish months ago I tried to get my outdoor cat (not my house, not my rules) spayed but the person on the phone wouldn't let me schedule an appointment to do it. By the time the vet finally let me schedule an appointment, my cat was supposedly 4 weeks pregnant and I didnt want to do a spay abort that late into it. I decided to wait it out and spay her after. However, she never gave birth and the vet said it was either a false pregnancy or miscarriage.
Anyways, during that time that she was 'pregnant' she suddenly became extremely aggressive towards all of my other cats and dogs (these are big dogs). Previously, she had always been the most friendly, extroverted cat in the world. She loved everyone and everything and was a very boisterous, excited, happy cat. But almost overnight she had become extremely aggressive towards everyone except for humans. She was still extremely loving and cuddly towards humans. I had her checked at the vet before getting spayed and they said the spay will likely help balance out her hormones and help her return back to her happy self.
Except it didn't change anything after she was spayed. So I went back to the vet many times (my regular vet as well as a cat only vet I found) and they ran some blood tests and urine tests and nothing is out of the ordinary. A physical exam also shows she is perfectly healthy and not in pain. So because she supposedly isn't sick or in pain, this is what we/I have tired so far (some stuff the vet recommended, some stuff I experimented with myself):
- gabapentin (did not affect her at all)
- zylkene (made her aggression worse)
- feliway spray in the eating area (did not affect her at all)
- calming collar (did not affect her at all)
- cbd oil for cats (made her more relaxed but also more happy to be aggressive)
- changing her diet (did not affect her)
- simply waiting to see if her hormones needed time to settle (did not change anything)
- and now, the vet prescribed clomicalm
Over time, she has only been getting more aggressive to the other cats and she even scratched my mom for no reason, which is extremely unusual (I really mean no reason, my mom was simply sitting down and she came over to her and then scratched my moms hand when she reached out). She also growls now when I pick her up which she used to never ever do. She used to never leave the property ever too (we have a few acres) but lately she has started disappearing for half a day, once even for 2 days straight, which is highly unusual. I think she is just getting too fed up with all the other animals and doesnt want to be around them anymore. She has been on clomicalm for about 3 weeks now and so far it has not helped at all. I know it can take up to 2 months for it to take effect though so I am still holding out hope. But ever since she had started the clomicalm, she has started disappearing almost every day (she used to follow me around all the time any time I was outside. She was like a little shadow to me but now she is gone all the time). She doesnt want to come eat anymore either, and she never purrs when I pet her anymore (she used to purr all the time). I am worried that the clomicalm is making things worse, but I dont know if this is just a temporary side effect still. And as a side note, I cannot bring her inside to isolate her because its not my house and I am absolutely forbidden from bringing any of the cats inside, not even to my bedroom.
Anyways, I am very worried for her but also I am pretty sure that this is a hormonal problem. The issue started when during a 'pregnancy went wrong' situation and has never resolved. It's perfectly normal in humans to check out hormone levels and that is often the issue with humans, so I asked my vet to do some hormone tests but she said those tests dont exist for cats unless they are pregnant and are doing tests to check on the unborn kittens. She said there are no tests to just check out other stuff like testosterone or estrogen etc levels in a cat.
So I am wondering if that is actually true. I have a very strong feeling, that my medically educated friends have also agreed with, that at the root this is a hormonal problem (possibly a brain problem, but less likely). So is it really true that there is no way for me to test her hormone levels and sort that out? I feel like medicating her is wrong when there could literally be a solution with some more tests. And I am also worried the medication wont even work.
I am considering that if absolutely nothing works, I could build her a catio, but I really really would hate to do this. She has a looot of energy. Out of all of 5 cats, she is the most energetic from all and absolutely loves running around and climbing trees all the time. She normally always follows me around everywhere I go and if I confine her to a catio, she will never get to do any of the activities that she loves so much. I also will not rehome her because my pets are for life and I will do whatever I need to accommodate her until I move into my own house and can keep her inside away from the other cats.
I am just feeling so discouraged here that I am dealing with mystery aggression that the vets cant figure out, and that all the treatments ive tried so far have not helped. If clomicalm doesnt help, the vet said we can try prozac. But Im just getting worried, what if that doesnt help either? And I am worried about her now always dissapearing and not wanting to even be with me anymore. It's like she now hates everyone and everything. She used the be the most friendly cat in the world, she loved playing with and cuddling with my other cats, enjoyed everyones company, and was a constant little shadow by my side whenver I was outside. Now she turned into a completely different cat for no explainable reason.
So in the end, are there actually any hormone tests I could do for her elsewhere?
And does anyone have any other ideas for what could be going on or what I could do to help her?