- Joined
- Dec 25, 2016
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Hi,
I'm a little concerned about my 7 year old cat Felix. As those of you who have followed my earlier posts know, he is a shy cat with a history of a blockage (On Royal Canin SO, no repeat). I thought he was doing fine, jumping up on both my dad's and my lap voluntarily and generally making a pest of himself when he wants attention.
Over the past couple weeks, he has definitely regressed - reluctant to come inside and when he does almost anything (a cell phone pinging, someone putting the foot rest on their recliner down) and he's off. Today, he chirped when he saw me and followed me into the house. Something scared him though, and he refused to come into the living room and ran right back out.
Some things that have changed in his life We had family visiting around New Year's. My sister is allergic, so we shampooed our carpets and kept Felix in the garage/outside. After my sister left, we installed a baby gate to keep him from going upstairs (so that we only have to shampoo part of the house next time).
He had an incident with my Dad where my Dad was evidently petting him too much and he let him know he didn't like it (I didn't see the incident, but there were no bite marks or scratches that I could see). My Dad does have some residual effects from a stroke (the side of his mouth droops), and he looks a little stooped and shuffles when he walks, but he's been that way for a long time. He's also very sweet with cats (my other cat, who we had to euthanize, loved him). My Dad is hard of hearing and tends to turn the volume on the TV up to where it is loud for me (I wear hearing aides), but again that's not new.
My parents had the washer repairman in yesterday.
I accidentally got scented litter instead of unscented last time I placed an order.
He needs his claws trimmed, and I sometimes flinch when he tries kneading me - So need to get an appointment with the groomer to get his nails trimmed.
All of this stuff sounds trifling, but maybe something or a combination of something is bothering him.
My questions are - Do I need to rule out a medical issue if this continues (as far as I'm aware there is none)? And what can I do to help him settle? Thanks
I'm a little concerned about my 7 year old cat Felix. As those of you who have followed my earlier posts know, he is a shy cat with a history of a blockage (On Royal Canin SO, no repeat). I thought he was doing fine, jumping up on both my dad's and my lap voluntarily and generally making a pest of himself when he wants attention.
Over the past couple weeks, he has definitely regressed - reluctant to come inside and when he does almost anything (a cell phone pinging, someone putting the foot rest on their recliner down) and he's off. Today, he chirped when he saw me and followed me into the house. Something scared him though, and he refused to come into the living room and ran right back out.
Some things that have changed in his life We had family visiting around New Year's. My sister is allergic, so we shampooed our carpets and kept Felix in the garage/outside. After my sister left, we installed a baby gate to keep him from going upstairs (so that we only have to shampoo part of the house next time).
He had an incident with my Dad where my Dad was evidently petting him too much and he let him know he didn't like it (I didn't see the incident, but there were no bite marks or scratches that I could see). My Dad does have some residual effects from a stroke (the side of his mouth droops), and he looks a little stooped and shuffles when he walks, but he's been that way for a long time. He's also very sweet with cats (my other cat, who we had to euthanize, loved him). My Dad is hard of hearing and tends to turn the volume on the TV up to where it is loud for me (I wear hearing aides), but again that's not new.
My parents had the washer repairman in yesterday.
I accidentally got scented litter instead of unscented last time I placed an order.
He needs his claws trimmed, and I sometimes flinch when he tries kneading me - So need to get an appointment with the groomer to get his nails trimmed.
All of this stuff sounds trifling, but maybe something or a combination of something is bothering him.
My questions are - Do I need to rule out a medical issue if this continues (as far as I'm aware there is none)? And what can I do to help him settle? Thanks