Odd Behavior

[dshank1]

Hi all ... We rescued a cat (his name is Fred & he’s 9 years old) from the neighborhood (for the second time) a couple of weeks ago. He was super skinny (7lbs) when I brought him inside, so I placed him in my guest bathroom with food, water & bedding. I contacted my vet to get him checked out and get flea treatment (since I have other cats). His blood work came back good other the being underweight & anemic, he’s relatively healthy. After a couple of days he stopped eating and then began showing weird behaviors (almost like he was mistreated). He really needed to eat because he was underweight so I started making him cat soup. Wet food, dry food & water blended up in the Magic Bullet. He would start drinking it and then cower away then we would have to give him positive reinforcement and he would start drinking again. After a few days of this along with him yelping while eating I contacted my vet for another visit. I showed them the video we captured and they agreed it was not normal behavior. After a couple of X-rays (all looked good) the doctor thought it might be some ulcers in his esophagus due to the fact that when they pushed on his tongue to observe, he flinched really bad. Sent home with some medicine & antibiotics (for some bleeding gums and sewer smell from his mouth). It’s been a week or so and the behaviors have not gotten any better and it’s very frustrating. At this point I really think he was abused ( We know the house he used to live at) but I really want to say that he might have a few bad teeth and this is the culprit. I will be contacting my vet on Monday to see about a dental appointment. Can bad teeth cause this strange behavior of cowering and running to hide? I’m worried because he’s still underweight and it took him a while to recover when they did his X-Rays under sedation.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Although I can't say for sure, in this case, and if he was, indeed abused, bad teeth could cause the cowering. He is (IF that's the case) in pain and feels even more vulnerable and unsure because of it. Poor baby. Keep us posted on how he is doing, please! And thank you for being his soft place to fall!

 

[stephanietx]

My first thought was to have his teeth checked. Did the vet check his teeth when you took him in?

 

[ArtNJ]

Cowering and hiding needs no explanation at all. You have brought him into a home that is strange to him; you are strange to him. Not eating when you are around would be normal too. Being underweight is normal too, at least in areas with four seasons where hunting isn't always great. I rescued a cat that I wrongly thought was a kitten she was so underweight -- she was healthy and doubled in size pretty quick. None of that necessarily means he was abused. The part that you mentioned that definitely crosses into abnormal is the yelping while eating/swallowing.

The yelping while eating definitely seems like a health or mental status issue of some sort. I'm sure teeth are something he looked at closely already, so it probably isn't that, but maybe he is right about throat ulcers. It sounds more like a tentative guess than a firm dx, but sometimes even human doctors have to work to suss out a dx, trying various things. If you have confidence in your vet, I guess you need to give him some additional time to sleuth this out.

If it is a throat issue, my guess would be the cat drank something toxic. That doesn't necessarily require abuse or even carelessness. My brother's cat died licking a **closed** tub of something the handyman left out -- bad stuff happens sometimes. That said, it does sound like the people taking care of the pet didn't provide vet care, at the very least. And they might have been abusive too - just saying I don't think there is evidence of that yet, apart from not providing proper vet care and, I guess, abandoning the cat.

 

[dshank1]

Thank you for the feed back .... Finally got him to eat last night & had a full bowl this morning, tuna soup was on the menu . After hiding out under the bed in the guest room for a day, he prefers to be in our room. Made a dental appointment for Wednesday, hopefully he continues to eat so he gains some more weight for the procedure. Since February 4th he’s gained just a little over a pound.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

 

[dshank1]

Update on Fred ... He had 4 teeth pulled this past Wednesday and he has been recovering nicely. The first few days he was full of 3 day pain medicine but now he’s starting to show some personality. Still cowering a bit during eating but today he actually ate without me holding his bowl. We are still blending up his food while his mouth heals but today he ate some hard food. We are slowly introducing him to our other cats but for now he has a lovely retreat in the guest bath.

 

[Akittytoy]

That is wonderful news. Sorry he had teeth removed, poor baby, but he seems to be acclimated a little bit to your home. And on a side note, Fred is beautiful.

 

[dshank1]

Update on Fred ... My apologies for the late post, I’m a Big Box Manager & this COVID-19 has kept me very busy. I hope everyone is staying safe and doing well through this pandemic.

Even after Fred had some of his teeth pulled, we were still having odd behaviors. For his check up, the vet noticed his mouth was still inflamed. Stomatitis was the diagnosis and the vet ordered antibiotics & steroids treatments. I’m happy to report that Fred is doing great! We did have a little set back on Saturday with vomiting & loss of appetite from whining off the steroids but a couple of IV fluid treatments and his was good. Fred continues to gain weight & has a sweet personality. Now that he’s feeling better we have started to slowly introduce him to the other kitties.

Now I’m venturing down new territories ... for my beloved Little Man has been “improperly urinating” (we think since January) and after trying to determine the trigger, switching foods, vet appointments for medical issues, changing to using Dr Elsey Littler Attract & using Feliway throughout the house, nothing has worked and we started his Prozac prescription tonight . We think he suffers from anxiety... I am a clean freak, litter box cleaning fool and it has been making crazy to not have the smell in his spots (leather couch & the stove). We now have to cover the stove with pee pee pads.
Really hoping that the prozac works for Little Man cause it’s stressing me out.

 

[mservant]

So glad to read the eating and dental issues seem to be sorted. Really hope you manage to keep his teeth and gums healthy now. Mouse has been doing well since he had 4 of his teeth pulled.
Not so good about the pee and probable stress. Fingers crossed the Prozac settles things down.