What a weekend!

[canada_socks 97]

Ok...Saturday night. My cat lost it's MIND. My cat is kind of weird to begin with. She isn't the most friendly cat, but she will show affection now and then. She also adores me, she is my baby. She comes to me and cuddles with me and plays with me no problem. She seemed fine with my fiance this whole time. Whenever he visited she was fine. Up until Saturday night, here in our apartment, she was fine.

I went to bed before my fiance, and he came in shortly after saying something was wrong with my cat. So I went to check on her. She was hissing and growling! When I got close to her she actually shrieked and screamed. Like a piercing shriek louder than I have heard any child make. I was scared. I have never seen her like this before. We called the emergency vet and they said to bring her in, maybe she got hurt. We couldn't even get near her. So, we closed the door and tried to sleep. We both got like, one hour of sleep. I was hoping the next morning we would go out to find her calm and sitting on the couch. No such luck. She was staring at the bedroom door and hissed loudly at me when I stepped out.

We managed to catch her in a bin and we took her to the vet. Once at the vet, she calmed down and was fine with us. The vet checked her over and couldn't find anything wrong and didn't know what to tell us. We decided to bring her home and were told to bring her back if it kept up and they would do more tests on her, but to keep her confined for the time being. We took her home, and put her in the laundry room (which is a decent sized storage room actually). I made sure she had food and water and made sure her litter was fresh. She was fine for 5 minutes. Then the hissing and growling started back up. We asked the vet about Feliway, and she didn't want to say it would work, but to give it a shot.

We bought the Feliway spray and a few hours later she started to calm down. We kept her in the laundry room, because we couldn't trust her yet (still not fully ready to). She hasn't hissed in about 12 hours, and hasn't hissed at me at all in 24 hours. She is still in there because there is a maintenance person coming in today to do something with the water (apartment next door is being renovated and they are doing the plumbing today...our soon to be new apartment yay!). I don't want her to throw another fit with him here.

Now I have bought the Feliway diffuser and have it plugged in. I did take her out for about 5 minutes this morning and she seemed a bit tense (mind you the last memory she has of this room is of me and my fiance trying to catch her in a bin...). So I'm taking baby steps lol!

Has anyone else had problems like this before with moving their cat? I read on here reports of people getting Feliway before moving and spraying the carrier and the apartment before letting the cat out. I didn't think it would be an issue with her since I had her in college (Fanshawe yay!), and would move her back and forth from home to London and back. Never had a problem with her. It could be because it is all new (I haven't unpacked yet so my scent isn't around the apartment yet). Maybe because there are other animals in the building? I find it odd that she got aggressive 2 weeks after arriving (and my fiance said that not even 15 minutes before hand she was curling up next to him, purring, on the couch). I know cats can show displaced aggression, so it may be the stress of the move but two weeks seems like a long time for displaced aggression to me. But who knows.

Anyway, I just wanted to see if this happened to anyone here and if I should be able to trust me cat again? She is 10 years old, so she is getting up there in age. Also, for those moving with cats, PLEASE use Feliway, even if your cat is normally calm! You never know how they will react!

Edited October 11, 2011 by sherrybaby

[Flames9_RN 358]

We moved from DC area to Nicaragua a few months back with our 2 cats and 1 dog, and all went well thankfully. I know with cats, stress can bring on bladder infections, at least thats what our vet said! Quite often animals act very strange when they are in pain. Hopefully she calms down and gets back to normal

[patient2010 93]

I hope she gets back to normal soon good luck

[Kathryn41 3,205]

It sounds like something frightened her. I know it is hard to think of but please consider if something happened during the time you went to bed and when your fiance came in. Did he inadvertently trip over or step on the cat? Did he roll over or trap her? Did he go into the hallway and another animal was at the doorway? Did she come face to face with another animal at the window? It sounds very much like fear aggression. Something happened in that 15 minute time period to frighten her very much. She was already feeling fragile due to the move. 10 years old is an old age for a cat to deal with a lot of changes and whatever happened (which may not seem like much to people) has shaken her world up beyond her breaking point.

I have had to deal with re-directed aggression with two of our cats and for a number of years literally lived with cats separated into different rooms unless we were actually with them. The initial cause was an outside cat coming up to the windows in our back door and trying to jump at our cats through the glass. They were upset and couldn't get to the intruder so started to fight among themselves. It is a long road back from such a situation and I still have one who stays in the spare room overnight on her own because she is still frightened by the other two cats and will hiss at them - and they then get frightened that something is wrong and will hiss back - and then start fighting. So, I have to stop the 'hissing' before it starts or interrupt the hissing when it happens. It is definitely a problem at times.

Aggression that is directed to people is even more challenging to understand. That is why I suspect whatever happened to her involved a person - not deliberately, but even accidentally, something happened to hurt her or to frighten her and make her feel very unsafe. It probably happened in the main part of the apartment which upsets her when she returns to it because she still associates it with whatever happened. It could even be a type of redirected fear aggression - she is so frightened by what happened that she is re-directing the aggression to you because she couldn't address it to whatever happened to her. She does not feel safe there at all. Giving her a sanctuary place is important. Allowing her time to return to a feeling of safety without anything else to upset her is vital.

Using the feliway is great. It will help reassure her that she is safe and her environment is safe. The fact that she hasn't hissed at you in 24 hours is also great. Just keep talking to her and trying to get things back to 'normal' in your own mind in dealing with her (I know, that is hard to do) will also help. Give her treats, little tidbits by hand, whatever, to help re-establish that connection between the two of you. You don't want to intrude on her space as that might make her feel unsafe again, but you want to 'reward' her so that she returns to that trusting feeling the two of you had before.

I think it is really important that you and your fiancee discuss exactly, minute by minute, what happened after you went to bed. Did he get up and get something? Did he move to change the TV channel and caught her tail under him? Did he step on her or trip over her? Did she bite into an electrical cord and get shocked? Did she get bitten by an insect? Did he try to pet her try to hold her when she didn't want to be petted or held? Had he been petting another animal recently and she smelled that animal on him? Did he try to punish her for doing something he thinks she shouldn't do - like scratching the furniture? (That was one that caused my husband to have problems with one of our cats). He may or may not know what set her off but unfortunately, something happened and the cat viewed it as a threat to her well-being and safety. If your fiance is not 'animal-smart' or even 'cat-smart' he may not even know how something he did affected her. People who are used to dogs often try to use the same techniques on cats and it definitely doesn't work. Cats do not respond to punishment and this could be a possible cause. It took my husband a long time to learn how to 'live' with my cats even though he likes animals. He has had dogs but had never really lived with indoor only cats before. He had to learn to stop treating them and expecting them to behave like dogs, and it took a lot of adjustment on both sides.

Good luck. You have my total sympathy because I have been where you are right now and it isn't fun.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Kathryn41

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Having gotten new kittens recently - I would say your best bet is to restrict her to one small room for a week or 2. Keep her food and her litterbox in there. Visit her often, both of you and spend time playing in there with her. For whatever reason she must be very disoriented...I agree that it's so weird that she has turned this on after being there a couple weeks. Do you think there might be cats or other animals outside the windows that she can see?

My husbands question was whether she used to sleep with you?...maybe she's feeling displaced?

Edited October 11, 2011 by Udella&Wiz

[canada_socks 97]

She did used to sleep with me. We have kept her out of our room as my fiance is allergic. I know she doesn't like that

My fiance did say she went under the tv stand and he was scared she would get stuck so he tried to get her out by pulling the drawer, thinking that would get her to move, then he jingled his keys to move her (something I have always done to get her out of my room when I left the house before hand, as I had white carpets and hairballs are not fun on white carpets). Maybe that was the final straw for her? It has never bothered her before. He is upset about that, and feels horrible. I told him if that was the reason it isn't his fault. He didn't know she would flip. It was something I always did.

I plan to take her out alone from time to time, re-introducing her to the living room. We are moving across the hall in a few weeks so that may be good to have a fresh start. Mind you I plan to spray the place with Feliway beforehand. I am also starting her out in a room alone as it is a 2 bedroom, and much larger than the storage room.

My mom suggested she may not feel she has a safe place to hide. At home, she always went under the stairs. It was dark, and she was alone and out of everyones way. It was her favourite spot. I hope to recreate a spot in that spare room for her, possibly in the closet. She seems to like laying on cardboard so I could make a little fort out of a box and blankets or something.

[canada_socks 97]

She was fine with us both at the vet, if that means anything. She was nuzzling up to me and my fiance...

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Cats are a confusing species

You've done all the right stuff - that's a good sign that she was nuzzling you both at the vet..must be the environment.

[Flames9_RN 358]

The only creature more complicated than a women is a cat!!!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

She did used to sleep with me. We have kept her out of our room as my fiance is allergic. I know she doesn't like that

My fiance did say she went under the tv stand and he was scared she would get stuck so he tried to get her out by pulling the drawer, thinking that would get her to move, then he jingled his keys to move her (something I have always done to get her out of my room when I left the house before hand, as I had white carpets and hairballs are not fun on white carpets). Maybe that was the final straw for her? It has never bothered her before. He is upset about that, and feels horrible. I told him if that was the reason it isn't his fault. He didn't know she would flip. It was something I always did.

I plan to take her out alone from time to time, re-introducing her to the living room. We are moving across the hall in a few weeks so that may be good to have a fresh start. Mind you I plan to spray the place with Feliway beforehand. I am also starting her out in a room alone as it is a 2 bedroom, and much larger than the storage room.

My mom suggested she may not feel she has a safe place to hide. At home, she always went under the stairs. It was dark, and she was alone and out of everyones way. It was her favourite spot. I hope to recreate a spot in that spare room for her, possibly in the closet. She seems to like laying on cardboard so I could make a little fort out of a box and blankets or something.

I wonder if she got pinned or caught when the drawer was moved and panicked. It may have been she was pushed by the drawer into the cabinet more and tried to move but couldn't because the drawer was holding her in place. That would definitely terrify her and then when she came out she was so freaked by the experience that she went into survival mode. Cats can get 'caught' into some peculiar places and without actually seeing what was happening to her underneath of the drawer, I am willing to bet that was the trigger. It will take time to reassure her that she is safe. You might want to barrier behind the TV from now on - although I'll bet she won't go near the place from now on as she had a bad experience there. I would definitely provide her with a sanctuary place of some type and give her her own space over in the new apartment. Yes, I suspect she is also missing sleeping with you - her whole world has turned upside down and she isn't finding any place 'safe' anymore, even what she is accustomed to - you.

There are washes and wipes you can use on a cat to help prevent allergy sufferers from having problems with them. You may want to try one of those to make it easier on your fiance as well. Do you have a cat tree or some type of cat furniture or cat bed that she can have in her 'new room'? She will probably like to have some sort of hidey hole behind things or under things like a bed to help her feel more safe. A large, exposed room will not actually help her feel safer so you might want to address what goes into that second bedroom in terms of the cats needs as well. I wouldn't put anything 'moving' in there like an exercise bike or equipment as that too may cause some upset if she gets 'caught' on it or by it.

Just keep reassuring her and talking to her and using positive reinforcement for her and she should return to normal. It does sound like she freaked out when the drawer was moved - she might have been caught or trapped or hurt by the drawer and panicked. That is my guess.

Good luck and keep using the feliway.

[Flames9_RN 358]

Highly recommend http://armarkat.com/ for cat trees! They are very solid. We have had 1 since 2005 and its going strong!! They are very well prices as well.. And if you goto retailmenot.com and type in armarkat.com, you can find a coupon for free shipping and maybe 10% as well!!

Back in Victoria, my ex was allergic to the cats! Actually bathed the cats with allergy shampoo!! They didnt like the bath, but it did help with the allergies! In the end it was easier for her to become an EX,lol

And my wife is allergic to cats as well! So we went the $$$ route and have 2 Siberians which are suppose to be an hypo-allergic cat! 1 cat was fine, but two typed the scale just a bit. Wife is no where near allergic to these 2 as say 1 "normal" cat. But like kathyrn stated their is wipes and stuff that comes out as foam u can rub in!! best of luck

[canada_socks 97]

I let Kitty out today (that is her name...I couldn't think of a name and just kept calling her Kitty until I cam up with something, and it stuck). She is currently curled up next to me on the couch. She kinda wandered around the living room a bit, getting her bearings I suppose. I moved a few things around to block off a few places I thought she could get caught under. But yea, so far she is doing great! She did hiss at me at one point, but I was picking her up and that is actually normal for her (she HATES being picked up). She will be going back into the laundry room once my fiance gets home. He is terrified of her at the moment (and I totally understand why). He did sit in the laundry room with me and her last night for a bit and she was good around him then which made him feel better.

Thank you everyone for your help and advice!