One of our cats (brother and sister) has started acting very weird. We’ve had them for 2 years and he has never missed a meal. He went missing overnight Saturday, missed breakfast Sunday and strolled in mid afternoon.
He hissed a bit at first but then seemed Ok.
He went missing again overnight Sunday,missing breakfast and dinner then came back about 9 tonight. He was a bit dusty, hissed a lot, ate a little bit and refused Dreamies (unheard of). Then he hunkered down in the corner of two rooms and did a piddle in each.
He looks really grumpy but doesn’t seem to be in overt pain. He’s busy skulking around at the moment but it’s like we’ve got an alien cat rather than our big fluffy rogue.
Any ideas what’s wrong or is the advice take him to a vet and check there’s nothing wrong?
Thanks

Vet.

Is he straining when piddling, or not piddling much?

Vet. Something’s bugging him.

How old is he sprootlet? Has he been eating/drinking relatively normally? Is he neutered?….

He is about 6, was neutered ages ago. The piddling was a small amount, a bit like he was trying to mark a territory, he didn’t seem to be straining but i was busy getting stuff to mop it up! He normally polishes off every scrap of food and he’s left some so not his usual self I guess.
Sounds like its the vets for him tomorrow …..

Sounds like one of our tom cat but ours was Not neutered

I think he is wanting some female companion so probably been searching all over the neighbourhood or perhaps in territorial war.

Watch out he will be very grumpy and may not like to be touched and if he is angry he might even piss all over.

From now on he will wonder away from home for longer period of time once he starts coming home late. Ours would go away for two years at one point.

Not sure about yours as he is neutered.

🙂

Glad he’s not straining. Male cats not weeing is a world of pain!

He’s probably been dumped by that Maine Coon slapper at number 4 😉

Thank goodness he’s neutered! Lovely bit of responsible pet ownership there! …. *like*
I would have to hazard a guess at a new ‘guy’ in town that he feels threatened by. Sounds a bit weird but if there’s a new cat in town that’s bigger/better etc, he’s still going to have to look after what he’s got, or rather, what he used to have!!
He needs to feel secure at the moment…. Have a look at your garden for starters. If you can, then rig up some artificial elevated platforms for him. This helps him feel like he can see the ‘whole’ area without disruption.
Then make his own home secure…. Cat flap or not, make sure access/exit points have ‘roomy’ bits so no-one has to cross paths too close.
It sounds like he’s urinating to make ‘ his’ area smell of ‘him’…. Another reassuring reaction! Hopefully you won’t need to but Feliway would may be of help here to in the near future????

What’s the vet said?… Any news?

He went out last night and missed breakfast again. Came back at 5.30 and too late for the vets evening clinic.
So he’s locked in tonight with a litter tray and its a 9.10am vet visit in the morning.
I really hope its just a urinary tract infection or similiar. He’s skulking around, avoiding us and generally looks miserable. I know he’s just a cat but honestly you can tell there’s something wrong with the big furry thing.
Fingers crossed and update after the vet…..

Good luck. Fingers crossed it all goes fine.

Hope all goes well at the vet and keep us posted..,

Thank goodness he’s neutered! Lovely bit of responsible pet ownership there! …. *like*

Agreed but if you have a female cat, get her seen to if you don’t want her getting pregnant. Cats are terribly promiscuous and they’ll let any strutting dandy shag ’em so that’s equally responsible.

As for the OP’s cat I’d guess he’s had his nose put out of joint by a bigger, stronger, more handsome cat who can stare for longer than he can. The weeing inside does sound like that sort of problem. Hopefully that’s all it is.

They are both done, we’ll have no incestous relationships or little bundles of fluffy blackness in this house.
As for his nose put out of joint by a bigger cat, he is the size of a not so small dog (7.5kg and 1.15m long tip of nose to tail), has a slight rip in 1 ear with yellow eyes. I haven’t seen a cat bigger around here although he does seem to hate things ginger…..and next doors cat is indeed ginger.

Cat bite abscess developing somewhere. Most likely back or bottom area is my guess. Let us know how he gets on.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice.
He has crystals in his urine that is causing him the pain and the pain is what’s making him act weirdly.
Treatment is cystitis capsules and a NSAID for pain relief and it’s due to a mix of too much dried food and dehydration. Apparently its mainly male cats that get it and it can be fatal if there’s a big crystal that blocks the urethra.
He is already slightly more settled and eating a bit more but still hisses if you pick him up so he’s still in a bit of pain.
Always good when its not serious although a trip to the vet is never a cheap experience…..

Oh no, one of mine died of that so hope he gets well.
It did cross my mind when i read of his symptoms as its pretty much exactly what Flint went through but i didn’t want to alarm you.

Blocking is a high risk with neutered males cats. If I had seen this yesterday I would have said get home early and get an end of the day appointment as they can go down hill very quickly. I certainly wouldn’t have left him over night.

Ours used to get it when he was stressed, normally when our female house mate went away. We would have to get a Feliway out and keep a close eye on him. Now he’s got used to people coming and going and we give him wet food in the morning. We did have him on special pouches from the vet for a while (thanks to the 50% discount as the OH was a vet student) but now just get normal food. His dry food is a decent brand pro-renal just in case, although we need to switch them to the neutered cat version as he’s getting a bit of a tubby tabby.

I am something of an unwilling ‘expert’ in this area, so if you have any questions, email in profile.

(He lives, £4k later, most of which wasn’t necessary).

I developed a deep distrust of vets and came to the conclusion their job was to put animals down, recommended the food brand they’re affiliated to *Cough* Hills *cough* and extract maximum out of an insurance policy.

He has crystals in his urine…

As soon as I started reading this thread I started thinking that and was going to suggest that as a likely cause – glad you have a diagnosis. One of our three cats has the same and he does get ‘special’ food.

Oh Sprootlet, I’m sorry to hear it’s not something a bit more basic. It’s great news it’s treatable though, just follow their advice & see how things go. Good luck & get well soon feline friend!

There are also water fountains; which I’m sure the vet advised, which encourage the little shits to drink more.

You may have to play around with a few different models (interweb is very useful for weeding out the clear ‘no-no’ ones, which cats run away from).

It’s also comical watching them try to beat-up flowing water.

Again, you’ve probably been advised this, but if you keep him in for a while, you’ll be able to monitor his wee functions. You can actually massage them to help.

However, s wet food only diet is the key, and oddly enough, it’s the cheap crap cat food that’s the winner in these circumstances. The luxury chunks of chicken/whole rabbit’s head range actually contain too much protein. Whiskers in jelly all the way. £3 for 12 from Asda.

Cats are a pain in the arse!

I think ours died of crystal whatever in the bladder.

Our local North Borneo butcher, I mean cowboy vet (doubt he is a qualified vet), operated on him but he died the next day.

I really would like to operate on that vet myself with my JapLand knives. 😡
Until today I still miss him dearly. As a kitten he was clinging onto his life on a wooden log being washed down from a river where my father saved him. He grew up to be so handsome and was amongst, I got many, the most adorable cat I have had.

As for his nose put out of joint by a bigger cat, he is the size of a not so small dog (7.5kg and 1.15m long tip of nose to tail), has a slight rip in 1 ear with yellow eyes. I haven’t seen a cat bigger around here although he does seem to hate things ginger…..and next doors cat is indeed ginger.

It’s not about size, it’s how long they can stare for.

Glad you have a diagnosis, hopefully you can get it resolved now.

Funny how all men say it’s not about the size 😉
Much better this evening, jumped on my lap and covered me in cat as he normally does 🙂
Wet food is sorted, he likes it anyway and considering fortiflora which is a probiotic that tastes really good and might encourage him to drink more water. We looked at the composition of the foods and came to the same conclusion of bearnecessities, expensive does not equate to the best. No more hoovering up his sister’s leftover biscuits though.