Topic: My cats are stressed! (Read 3076 times)

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #20 on:** April 13, 2012, 14:10:57 PM »

Great

jezebel · « **Reply #19 on:** April 13, 2012, 09:13:56 AM »

Yes she is, and charging around like a nutter!

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #18 on:** April 13, 2012, 00:16:51 AM »

Yes they get me too LOL

Is Drum playing again?

jezebel · « **Reply #17 on:** April 12, 2012, 18:36:52 PM »

Gill, they're not on iit anymore, we finished it a week or so ago now (maybe longer, the holidays have confused me!).

Other than not wanting to play (which might have had nothing at all to do with the Zylkene), Drum was her "normal" self, she wasn't subdued or anything.

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #16 on:** April 12, 2012, 16:57:32 PM »

I would definately stop taking it and also ring the vets.

Tiggy's Mum · « **Reply #15 on:** April 12, 2012, 16:39:45 PM »

What a strange 'side effect' of the Zyklene! Maybe you could just ring the vet and update them that Zyklene doesn't seem to have changed things and see what they want to do - there might be other things they had in mind to try.

jezebel · « **Reply #14 on:** April 12, 2012, 16:01:28 PM »

Well, I managed to get the girls to eat their Zylkene for two weeks (Gourmet Gold pate worked a treat - good job it's been on offer recently!) but there's no change in either of them and they still have their bald patches. Although they now love Gourmet Gold!

The only thing I noticed was that Drum stopped wanting to play for the whole two weeks she was on it, and a couple of days after the last dose was seen literally jumping around the garden.

Should I just hope it'll sort itself out, or should I take them back to the vet? They both seem happy and healthy (okay, maybe Drums's a bit bonkers but I think that's her personality!).

snarf · « **Reply #13 on:** March 17, 2012, 19:38:57 PM »

ive read that over grooming can be boredom related- something to do!

my girl, sparecat is also overgrooming her trousers. she first started when i had kitten sweep as a foster (very dominant little boy despite being about 4months old) then it stopped but the fur hadnt fully grown back but hadnt got any worse for over a year then started again mid dec this year and my poor babes lost a strip about an inch wide a month, shes virtually bald underneath but not sore.
abit easier to deal with at mine because it does roughly coincide with fostering and stopping when i took a break to settle neko in so ive stopped fostering

shes top cat and i think the pressure of having to reassert her position with changing fosters was getting to her. although sparecats been checked and ok for cystitis ive added an extra litter tray as for sparecat, the areas so specific it makes sense that her thoughts might be wee focused when shes overgrooming? shes happy with the extra tray anyway

shes a very happy confident affectionate girl who spends most of her time sprawled across duvets and has good relationships with my 2 boys- they frequently sleep next to each other and neko worships her so i cant think of anything else to stress her!
she was unusually clingy in dec which had me really worried and the vet asked if any young children had recently moved in, as it was school holidays their higher pitched voices could be annoying her- and i did have new neighbours with young children, who are wonderfully quiet, but have the bedroom that shares a wall with mine, which is her preferred daytime nap place and as soon as schools went back she went back to her usual routine, it can be such little things that upset them

Liz · « **Reply #12 on:** March 17, 2012, 18:03:58 PM »

If they like catmilk split the Zylkene in to that - I do it here and I have very untrusting ferals who love the milk and drink it with the Zylkene in it

jezebel · « **Reply #11 on:** March 17, 2012, 16:14:09 PM »

Funny you should mention that, I got them some pate today (cat food pate, not human!) so will be trying that tomorrow.

Tiggy's Mum · « **Reply #10 on:** March 17, 2012, 15:56:54 PM »

What about mixing the Zyklene into a special treat

Tuna, beef or salmon paste (no onions), pate etc would wek well

jezebel · « **Reply #9 on:** March 17, 2012, 13:38:41 PM »

I've decided that the capsules are way too big to give them whole, so tried mixing with food earlier. Bass ate some of hers but Drum didn't.

I'm not sure Feliway will do any good - like I said earlier, we've used it on and off pretty much for 18 months now, sometimes two or three refills in a row. We had one going a few weeks ago. Maybe I should get some more spray though, I could douse the cat tree where Drum spends a lot of time.

Angie: thanks for the link but the girls won't touch anything other than Felix!

Angiew · « **Reply #8 on:** March 17, 2012, 13:24:48 PM »

you can buy food now for calming

http://www.medicanimal.com/setSessionLocaleProductList/product?product_id=1000112449&newLocale=en_GB&gclid=CJ2_6OSD7q4CFc4LtAodYE3MKw

I think it contains the same stuff as the Zylkene - must look myself!

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #7 on:** March 17, 2012, 13:05:48 PM »

i think it will make the stress worse and think feliway the best option..............can take a couple of weeks to kick in

jezebel · « **Reply #6 on:** March 17, 2012, 10:42:53 AM »

Can't! I've tried this before and they won't touch their food if it's been tampered with. Plus Drum often nicks Bass' food!

Dawn F · « **Reply #5 on:** March 17, 2012, 10:40:09 AM »

I think you break the zylkene open and sprinkle the powder on food

jezebel · « **Reply #4 on:** March 17, 2012, 10:36:17 AM »

Quote

You say that nothing has changed in the house recently but what about outside - any noisy new neighbours or similar? Change of washing powder or cat food?

Nothing I can think of. And they only eat Felix pouches so I gave up trying new food ages ago.

We've used Feliway on and off since we got the girls because it seemed to help Bass come out of herself (and out of the bedroom!) a bit. (BTW, you're right TM, she's a different cat these days!) The vet has given us two weeks' supply of Zylkene - have you seen the size of them?

I'm now worried that two weeks of having to swallow them will just add to the stress!

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #3 on:** March 17, 2012, 01:48:50 AM »

They could be picking up stress from you but so hard to know and even harder to do anything about it except for Susannes recommendation.

So pleased mine trust me cos I always so stressed......sigh

Tiggy's Mum · « **Reply #2 on:** March 16, 2012, 21:12:31 PM »

I guess the main thing is that the vet has ruled out any skin diseases or fleas etc that would need treatment.

It does seem odd that they have both started doing it though

You say that nothing has changed in the house recently but what about outside - any noisy new neighbours or similar? Change of washing powder or cat food?

As you say they both seem very happy (and going on the description of Bass when she first arrived she sounds like a different cat!) then maybe it's not something to get too hung up on. You could try Feliway or Zyklene maybe?

I'm always shocked (and grateful!) that Lu doesn't overgroom or wee in places he shouldn't **touch wood** as he's such a sensitive little soul and very easily spooked. My plug in had run dry without me noticing and yesterday he was being ridiculous - running away from me and looking at random things like they were going to kill him (he's not quite 100% since his carrier bag scare

). Plugged a new one in last night and today I was woken up by him jumping on me and purring very loudly/paddling on me and he has been found flat out upisde on his back and didn't even stir when I stepped over him - miraculous stuff if you ask me!

jezebel · « **Reply #1 on:** March 16, 2012, 19:17:37 PM »

Drum and Bass are stressed, apparently!

I posted here last year about Bass losing a lot of fur on her inside hind leg. The vet diagnosed ringworm, which I wasn't totally convinced about but I gave her the drops she was prescribed - they seemed to help a little at the time but in the end didn't improve her much. A few months later I noticed Drum had little bare patches on her hocks, and had started overgrooming her spay sway (which really doesn't need to be made any more noticeable than it already is!).

So tonight we took them to a new vet, who I really liked. He examined them a lot more than the last vet and spent a lot of time talking to us about what it could be. He too thought ringworm was very unlikely, and has eliminated fleas or any kind of infection. But he thinks it could be stress, and now I'm racking my brain trying to work out the cause. I'm worried that maybe it's me, cos I do suffer from anxiety sometimes (although very low level these days) so I'm wondering if they're picking it up from me - is that possible?

If not, then I really don't know what it could be. Nothing's changed recently, nothing new in the house, no strange cats hanging around. As far as I can tell, they're both happy and healthy - Bass is actually far happier and more relaxed than she's ever been, considering she was a shy, scared little creature when we first got her. She's recently started coming into the living room at night and sitting on a lap - something she's never done before.

Could it be caused by anything else - age perhaps?

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