Cat terrified of floor and furniture.

hi guys. first post. Little background info our cat chessy is, we guess to be about 7 or 8 years old. She was a stray and back when we got her, she was estimated to be 2-3. She was fixed and declawed..took us sometime to teach her shes a HOUSECAT, but shes forgotten about the outside.

Chessy is usually a playful, dossile, friendly cat. Spends most of her time on the floor and maybe someones bed or computer chair, staring blankly at her tweaked out sibbling.

So we come home one day and shes sleeping on the dinning room table. Very strange. She never goes up there..

As the night goes on, shes not coming off. We'd find her later sitting on the ktichen table or the coffeetable..

Took us a day to figure out, she will not go on the floor. If you place her on the floor, she frantically jumps back up.

She will make a trip to the kitchen to eat, or to use the litter box, but she runs full blast to get there.

Alright, we figured shed get over it...been a week, and getting very old. Shes a clutz, and since shes gotta stay on the table (which shes not used to) she'll frantically move from 1 table to the next, staying on the furniture...including stepping in people's dinners, nocking anything in her way off, and now hurting herself by just falling, slipping, sliding right off the table ..etc..etc

We've tried to play with her on the floor. After 4 days best we can do is get her to sit on a blanket with someone....for a very short time

Where ever you can get her off of a table, shes always staring off in one direction...in the living room it will be at the dining room table, or strangely under the recliner..in the ktichen she looks towards the dining room...i tried to take her in my room today..let her sleep on her favorite guitar case..watching her favorite aquarium..instead she sat alert watching out the door, and ran downstairs...nocking off dishes when she got to the table.

Nothing has changed. We just came home one day and she was acting like this. The other cat, whos one of those wound up cats (hence the name spaz) is acting like her usual self. but only now since chessy is hiding, spaz walks around meowing for her.

our pet rabbits arent acting up neither. Just her. Im coming to the conclusion she dreampt something or the ghosts in my house spooked her..we're that much out of ideas.

We thought we were making progress. Every night we'd sit with her on the blanket ont he floor, and she'd stay longer..only today we found out, she WILL NOT stay on couches, chairs, beds, etc etc

Can you guys suggest anything? This is getting old fast. Thanks in advance.

I wonder if she originally saw either a bug (I know your house is clean :-)! that she's waiting for to come back, or a bird out the window from the table vantage point? Cats just remember these things forever, and will return to such a place over and over. But I'm not even convinced myself, and wonder if the vacuum scared her one day and she's afraid of being eaten on the floor, or someone sprinkled odor-out powder in the carpet, etc.? Maybe the chicken soup powder that comes with a Mr. Noodles packet could be (one time!) sprinkled in 1-2 places - for later vacuuming - to entice her down - crazy as it sounds?

I would check the ingredients on the chicken soup powder and make sure there aren't any garlic or onion powders in it as well.

Will she let you hold her on her lap? If so, can you feel her paws to see if anything causes her to flinch? My guess is you'll need to slowly desensitize her to touching the floor again. Will she touch the chairs? If so, put treats on the chairs and give her lots of attention when she goes to the chairs. Maybe you could get a step stool which would get her closer to the floor. Eventually, put the treats next to the floor, so she can still get to them from the step stool. Gradually work up to getting her on to the floor again.

Cats do have long memories. I bought some catnip bubbles. When I blew them, Odo touched one with his nose. After that, he became afraid of the bottle. If I put the bottle next to him, he would run from the room.

Are you using any kind of floor cleaner, wax, carpet cleaner, etc.? Do you wear shoes in the house (maybe something you can't smell but your kitty can was on the bottom of someone's shoes)? I agree to check her paw pads. Maybe a good cleaning of the floors with just water would help. Good luck!

Cheers, from
SwampWitch

I'm sorry I have no idea...I've never heard of a cat being scared of the floor. I just wanted to say Welcome! and I have a cat named Chessy too! He is a boy though, 5 years old.

Hi guys, thanks for the welcoming Jenny.

Well since my last post, still no luck..in fact its getting worse. Her poor sister cat is so freaking lonely..she spends all her time screaming at us (she doesnt meow, she just like..yells) and trying to cuddle and be cute. It is cute, but its sad.

There are no new cleaners, heck im a college student, u think i clean my floor?

the rest of the house is well maintained and nothing new has been added. i ALWAYS walk around bare foot.

Anyways chessy just came in here protesting, and jumped from the floor onto my scanner...nocking off the scanner and alot of other expensive things right onto the floor. SO i yelled at her..usually the noise would scare her off. NOPE! instead she frantically tries to jump 5 feet from the floor to the top of my betta aquarium. After catching her in her jump, setting her down and saying "NO!" she sits down, stares at me, and attempts to jump the stool where i have books stacked...of corse falling on the ground ...so i pick her up and put her on my bed since she soo desperately cant stand to be on the floor. Not good enough, she stared at the door a bit, and took off.

We've been TRYING to get her on the floor with treats. ANd yea that works, she takes the treat and runs onto the table..or will eat it, then return.

I asked a local vet. They havent the slightest clue. All i know is my cute kitty is turning into a pain in the butt that keeps breaking expensive things! over some stupid fear.

Will she sit on you? Have you been able to feel her paws to see if any of them are extra sensitive? Maybe she hears or feels something in the floor. Can you put your ear to the floor and see if there are any weird sounds she might be picking up on?

Her paws arent extra sensative. No she wont sit on us, she used to when she got in the "im cute love me" mood, but not anymore...she actually wont even pay attention to people unless its time to eat, or, when she gets stuck somewhere and she has to touch the floor. then she meows endlessly hoping someone picks her up.

The one thing thats recently changed in the past month is ive upgraded my goldfish aquarium in the basement.

Keep in mind this cat is terrified of water, and doesnt come NEAR anything with water in it, so my fish she ignores..but the filter splashes much louder now. thas my one guess, she hears it through the floor... but she should be used to that, since in my room theres 2 20gal tanks, and 1 is a saltwater with a skimmer and refugium (ALWAYS hear moving water in here)..and her reaction didnt happent il weeks after it had been setup...she used to sleep in the basement though by the tank on a guitar bag

Hmm. I was thinking maybe there is a mouse, or termites, or something in the floor that she can hear or feel scurrying around.

I suggest getting a behaviour specialist that specializes in cats, and have them come over and see if they can figure out what is wrong.

I read a little article years ago and it turned out the cat had allergies to fleas that were in the carpet... but besides that...maybe spaz freaked her out one to many times? I had a cat afraid of the gold "trim" you see when a room goes from carpet to tile. he'd want to go to the kitchen and would run full speed and then jump over it-sorta funny except he was abused so i guess it was a trigger. is there anythign about her staring that is the same-like is it an entrance of hard to see around corner? also being declawed might be worth a vet visit possibly xray to rule out the claws regrowing RJ

Boy is this a bizarre one!

Couple of additional ideas: Feliway plug-ins in the rooms, a stress formula flower essences, and maybe spraying some catnip spray on the floor in a few places? Start in one room and expand the territory a bit if it helps?

Maybe a few new throw rugs - even if it's over existing carpet? Or throw rugs with a bit of catnip sprayed on them?

Just brainstorming here....

Link for feliway and flower essences: http://www.catfaeries.com

OK! I'm usually just hanging around reading the threads and not adding to the conversation [shy], but I just wanted to jump in here. We had the same thing happen with our [now] 12 yr old Spud about 2 and a half yrs ago. He's always been a inside kitty but my husband got a bug up his... anyway, thought Spud would like to enjoy the outdoors. We got him used to a harness and leash and would take him out every evening. He loved it!!!! Still does. But he started acting afraid of the floor, would jump from every peice of furniture to avoid it. I took him to the vet and found that he had fleas for the first time in his life. I guess it made him feel all creepy and somehow he associated that with the floor. Flea problem taken care of and he was back to his old self. I know it sounds really far-fetched but is worth checking on. I hope you find out what the cause is soon. I know it's very worrisome when kitty's behavior changes!