My baby seems really mad at me

Hi,

I had to bring Javi to the emergency vet last night because I discovered he had a deep hole in his thigh. It turns out they thought it was an old injury that had developed an absess and opened up. It was so stressful and he kept making this intense eye contact with me while they were examining him and I'm sure it really hurt. It was like he was saying, how can you let them do this to me? Save me! I stroked him and kept trying to reassure him, but it was really scary for him. And they had to shave him around the wound and flush it out.

Ever since I brought him home, he won't have anything to do with me. Except for staring at me from across the room. When I go to pet him, he leaps away. And he wouldn't cuddle with me this morning either. I feel so sad. He probably thinks I betrayed him. I think he's really smart and probably has a good memory. Our dog was never like this. As soon as I took him for a walk, all was forgotten. Is this unusual? Do you think he'll forgive me? Has anyone else's cat acted like this after the vet??? Please let me know they forgave you.

He'll forget and forgive, just give him a little time.

My cat Mischief was the same way right after her spay surgery. My darling, docile, sweet, shy little cat turned into the cat from hell! After she attacked the vet and climbed his arm when she came out of the anesthetic, I brought the girls home and Mischief was growling and hissing and spitting at anything that went near her. Unfortunately, that also meant her sister who was in the same carrier with her! I actually had to take the carrier apart and remove the lid so poor Frosty could crawl out for safety. No one could even LOOK at Mischief for hours. Once the drugs wore off, she was okay but still wouldn't let anyone touch for a few days. Once her pain cleared up, she became affectionate again.

I've never in my life seen a cat do such a Jeckel & Hyde switch of personalities!

To make a long story short, I believe that once your cat's discomfort eases, he will love you again.

My kitty Bud used to sit a few feet in front of me but with his back to me when he was mad. Depending on what it was about this could last 30 minutes to a few hours, but he always got over it. Pumpkin got really mad at me when I had to be away for 11 days once and he sort of slightly hissed at me when I tried to reach him under the bed and remained right out of my reach. He was over it within 30 minutes, though, and then I couldn't get him off me.

I think one of the charms of cats is that they have the audacity to get so mad at us even though we feed, shelter and love them. I think it's great and shows their independent personality and sense of entitlement. The good thing is they usually get over it and yours will too I'm sure.

He'll forgive you. I've had Swanie behave that way to me a few times. It hurt my feelings at first and I was afraid he would stay mad forever, but he got over it. And he really doesn't get mad at me much these days.

Cindy is the one with the long memory. She doesn't get mad, but she gets scared. If I come home from work and take her to the vet, she will associate me coming home with the vet for weeks and hide under the bed. But she'll come out in the evening and be just as friendly as can be.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could explain to them what is going on and why? It really must seem like every so often we turn on them and take them to the torture place.

He will totally forgive you! It just might take a few days. My Possum is the same way. 2 weeks ago I had to take him to the vet. After that I had to squirt medicine down his throat. This was on Monday. It was Thursday night before he was back to normal. I also figured out how to give him his medicine is a much less traumatic way after the "incident".

Today I had to take poor Possum back to see if the meds were working, and the vet had to put stuff in his ears AND give him a shot! Poor boy was NOT happy! I thought he was going to hate me for a week! But not even an hour after we got back he let me pet him, he was rubbing against my legs, and he was sitting in my lap! I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but this morning I told him where we were going, that I loved him, they might give him a shot, and it might hurt, and he might be scared, but it was all to make him feel better.

So just give him his space and his time, and he'll come around.

Tricia

Thank you. I'm glad to hear other people had a similar reaction from their cats and they got over it! Actually, he is much better now - back to following me all over the house. The associations cats make sound so amazing, and I can see how it would really be a problem. Well I'm glad that Tammy's cat is okay now. How traumatic! And I'm glad everyone else's cat has forgiven them too. I'm going to try explaining it all to him next time too. They say it works for plants before you transplant them. So why not cats?