Please help our 3yr old cat has gone off/acting weird.

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about this.

One of our cats - 3 year old neutured male has suddenly wondered off and was gone a week and is now scared of us!

Some background he has always been slightly nervous although very affectionate and we had been keeping our cats in the kitchen until recently. We decided to move them into our conservatory though giving them access to the living room also, as we are about to give our kitchen a make-over. Before and after having him neutered we had a problem with him spraying and since we had just re-decorated our living room and added our conservatory we didn't want this to continue on freshly painted walls etc.. Anyway I read about a product called 'feliway' that could help calm him and stop the spraying from happening, we purchased the difuser and put 1 in the conservatory and 1 in the living room. Info about feliway can be found here - http://www.feliway.uk.com/feliway_uk.nsf/Page?OpenForm.

So about 2 months ago we moved the cats into the conservatory and we only saw Chewey (the cat in question) spray once and this was a couple of days afer we had moved them. Since then we dont think he sprayed at all and he was very happy and affectionate and acting normally.

Anyway, last Wednesday chewey wasn't around when I gave the rest of the cats their te, which I thought was odd because hes a real homely cat never really venturing far from the house and garden at all. Anyway he still hadn't returned that evening but he did come in at about 10pm and sat on our rug. I walked over to him and stroked him and he hissed at mean and ran out the catflap and sat on our chairs outside which were partly covered by the table, it was pouring down with rain and he just sat there. We thought this was extremely odd given that he chose to sat out in the rain when he had a nice warm home to sit in! Also he has never ever hissed at any humans so to hiss at me I thought something was definately up.

We then didn't see anything of him for 6 days - we went out looking and nothing, we were really starting to worry, he had never been gone for more than say a few hours at any one time - at the most!

This Wednesday just gone we were extremely surprised and relieved when he was in the conservatory when we got up, as soon as he saw as though he very nearly bolted out the cat flap and it was only by us tapping the cat food tin that he stayed and lapped up the food we put down. Straight after he had eaten he raced out the flap and we didn't see him again until the evening where he stayed in the conservatory sitting on the table, we were unaware he was there and when we did spot him and started walking towards him he saw us and ran out the cat flap again! The same thing has happened today - we managed to get him to have some breakfast again but that was it - he's been gone all day.

Nothing at all in the house has changed to upset him at all. It is all a bit of a mystery and he seems very scared of us for some reason - like we are going to tell him off or something. We really do not know what is up with him and are extremely concerned. One possibility we have thought of is that the difuser had just ran out the same day as he had disappeared. Do you think this may have unsettled him as he had begun to get used to the scent and then suddenly it was gone and it disoriented him? That is all we can think off although seems a bit extreme that a simple difuser should cause this.

We would be very grateful for any sugestions you may have.

Thanks in advance
Nicola.

I don't have a clue but if I were to guess, I would say something awful happened to him outside that scared him, possible some torture from some kids, or rocks thrown at him, maybe bumped by a car. I would suggest you get him in and isolated, and keep him in. If he has an injury, you would not know it cause you don't have time to observe him.

I would stop using the Feliway for now. While it may have a good effect in some situations for some cats, it may have upset yours just when other things in his life were changing as well, and as it is about hormones and pheromones, etc., it could well have confused his system in some way. Do not let him out at all (even if it means keeping the others with him) until such time as you're 100% sure he's completely better and long over whatever is going on now. I would like to urge you to keep all your cats in from now on, but I'm not sure you'd do so as I know things in the UK are different.

I don't think its the difuser, mine runs out before I have a chance to change it and they don't notice it. I think that something bad happened to him when he was outside. If someone abused him that would make him scared of everyone, especially if he was on the nervous side before this. It wouldn't hurt to have him checked by a Vet to make sure he isn't hurting somewhere, cats can hide pain. Then isolate him if you can, in a quiet spot until he realizes again that he can trust you and that you love him like you always did. Good luck with Chewey.

I'm blaming all the changes in the house, the strange sounds and smells from the remodeling and the change in location.
We are just finishing a month's remodeling, with a different routine and sounds every day. My group of furries were kept in room while the workers were here - not taking a chance on any escaping an open door. They handled the first two weeks okay, the but last two weeks have changed them. No more cuddling at night, playing with us.
I hope it changes back as we only have a few items left to get done.

I can't come up with a good explanation. If I had to guess, I would go along with what Mom of 4 thought.

It's tempting to blame it on something that happened outside, but this unusual behavior actually began to some degree before the six-day disappearance, and just got worse thereafter. And if something bad happened outside, wouldn't he be less inclined to go back outside? It almost makes me wonder if something horrible (from his perspective) happened inside, which is why he is constantly running out of the house now and running away from his people. Could that "horrible" thing be some combination of the re-decorating, the move to the conservatory, or something else? I suppose it very well could.

I really don't think that the empty Feliway diffuser has anything to do with this.

I agree with keeping him inside until he settles down. I'd be concerned that one of these times that he goes on one of his excursions, he's not going to come back at all. Or he's going to come back in very bad shape. A vet visit, to see if he has developed any health issues, would obviously also be a very good idea. If he's injured or certain senses are compromised he should not be going outside, for his own safety.