My cat developped a strange behavior

Hello there!

It seems like there is something very weird with my cat... first a few details about him: He's a 3 years old siamese cat and I'd say that he was always a really "nervous" cat.. (jumps at the slightest noise etc.) I have my theory as to what happened (someone broke into my appartment a while ago and stole most of my stuff, and I think the cat was kicked around because it seems like he became nervous from that point), it happened when the cat was very young and he's always been nervous since...

Lately though, he is behaving in a very strange way:

He constantly attack his tail, he gets really angry at it, but the weird thing is, it looks like he has nervous twitches... his tail starts shaking like he can't control it and he attacks it...

Yesterday I thought the end of his tail might be broken (it seemed crooked, and he reacts when I try to palpate it) but today it looks better, but the behavior is still there... it is to the point where it wakes him up when he sleeps.... the tail starts twitching and he wakes up and attacks it...

This has been going on for a few days but I really flashed yesterday (and from that point I realized he seemed weird the last 4-5 days)...

To sum it up, I would say his behavior did change, he seems more nervous (even more than usual), doesn't like his tail to be touched... has all sort of nervous twitching (mostly related to his tail) and started attacking his tail aggressively... I don't think I've ever seen him behave like that before...

We have 2 cats (both siameses) the other one looks normal (he was always a big, lazy cat, and it hasn't changed ) but the behavior of my younger cat got me really worried...

Anyone has any idea of what it could be?? At this point I'm not sure if it's a problem with the tail itself (althought it appears fine today), or just a behavioral problem...

Any help would be appreciated...

Poor baby. Have you taken him to the vet? That would be the first thing I would do before looking at behavior. Could be too many things to consider that need to be ruled out by a vet.

Once the vet checks him if all is healthy, ask vet what they think regarding the events that happen and behavior. Could be allergy, fleas, skin disorder, neurological problem, injury (that you may not know about), etc.

Cats hide pain very well. He may be hurting and you have no way to know for sure. That could be contributing to why he is bothered with his tail being touched. Hope vet gives you a good report.

I will definitely take him to the vet... I wanted to check with other cat owners first to see if anyone ever noticed a similar sudden change in behavior in their cats...

My girlfriend is an animal health technician, she was an intern in a veterinary clinic for more than a year and worked in a clinic during her 3 college years, and she claimed she never seen anything similar while she was working there...

Richard (my cat... weird name I know...), pretty much slept all day today (which is pretty much an average day for my cats )... but he still seem to have those tail jerks/twitching every once in a while, although it's really not as bad as yesterday evening...

I will take an appointment with a vet anyway just in case...

Looks like you have some great help with your girlfriend. I have not heard of anthing like that either. My 7 cats have never done anthing similar, nor have any of the rescues. The DH is a neurologist and he sometimes tries to apply human medicine to our animals.....doesn't work. Nothing like reassurance from a qualified vet. Please post an update. Would be interesting to hear what that might be. Hoping all is well for him.

Oh poor Richard! (love the name!). My sister had a cat several years ago who had similar (tho not identical) symptoms and it turned out he had a neurological disorder. He had to be treated with monthly shots of depo provera and daily buspar. The BIG difference though is that her cat was always like that....it didn't just start acting weird one day like yours did. So hopefully Richard has some problem that is easily treatable. Poor guy. Let us know how things work out.

It isn't nearly as extreme but my one big scaredy cat Da-Ku will do something similar. He will all of a sudden act like his tail has something on it. He twitches it, jerks it, attacks it and will almost obsessively lick his lower back/hip. Like something is itching him. He will do this a couple times and then is perfectly fine. It reminded more of when kittens and cats get their sudden freak out/crazy play thing going on and fly around the room with their ears back and tail going back and forth attacking and chasing nothing....

I don't know, weird....

Originally Posted by Jen

It isn't nearly as extreme but my one big scaredy cat Da-Ku will do something similar. He will all of a sudden act like his tail has something on it. He twitches it, jerks it, attacks it and will almost obsessively lick his lower back/hip. Like something is itching him. He will do this a couple times and then is perfectly fine. It reminded more of when kittens and cats get their sudden freak out/crazy play thing going on and fly around the room with their ears back and tail going back and forth attacking and chasing nothing....

I don't know, weird....

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This sounds exactly like Richard's behavior, although with him it's pretty much none stop...

by non-stop I mean... it seems like his tail has been itching/twitching etc. for 4-5 days, but it's not like he's been attacking his tail constantly for that long... it happens all of a sudden, I'd say maybe a couple of times per hour... then I pet him and calm him down and he goes back to sleep (or to whatever he was doing before)...

It really looks more like a nerve/neurological problem than a physical problem with the tail itself, but as Skimble said, cats are very good at hiding pain, so it's hard to tell...