Cat refuses to jump?

Last Monday, I realized that my 2-year-old cat hadn't been eating and was just laying on the cable box all day instead of occasionally coming out to play with the dog. I called the vet and made an appointment for that night, but I cancelled it because I discovered the problem - she wouldn't jump up on the counter where we keep her food (kept there so the dog doesn't get it), so she hadn't eaten. When we picked her up and put her on the counter, she ate and drank just fine. She did make an attempt to jump onto the counter and didn't clear the jump for some reason. She tried again and made it up there, so I decided to just keep an eye on her and see what happened.

We moved the food and water bowls upstairs so she could reach them on the floor without the dog getting to it. Now, she won't come downstairs. When she does venture down there, she turns right back around and flees once the dog approaches her for play time. She just won't play with her anymore. She is eating and drinking and using the litter box normally, though. She's also just as affectionate with us and will still socialize with us just like she always has. She's not sleeping more than usual anymore. I also noticed that she will jump down off of things, but not up. Instead, she'll sink her claws into our bed or the drawers of the dresser to climb onto surfaces that way.

She had her annual exam three weeks ago and got a perfect bill of health. Still, it worried me that she wasn't jumping, so I took her to the vet on Saturday. She had a bit of a fever (104) and had lost .7 lb (probably because it took us awhile to realize why she wasn't eating), but he saw no other issues with her. Her other vitals were fine, no masses/cuts/injuries, no pain response that he could find. She's walking around just fine. So, he ran a complete blood panel along with the Feline Leukemia and FIV tests. Everything came back perfect except one of her white blood cell counts was a tad high, though her overall count was normal. He wanted us to try her on a general pain medication for three days to see if she started to jump again - she didn't. He asked us to check her temperature at home a couple days ago - it was normal. He was stumped, so he said he'd talk to his colleagues and call me in a couple of days.

He called me back today, and ran me through some options. First, he wants me to try three days of an NSAID to make sure it's not soft tissue inflammation and she's just stoic and not showing pain. If that doesn't work, he wants to do an x-ray to check for hip dysplasia, a small fracture, or a bone malformation of some type. If all that turns out fine, he wants us to see a specialist because another doctor there had a young cat with vaguely similar symptoms that ended up having a tumor on its spinal cord. If not, he says it may just be behavioral, but he doesn't seem too convinced that that's what it is.

So, we are still seeing the vet and doing what we can, but I wanted to get input from you guys. I was hoping it was something as simple as her taking a nasty fall and being scared to jump up onto things, or got hurt while playing with the dog and that's why she won't have anything to do with her anymore. I don't want to think about her having cancer. I did get her to hop up on the bed last night, but she wouldn't jump on the counter this morning and opted for climbing up. Any input would be great. 

Anyone?

Given that she won't jump onto high surfaces, even for food and water, there is something physically wrong in my opinion. You are right that it may be something simple, but if it does not improve soon, I think more diagnostics like xrays are called for. Cats are great are hiding pain.

As for her avoiding the dog, it may be that she got injured while with the dog or it may be simple hiding behavior due to feeling sick or hurt.

One caution- what is the NSAID that your vet prescribed? NSAIDs are not processed well by cats and are associated with kidney damage and failure, particularly Metacam/meloxicam. I would be very cautious about using an NSAID in this instance.

It sounds like maybe she is having a LITTLE progress, you said she hopped up on the bed. I would almost bet she was hurt by the dog and won't have a thing to do with it now. Maybe the dog grabbed her and threw her to the ground, but you would think there would be SOME kind of visible injury. If she continues to have tiny improvements I wouldn't traumatize her further by taking her to the vet. It could take weeks for a hip/joint injury to heal.Of course if she gets worse bring her in. Please monitor the dog and see if it was possible she hurt her. And make sure she has a place to go to get away from the dog. Good luck and keep us posted!

Thanks for the replies. If the dog did hurt her, it was on accident. Daisy would never grab the cat and "throw" her anywhere. Chloe is 6 lbs while Daisy, the dog, is 40 lbs. She doesn't know her own strength and sometimes gets rough during play and won't take the hint that Chloe doesn't want to play. She could easily accidentally hurt her, of course, but it would be while we weren't at home, because we didn't see anything bad happen.

I was getting ready this morning and I noticed that Chloe was sitting in the window above the bath tub. In order to get up there, she would have to jump onto the ledge of the tub - it's too slick for her to climb up there. She also hopped from the floor to the computer modem and from there to our desk last night. She still won't jump onto any counters, though.

As for the NSAIDS, I'm not sure which type it is, but it's only enough for three days. I've heard of kidney damage from long-term use of NSAIDS, but would three days really harm her?

Sounds like she is improving some if she is now making lower jumps.

Metacam has an FDA label that it should only be used ONCE in cats. It's often used in surgery, like spay.

As an update, Chloe completed her third day of the NSAIDs yesterday (FYI, it wasn't Metacam). The good news is that she's jumping again. However, I don't think it was the NSAIDs that helped her. I went to give her the first dose, which she took like a champ, she jumped up onto the bathroom counter to get it. That night, she jumped up on the bed numerous times to annoy us like she used to do. She's also playing with the laser pointer with plenty of enthusiasm. Still eating, drinking, and using the litter normally. The bad news is that she still won't come downstairs on her own or have anything to do with the dog. I had my husband take the dog outside while I brought Chloe downstairs. She was very tense and her eyes were darting around looking for the dog. I put her down and, once she saw we were alone, she was easily coaxed onto the counter (the highest jump) for treats. I then took her out on the screened in porch where she slinked around and then started munching on some grass with the dog on the other side of the screen. We brought her onto the porch with Chloe and the cat didn't pay her much attention at all and all Daisy did was sniff her a bit. Once they got inside, though, Daisy went to start chasing Chloe like she used to, but we stopped her, made her sit and stay, and then distracted her with a toy. Still, Chloe went back upstairs and didn't come back down on her own.

So, it seems to me that it's behavioral. I'm not sure whether we should go ahead with the expensive x-rays or not. It just seems like the dog was too rough with her while playing, hurt her leg, and now she doesn't want anything to do with her. I'm not sure how to fix that. I don't want our animals to be in separate areas of the house. Any ideas? (Where's Jackson Galaxy when you need him?)

I'm in agreement with you that it's probably something to do with the dog.  Perhaps they were roughhousing and she got hurt.  Who knows!  Keep an eye on them and if they're together, supervise them.