How to calm my cat down?!

siriracha

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Hi. My cat has hyperactive spurts of energy and pants shortly afterwards. The hot weather we're having is not helping either. He doesn't have any discoloration in his oral mucosa when this happens. I have only noted one or two wheezes when he stops suddenly after running around. He keeps up with the hyperactivity for sometimes 5-15 minutes after starting to pant. He EVENTUALLY does calm down but not as soon as I would prefer.

We have tried ignoring him (only while he is hyperactive), bringing food/water closer to possibly distract him, and holding one of his toys up to get his attention. None of these work very effectively.

I am not concerned with him medically but how can I calm him when he is doing this? Any advice would be so appreciated!
 

ert1988

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Does your cat become aggressive when he has these spurts?  My male cat, Noah, will go from lazy to hyperactive mode for a few minutes, but he never pants (he has panted from intense play sessions).  When Noah is in his hyperactive mode, we just let him go.

It would not hurt to take him to the vet to rule out any illness.  You should also consider playing with him more when he's acting normal.  Burning off that energy through constructive play could help avoid, or at least lessen, his hyperactive outbursts.

Also, do you ever notice your cat's skin/back "rippling" when he's like this?
 
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siriracha

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He does the ripple thing sometimes but not specifically when he's being hyperactive. What does this mean anyway?

He's somewhat aggressive at times in general as well (the occasional bite while petting) but not exceedingly so when he's hyperactive. He doesn't even let us near him when he's being like this... If we come close he'll run off to the other end of the room and try to "hunt" us. We do already play with him quite often, but I will try extending that. It's difficult in this heat because I don't want to cause him to overheat and become uncomfortable.

He was also just at the vet a week ago for litter box issues and had a physical exam and urine, fecal, and blood tests done... None of them came back with anything that could be causing his hyperactivity.
 

ert1988

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There's a syndrome called rippling back syndrome, which can display similar symptoms as to what you described plus aggression. I suspected my male had this. We had him on amitriptyline for a little over a year in conjunction with behavior work.
He still has his spazzing out moments where he looks possessed, but he's no longer so aggressive.
 
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