Changing a scaredy cat's behavior

mrsty

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Forgive me for the long-winded explanation, but I'm hoping someone can give me some more suggestions for my long time scaredy cat, Nina. There has been a lot going on, so let me start from the beginning. I got her as a rescue who was found on the streets in a big city at 5 months old. She came into our house with 2 other rescues I got as kittens that were only a year older and everyone got along fine. Nina has always been very afraid of people other than those she lives with (my husband and myself).

So jump forward now many years and out of 4 indoor cats she is "last man standing". My oldest cat passed at 16 years old last month from kidney disease. I think she didn't feel well for a while and was demanding all my attention so she had become pretty impatient with Nina causing her to hide under the bed pretty regularly just to keep out of her way. (Nina is 15 now.) Nina did start to come out and spend time with us more often for a few days when she realized Mia was gone, more than she has anyway in a long time. When the other cats got sick, (thyroid disease, IBD, then CKD) they always got the bulk of the attention. Nina has always been a hider and I knew one day it was going to become an issue.

So with the other cat now gone I decided it was definitely time for Nina to get to the vet for blood work, a good check up and her annual teeth cleaning. Thank God her blood work came back fine but teeth wise.....anyway, after being sent to a dental specialist she has a disease that causes reabsorption of her teeth, turns out to be a very painful condition. So she had surgery to have 6 teeth removed, 2 needing root canals. She did well, has come home and of course is hiding under the bed again. Well, 2 times into the carrier within 2 weeks....but it's been a week since her surgery and she will have to go back for a quick check in a couple more weeks.

I did give her some pain meds for a few days that I imagine kept her a bit groggy so I just let her rest....she has urinated, but only one bowel movement since the surgery probably because of the medications. It was a pretty normal stool for her. I'm giving her Miralax trying to get more stool out of her. She does tend towards constipation normally and the Miralax usually does the trick. But she will not stop hiding and I don't know if she's feeling alright or not. She is so scared by any noise when she does come out, she quickly runs back under the bed again.

When I can get her to come out she acts like her old self, roles around, lets me pet her and brush her. Is interested in playing but I have to make sure that she doesn't bite anything right now so that is sort of out. I know she needs to get up and move around more to help the Mirilax to work. So today, I have gotten her out of the bedrooms and shut all the doors to force her to come out of hiding, although she found her old hiding place downstairs waiting for her and so now she's in there. I put some Rescue Remedy in her food which she hasn't eaten yet. And I just sprayed some Feliway spray around downstairs.

She used to be the kind of cat who would sit in the window and enjoy a little sunshine once in a while, but over the last couple years has gotten in the habit of hiding under the beds all day and coming out only when it's safe at night. She's friendly towards me but right now isn't real trusting which is sort of understandable. I also have some special cat calming music that I'm playing for her.

Does anyone have any further suggestions I can try? I plan to let her go back to the bedrooms tonight, but I really am trying to keep an eye on her so I can get an idea of how she's doing. And if I could get her to move around some she might have a bowel movement, but I don't want to chase her around the house.
 
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mrsgreenjeens

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First off, I'm so sorry about your last cat, Mia.  I lost my 16 year old cat, Callie, to kidney disease this year also, so know just what you mean about how time consuming it can be and how the others tend to have to take a back seat when you have a sick one in the house.

Now I'm wondering if this issue with Nina is regarding her constipation, or her mouth issues, or her stress?  For her constipation, I'm glad to hear you are already using the Miralax.  Have you tried increasing the dosage a little to get it to work.  I used to give it to Callie twice a day, and that did the trick.  Are you feeding Nina a wet or dry diet?  I'm guessing wet because of her teeth, but there are cats here with NO teeth who still eat dry!  Anyway, if you are feeding wet, have you tried adding in a little canned pumpkin?  Maybe 1 teaspoon per meal?  Often that helps cats with both constipation AND diarrhea.

Now on to her stress, here is an article about helping cats with their stress:  http://www.thecatsite.com/a/six-surefire-strategies-to-reduce-stress-in-cats   Maybe with time, and no other cats around, she will eventually learn to be less of a scaredy cat.  I know with my guys, one day they will be swinging from the chandelier, an the next the drop of a leaf will send them running for the closet.  Who knows what's in their little heads
.  Today my hubby was vaccuming (sp?) and they ran for their lives, but then he took a break and I fed them, then he started it again, and they just hung around as if nothing were happening.  Oddest thing


So, for Nina's mouth, does she have stomatitis?  Have you heard about that syrup from Dallas that supposedly works wonders.  Just search it from the top of this page and you'll find several threads about it.  Your Vet may know something about it, or can find out about it if you're interested in trying it.
 
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mrsty

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Thanks for the reply. And she pooped, finally! After upping her Mirilax to a whole teaspoon for couple days. I am so relieved over that. She was not very happy about me trying to make her stay downstairs, but now that she's had a bowel movement maybe she'll start to feel better.

It's been 8 days since her surgery so I am hoping she is starting to feel better with her mouth. She has been eating fairly well all along, only wet food pate' style with extra water, especially because of the Mirilax. She has a tendency toward constipation and I have tried pumpkin and steamed squash before and she will not eat her food if that is mixed in so I have used Benefiber (gluten free wheat dextin) for her in the past. Mix the odorless tasteless powder into her food and it usually helps, about 1/4 tsp. Each meal until she goes with a more normal bowel movement and not little balls.

According to what the vet told me, Nina does not have stomatitis, that is when a cat is having reaction to the plaque build up on their teeth and they have to have all their teeth removed. Nina has something else, I have to look up the name, but it is where her body is reabsorbing her teeth, completely....starts with the roots then the gums grow right over the teeth. It weakens the teeth which caused her canine to crack and break off. She may have to go in to have more removed at some point, but she took out all the ones right now that she said were going under and said several others had already been reabsobed looking at the X-rays. Her teeth that were left looked ok at this point. She said it's a pretty painful condition and that Nina will be much more comfortable. I sure hope she doesn't have to go through this again, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Thank you for the article about stress....I'm looking forward to reading that for some ideas. I do hope that now between feeling better, winter coming where the house will be closed up and quieter from outside noises that she will start to come out from hiding more often.

The next hurdle is to get her back for her check up. The vet will probably want to give her another antibiotic shot. I just started putting a little plain Keifer (yogurt) into her food to try and help get some probiotics back into her. Vets always insist on overdoing antibiotics in my opinion, but in this case I'd rather be safe than sorry. I won't allow another Convenia dose, she'll have to give her something else and I will follow up with liquid Clavamox. My other cat had tremors (seizures) after 2 does of Convenia for months, it was awful! I let her give Nina one after the surgery, but I thought I've felt her twitch strongly a couple times like the other cat did, so I just won't stand for that. I believe that stuff is dangerous for old cats who's bodily systems are not functioning perfectly any longer. Whatever the inactive ingredients or time release ingredients are that keeps the antibiotic in their system it can cause a reaction for months afterward until it clears. There is nothing they can do to clear it out of their body quicker if they have any kind of adverse reaction.
 
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mrsty

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After reading the stress article, I don't know what to say about Nina. She hardly has any of those things other than the occasional. Only 2 people live in the house, older adults, no kids, no dogs, no daily upsetting things, almost no changes for the last 10 years. It's really pretty quiet. I've used Feliway the last few years with the other cats getting older and a little fussy with each other, it seemed to help. Other than Nina, we have 1 indoor outdoor still around that comes in only at night and she's really well behaved in the house and has always known her place indoors. (Outdoors she's top cat but not inside.). Her and Nina sometimes greet each other and have known each other for 12 years. When Nina was a kitten she used to squeeze herself under the fold out couch and get up into the back of it to hide all day and sleep, until she got too fat to fit! That's when she started sleeping in closets. We always call it her "nest" and I put a nice fleece lined fabric bag in there for her to keep her warm and comfortable. She's just always seemed to be a loner from the other cats and not trust humans other than the two who live with her. I don't know what happened to her before I got her but can only imagine it must have been pretty bad for it to have lasted her entire life. She has never been aggressive toward me or my husband. But she has a very bad fear of plastic or paper bags and nothing ever happened to her with me to have caused that. Always knew when she got older all this hiding was going to make it difficult for me to know if anything is wrong with her and that's what's been happening. Oh well, cats are all so different and we can only continue to hope that as time goes on and her mouth heals that she will start to come down and sit with us more often, but if I had to guess right now - I'd bet she will just always love her hiding places.
 

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Some kitties are just less confident than others.  Taking away all of her safe places by closing all the doors and forcing her out of hiding is just stressing her even more.  If you don't have any calming agents that you're currently using, get some.  We run Feliway diffusers in my house 24/7 for my nervous kitty and it really does help.  It's not effective for all kitties, but it does help.  At times, I have also used the pet formula of Rescue Remedy. 

I would treat her much like I would a new kitty.  Let her stay in her safe space.  Don't force her to be anywhere she's not comfortable.  Go into the room where she is, sit on the floor or in a chair and talk quietly to her.  Read a book to her, etc.  Play some soft classical music for her.  Let her chill out.  Each time you go to visit, take her some yummy canned food with you.  Warm it up just a touch to enhance the aroma and entice her to eat.  If you're only feeding her dry food and she's had constipation in the past, the wet food should help that.
 
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mrsty

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Yes, you're absolutely right. I quickly saw that closing the doors to keep her out of the rooms only upset her more. I opened them after just a few hours and gave up on that. I don't like to use Rescue Remedy constantly but I've given her some in her food the last couple days. I used to have Feilway diffuser going all the time before the other cat died, but only since she had gotten sick and stressed. It sometimes seemed like it helped but since she was gone I took it out. The thing is she's had so many health things going on and I want to see how she's doing if possible. She's only on wet food and watered down after the surgery but is eating well and finally did poop. It's rather dark though because of the blood she had swallowed from the extractions. She's been eating pretty normally all along. She appears to be acting like she feels better so I am hopeful that this was all worth it. She is 15 years old so I guess you can't teach an old "dog" new tricks...we'll just have to wait and see if being the only cat most of the day changes anything for her, she is what she is.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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I'm glad you opened up her hiding places again.  I was a little concerned about that, but am not a "behavioral expert", so wasn't sure. 

Just as an aside, my old girl, (16), received Convenia shots regularly and never had any side effect at all.  She could not take any other form of antibiotics as she was just about impossible to pill, and even trying to get liquids in her via syringe was almost out of the question.  For a tiny 5 lb cat, she had the jaws of a pit bull
  Anyway, with our 15 your old male, he had a note in his file to never give him Clavamox as he had a horrible reaction to it and we thought he wasn't going to make it.  And now, Darko had a bad reaction to whatever we were giving him after his last dental
.  We had to take him off of it after  3 doses and he continued to have diarrhea for 3 months, even though he was on probiotics the entire time, including while taking the antibiotic.  This was a very rare side effect of the antibiotic.  Just saying that ANY antibiotic can cause issues...or NOT. 

Maybe, just maybe, she's been in hiding because of the pain from her teeth.  You  may find you have a whole new cat once that's all fixed up
 
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mrsty

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Well, funny thing is pretty sure almost all of my cats had shots of Convenia at one time or another and I had never noticed a reaction in the past. Mia, the CKD that had the reaction to It just earlier this year....really made me wonder if it was due to the kidney's or age because I know she had gotten it before. But it was a horrific reaction... It is a great thing, I had only 2 cats in my life that allowed me to pill them. The others all had jaws of steel or the ability to spit like a cowboy if they wanted to...the only thing I've had any luck with now is letting the vet give some sort of antibiotic shot in the office and following up with Clavamox stirred in their food. The taste doesn't seem to bother them. They are just like people though, and could get reactions now when they didn't have any years ago.
 

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If she's on any kind of narcotic pain meds, that could be contributing to the constipation.  At least things are moving now.  My older kitty (only 11 yrs old) had teeth extracted earlier this year and it took her about 3 weeks to fully recover.  Of course, they gave her that Convenia shot which I HATE and that made her sluggish for about 2 weeks.  It also caused decreased appetite. 
 
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mrsty

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I only thank God that her appetite has been ok through all of this cause that's the only way I can get anything into her. They didn't send her home with narcotics...I called and asked for something after it was obvious the Metacam wore off. But I said she's healthy at 15 so I told them don't give me anything that's gonna ruin her kidneys so they said 1 dose of Metacam is all a cat can get if you're worried about kidneys. So they gave me narcotics...I gave her 2 doses when I became aware of the last time she pooped so I stopped them. I didn't need to be dragging her back in for emergency enema. It's not at all that I want her to suffer but I cannot keep dragging this cat back and forth to the vet. I have to get her in there in two weeks for her check up on her mouth. She already runs and hides under the bed when I wake up because 2 weeks in a row she was going in and would have anesthesia...both times it was first thing in the morning and she remembers. I have had my cats avoid me for months after too many vet visits and too much medication. Cats are so sensitive to everything....I know poor baby has suffered enough but I've been worried sick over the lack of bowel movements. Now they are coming out so dark from I guess the blood she had swallowed, I'm still wondering what is the right thing to do. Today though, she has seemed much better and almost back to acting normal so I have to think she is really starting to feel better. I just sure hope she doesn't have to go through this again.
 

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I'm so sorry about the loss of your kidney kitty as well. I lost two in the last year to kidney disease. It's a horrible, horrible thing.

As far as your scaredy cat, I have one of my own, so following this more for the advice. I wish I could help! One of my kittens (who is now 16 months old) is a huge scaredy cat, and I have the "Oliver artwork" on my arm from the last time I had to take him to the vet. His brother isn't a whole lot better in that department, but at least he's not a scaredy cat in his own home like Oliver is!

I hope you kitty does a lot better, and you are able to help with the anxiety. My Maple is on anxiety meds, but hers is a bit different. She's no scaredy cat.
 
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mrsty

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I recently started spraying Feliway spray on a towel and draping it over her carrier for the ride to the vet. It does work because she is so much quieter on the ride, so while still a stressful event it must do something. I only just discovered Feliway about a year ago and I think it works. Some people say they don't believe it has any effect, but my experience with it has been positive. I also just got a new bottle of Bach Rescue Remedy Pet. (It has no alcohol in it.). Have been using this a lot in the past year also and it has some effect. Only need a drop or 2. I started putting it in Nina's food the last couple days and she was in the living room with us last night a lot! :clap::clap::clap:
 
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mrsty

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Nina's checkup with the Vet dental specialist was great news. Everything healed up well, she gained over a pound in 3 weeks! And she didn't even suggest giving her another shot of antibiotics since it just wasn't needed. The bad news is this situation that could creep up again and start to affect more teeth later. It's not the type of thing she recommends just pulling all the teeth on like Somatosis, but I said that since Nina is such an old cat that if she does have to go through this again we might consider it.
 

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What a wonderful update on your girl!  So awesome she's gained some weight!
 

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PLEASE HELP!!!! Please can someone help me I have a 3 month old kitten I've had her for about 1 month now, before I got her she was living in a back garden riddled with fleas but since she came to us she came out of her shell and her and my dogs are always playing together (she's usually a normal kitten) but since this morning she has been completely lifeless she isn't eating much and she's usually greedy, she has been asleep all day she seems scared and she keeps growling at me when I try to touch her! Does anyone know why this could be please? As I didn't actually take her to the vets for a check up when I got her because when we got rid of fleas she was a normal kitten and now I'm really worried! I repeat she has been completely fine until this morning and this is the first time I've seen this happen, not really sure what to do! HELP PLEASE!
 
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