Cat suddenly scared of everything?

[tango4]

It really is strange to hear that so many cats are experiencing the same 'sudden fearfulness'. Our cat, Tango, who went through this phase about 6 months ago, has not completely calmed down, but he has improved. He is still very cautious of the bit of carpet outside our kitchen, where he goes in and out every day. We read that it was important not to draw attention to the fearful behaviour because it draws attention to it, so that's what we have been doing. He is no longer afraid of my hairbrush, his food bowl, the closet or paper on the floor. Hopefully, your sweetheart wil be able to overcome his fears.

 

[marie1955]

Wow - I was totally blown away by your post because I also have a cat, a 1 1/2 year old spayed female tortoise shell who usually purrs every time you look at her, but lately, she has done the same thing.  All of a sudden it's like you flicked on a switch and she runs from the back of the house to the front and back again, out the kitty door (at about 100 miles per hour) into the garage, and back into the house (via the kitty door - again 100 miles per hour) and hides.  She has all of a sudden been jumping on the kitchen counter and hiding behind the bananas or hiding behind the music stand on my piano --- WEIRD behavior.  And then CLICK - she's back again being normal, purry, friendly, eating, playing, sleeping on our bed ….. ??????????  She crouches down like she's afraid of being attacked in an air raid and I thought she saw something on the floor that scared her.  She has a tall kitty condo and she'll run up that but immediately run down it. ???????  She also used to go on "potty patrol" as I call it.  Whenever I would go into the bathroom in the morning, she would come in, immediately purr, lick my toes, lick my legs, purr some more and then she'd leave.  She doesn't do that anymore.  We have another cat (a calico about a year old) who used to be her bosom buddy, but now the torti hisses at her whenever the kitten wants to play with her.  ???????  I don't know.  Tonight, I noticed her collar (with a little bell on it)  was not on her (I also keep her ID tag on it - she's chipped - house cat), and I put down her food, she went over to the dish started to eat, I found her collar, put it on her, and then CLICK - crazy cat again - but scared out of her wits.  I am thinking it might be the bell, so I took both cat collars off and I am going to take the bells off and see if she freaks again - maybe it might even be the collar itself.  I don't know.  Weird behavior.  

 

[marie1955]

Weird --- we have had a bunch of thunder storms lately, too.  Maybe …….

 

[pawpaws]

My Oriental is the weirdest cat I ever seen. She does a psycho dance where she'll through her head from side to side. She obviously enjoys the little ritual. She's just so full of herself it just comes out!
Also, she will stomp me and her toys repeatedly which I interpret as 'This is mine!' She will also bite the chit out of you if you don't disengage her jaws at peak of her frenzys.
Dave

 

[mollyblue]

Well I am not sure what the general consensus on this forum is regarding spirits, ghosts, and other worldly beings, but we have them, and our old cat was much more sensitve to them than we were.  Meaning she would see them many times we did not, and sometimes when we did.  She was even attacked, visciously.  I, and my daughter have both woken up with scratches we cannot account for.  As a sensitive, I can tell  you that spirits are more active at certain times of the year, and moving into fall is one of the times that I feel activity is increased.

 

[pawpaws]

Honestly the other weird thing is my cat has nostsgmas; she very rarely blinks. But when she is sitting up sometimes I can watch her pupils move just a hair. I wonder if she might have been exposed to that mouse virus, toxoplasmosis. She also sleeps less than any cat I ever had, unless she's in bed w me. Also have tiger point male, very gentle.
Dave

 

[pawpaws]

She wanted me to add: 'cats aren't DOGS! Me-owwwwh man

 

[mollyblue]

Sounds like my rag doll with the not sleeping.  I know she naps in the afternoon while I am at work, but when I am home, I never see her sleep.  Sometimes she gets in bed with me in the middle of the night, but she doesn't sleep, she just checks to see if I am, and if I she is bored with everything in the apartment she will go ahead and hunker down next to me in hopes that I will caress her downy softness, and if I do, she takes it as a sign I want to play and begins tussling my hand, licking, biting, scratching, putting it to her face so I will pet her behind her ear and just getting more and more worked up until I must rouse and say No, Tati, its not playtime.  THEN she says, well, since you are up, can get a few treats over here - or are you sure you don't want some coffee?  Darn cat.  If that doesn't work, she will try to wake up Snowy and get her to join in.  I have a harder time saying no to Snowy who generally sleeps until I turn the light in the kitchen on.

Don't know about random blinking.  The only time I really pay attention to that is if I am trying to get one of them to soften their eyes.  The stray/feral that lives in our back bedroom is a funky cat as far as that goes.  LOL,. she will be sending the slow blink while she is growling, or she will attack the screen trying to get to resident kittys, and when she has their full attention, she will do the slow  blink or she will avoid eye contact.  Very mixed signals.

Ask your cat if she is sure not all cat's aren't dogs?  and tell her I said some dogs are pussy cats. 

 

[pawpaws]

She said 'no way! Cats rule! Dogs suck.'

 

[april burton]

Hi

• Elizabeth093
• Did you ever find a solution to you cat freaking out for no reason? Our little black cat has started doing the same things except he is focusing on a any object that is black. Everything except the running is like our little cat. We have 4 other rescued cats and they are normal. This is really starting to worry me. I am hoping that it is not a sign of mental illness. He just started acting like this the last week and we have had him a year. Poor little wacky cat. Normally he is a little cuddle bug, but tonight I was holding him and he freaked out like some thing was after him. Did you find a solution, I don't think this is normal and he just started this.
• Thank you,
• April Burton

 

[pawpaws]

April honestly I think my little grey girl is just funny. I call her a booger. Cats have very distinct personalities. Some are a little mean, some are scary, some are gentle, some just plain nuts. Dave

 

[spilmar]

I am so glad I googled a question that brought me to your question. My kitten, 5 months old started doing this too just the other day. She' petrified of everything and then all of a sudden she's back to her old self and then back to this "state". She won't play with anything but she does eat and drink. I have a contemporary house so everything is open and I have a ledge from my top floor to the first floor, which she now like to play with the hanging baskets. I am fearful that she may have fallen off the ledge and hit her head. You have helped me feel that I am not alone in this matter. TY

 

[mary314]

I literally just made an account 5 minutes ago because I'm really concerned for my cat.
My cat Momo is 1yr and 4mo old, she's a tortoise shell domestic short-hair, and today is the second time I've witnessed this activity, it happens very suddenly, and she acts jumpy, skittish, crouches low to the ground and stares at nothing like something is dangering her life. sometimes she gets her eyes on an object(like a hair brush) and she act likes she's never seen it before, she will slowly walk up to it, freaking out the whole time, when she gets close enough sometimes she will paw at it then jump away. If i try to talk to her or touch her when she's acting like this she acts like she cant hear me and that I'm someone she doesn't know, she runs away from me and her brothers. Just a moment ago, before i made this, she was staring at a brush intensely and i moved it maybe a cm she jumped four feet sideways away from the brush. Actually as I'm writing this she seems to be starting a new fit, currently she is crouched under the coffee table slowly taking her paw to the brush, swiping it and then pulling away. this doesn't just happen with the brush though, its anything that's near her while shes acting like this.

Another thing she does sometimes, is she will run around the house frantically, then stop to lick her back, and then take off running again, she will do that for 20 min to an hour sometimes, i think I've seen her do it 3 times.

are these two things connected somehow?
why is my cat acting these ways?

nothing has changed, same food, activities, same house.

 

[mary314]

eliza Beth I just made this account, too and my ragdoll Oliver suddenly has that same behavior and I'm so worried , it started yesterday and it's like he's not there, I'm going to take him to the vet, but I'm so worried I can't sleep so this is why I'm here mary

 

[rickr]

Hi, you've received a lot of good advice so far.  Hopefully Momo will get back on track soon. I will just add my experience with a somewhat similar situation.  

Archie, my orange tabby, has always been extremely brave and confident.  Then suddenly, about a year ago, he grew skittish.  Archie began to cower every time he heard a loud noise or if I walked into the room.  Sometimes he just cowered for no apparent reason. I started applying a few drops of Bach Larch (for confidence) and Demeter Self-Heal (kinda like Bach Rescue Remedy, but not oily) to Archie's fur between his shoulder blades every day.  After several months his confidence has significantly improved.  Of course, I have no way of knowing if the aroma therapy helped.  It could just be a phase he went thru.  But I continue to use the therapy since he enjoys it and there is no downside or negative side effects.

 

[lostwishes]

Same issues but has just started! I actually looked up ''What makes cats hyper and scared'' and this came up so I clicked it. My little ragamuffin, blue eyes with grey face and white body (Got him in January from a breeder). I was sitting down in the chair next to my dads computer and I heard him do like a little caterwaul elsewhere. Then in a split second, he had ran, jumped on top of my lap, onto my dads keyboard, then jumped ONTO his computer, tipping it over, then jumped onto our kitchen ledge!  His eyes were wide open like he just saw the life flash before his eyes. He backed up when I tried to get him off the ledge. I picked him up and kissed the top of his head. I placed him down knowing he may hurt me if he was in pain. A moment later he raced downstairs then through our rolled up carpet. (we took it down and rolled it up for a party) and He then jumped onto the chair in front of my desk downstairs and looked up at me and meowed. I asked my sister and she told me he was just 'Hyper'. Even though she is probably right, I am SUPER scared for my kitty! My dad had recently tried to kill some wasps in our house so Im not sure if he got stung by one! I am not sure what to do! 

Thank you! I hope your kitty is okay too! She sounds adorable!

 

[emily20050]

This just happened to my cat, so I made an account. I am trying to find answers because my cat is experiencing is behavior similar to what you described. He is a 1 year old brown spotted tabby. If you have found any answers, please let me know.

 

[elliesvictim]

My 9 month old kitten used to have what I called "feral cat mode". She was a feral I found in my backyard at 2 months old. It was similar to what you described hyper active, defensive, reactive and skittish and scared of everything. Once while playing she kicked herself in the head a few times and ran off and hid in the corner like I hurt her. Might be she gets a bit confused. Might be she's amusing herself.

 

[Pookie16]

Thought I would resurrect this thread with some (possibly helpful) info as this site is what I came to when googling "why is my cat suddenly afraid of everything?" yesterday. We are 99% sure his episode yesterday was caused by NUTMEG. My gf was cooking a new recipe with nutmeg powder in and Pookie was really attracted by the smell, he was also already in the kitchen under my gf's feet as it was his dinner time. Anyway, totally out of character, he all of a sudden became very skittish and petrified of everything, heightened senses, scared of all noises, fat tail, fur on end, low to the ground etc (all the types of behaviours suggested for FHS). We tried to narrow down what we thought it might be, and after he responded the same way again when the leftovers were heated for lunch today, I googled "Nutmeg and cats", and apparently this can cause big problems in cats, which I never knew having owned cats for many years. We only used nutmeg powder so maybe it got into the air and he inhaled some. Thankfully, he is now nearly back to his normal self (still a bit jumpy), but it was certainly a worrying 24 hours.