Would a 5 month old kitten sense a cat has cancer?

[Furrywurrypurry]

Hi I’ve posted regarding my kitten being a little terrorist towards my older cat. A few weeks after we got the kitten, Gollum, my older cat precious was diagnosed with an inoperable tumour in her neck. She showed some signs of pain before she was diagnosed and put on steroids but she’s currently not displaying any outward symptoms that I can detect.

We have made progress with their relationship, they can sleep in the same room together provided Gollum is tired out. He watches her eat and doesn’t interfere. He slow blinks when he sees me touching her. She actively seeks to be around him but absolutely hates that he ambushes her, there are days when it’s worse than others. Sometimes he won’t bother her much at all, other days he will chase, bite, try to tackle her, run up the stairs in front of her so she can’t get past. But I don’t believe there is any animosity on either side.

They spend a lot of time apart and so precious does get lots of time away from him, more so now we know she is sick, they are probably only around one another for 3-4 hours per day.

I’ve read that most of what he’s doing is pretty typical of kittens but it did occur to me, is he picking up on the fact that she is sick and therefore reacting to it? He does appear to want to dominate? Or am I over thinking it?

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I'm sorry to hear about Precious' tumor.

While it has been said that cats may be able to sense illnesses/diseases not only in other animals but humans as well, there is no real way to know if that is true of your kitten.

I would imagine, in your case, you simply have a rambunctious kitten that just wants to play with Precious - sometimes more than others. Some adult cats will swat a kitten a few times here and there to teach them some 'manners', and other cats won't. It sounds like Precious isn't one of those cats - if she were, Gollum would probably stop bugging her so much!!

 

[Furrywurrypurry]

Thank you.

oh she definitely isn’t shy about swatting him. I’ve seen her slap him repeatedly, no claws, but she growls and retaliates and ultimately hisses when he goes too far. Sometimes if she’s on higher ground he will take notice of the warning, most of the time he just keeps going. As I say the occurrence of the behaviour has reduced. But I did wonder if there’s any way her ill health might have an impact on any of it

thanks for replying

 

[ArtNJ]

Kittens are more often than not HUGE PITAs to older cats. They dont respect signals, injuries, willingness to play or any of that. Its PLAY PLAY PLAY with jumping, pouncing and stalking. I still remember, my current 7 year old, I adopted him from a foster home with a 3 legged cat. The poor thing just tried to hop away while my future kitten, after he got bored meeting me, jumped on him dozens of times.

Ill health might impact the willingness of the older cat to play. It might cause discomfort/pain making the older cat grumpier with the kitten.

 

[Furrywurrypurry]

Kittens are more often than not HUGE PITAs to older cats. They dont respect signals, injuries, willingness to play or any of that. Its PLAY PLAY PLAY with jumping, pouncing and stalking. I still remember, my current 7 year old, I adopted him from a foster home with a 3 legged cat. The poor thing just tried to hop away while my future kitten, after he got bored meeting me, jumped on him dozens of times.

Ill health might impact the willingness of the older cat to play. It might cause discomfort/pain making the older cat grumpier with the kitten.

That’s what I thought tbh. He’s definitely a nuisance to her but at the same time she’s so lovely that I don’t think she has it in her to hold a grudge. She seems to sense when he’s tired and that it’s ok to go relax in his proximity. But yeah it’s the not respecting signals that made me wonder a little, lots of people said to me initially ‘oh if she just tells him off he will leave her alone’ NOPE

She hasn’t ever been one for rough play, if he would play with a toy with her she would love that but he can’t do that yet. She gets quite excitable watching him play with toys. We don’t allow them together unsupervised unless he is in one of his mega deep sleeps, so he doesn’t get the opportunity to mess with her very often, but sometimes he bolts and I can’t catch him.

It’s all a lot less than a few weeks ago, he is 2 weeks post neuter but I don’t think that’s had any impact, I just think it’s a case of if he is feeling giddy he goes after her, if not then he lets her be, where once he couldn’t catch sight of her without going crazy.

But yeah, these situations, you think all sorts, so I was just curious what others may think.

 

[Alldara]

He might be able to smell it, but his age is most likely the culprit for his behaviour.

 

[Furrywurrypurry]

He might be able to smell it, but his age is most likely the culprit for his behaviour.

I realise this is the most likely explanation. Think I’m just overthinking everything at the moment.

 

[Alldara]

I realise this is the most likely explanation. Think I’m just overthinking everything at the moment.

Understandable when your cat is ill. I know you've been struggling with that.