My cat has been acting strange...

Question
QUESTION: Over the past few days my cat has been crying in strange places of the house he usually never goes in, crying to go outside when he has never wanted to go outside, and today he went to the bathroom on the floor.  Again he has never done these things before.  Whats going on with my cat?

ANSWER: Dylan,

How old is your cat?  Is it male or female?  Is it neutered or spayed?

If the cat is older and already neutered or spayed, there may be a medical problem such as a urinary tract infection, or clogged anal glands, or intestinal parasites, etc.  This would mean a visit to the vet.

For the older already neutered or spayed cat, there may be a behavioral issue caused by something like a strange cat hanging around the house or an addition to the household (2 legged or 4 legged) which has upset your cat.

If the cat is at the age of puberty (4.5 months to a year of age) and not yet neutered or spayed, all these behaviors would be indicative of the onset of puberty.  If so, it would be a good idea to get the cat neutered or spayed immediately.  In such cases, it may take a couple of weeks for the hormone levels to die down, but for the most part it should pretty quickly resolve these urges.

Best regards... Norm.





---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: He is two years old he is a boy he has been neutered and he is a Himalayan.


Answer
Dylan,

The clue to watch for is the inappropriate bathroom usage.  Even if it is once, it is indicative of either a medical or behavioral problem.

Also, I am including a link to a series of excellent articles on feline bathroom problems (everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask!):

http://www.geocities.com/heartland/pointe/9352/litterboxhelp.html


As I alluded to before, I would have your boy to the vet to check out any problems.  If he peed inappropriately, it very well may be a urinary tract infection.  If he pooped inappropriately, it could be intestinal parasites, clogged anal glands, or etc.  In this case, I would take a stool sample to the vet.  Treating these things is fairly easy and not terribly expensive and is the easier to deal with.

If he gets a clean bill of health, but is still carrying out this behavior, the odds are that there is a strange cat hanging around the house that your boy sees and is upset.

You may want to prevent him from looking outside for a few days to a week to see what that resolves.

The articles off the link I provided will have some other ideas and suggestions, as well.

In any case, you will want to get an enzyme based cleaner specifically for pet stains and pet owners (available from most pet supermarkets or farm stores), to clean any areas he messed outside the litter pan.

Please let me know how things go.

Best regards... Norm.