Dear Jessica I have two questions...

Question
Dear Jessica I have two questions just out of curiosity. One  is I have a cat who had a normal tail. I left home for a year and had my parents take care of him. When I came back his tail was sticking up and comletly curled. When he walks around his tail  forms one big loop with a smaller one inside all stckind up. Its not broken it dosent hurt in any place. He's perfectly happy it just seems like one day he decided to curls his tail like a pug. Number two is I have another cat( brother of first one) whos behavior is stranger than his brothers tail. He loves when I pet him purrs and everything yet out of no where he stops purring and hisses and claws and bites. He got some fast mood changes. Any idea of whats up? Thank you

Answer
Hi Eugene.  As far as the tail, there have been spontaneous incidents of curly-tailed cats.  There's even a couple curly-tailed breeds, including the American Ringtail.  The curly tail develops early in life, however, by a few months old.  Besides that, the only two things I know of that could cause this would be injury and ossification of the vertebrae in the tail (that means the joints harden and vertebrae fuse together).  Ossification often becomes extremely painful in later years, and amputation of the tail is recommended.  I would encourage you to see a vet to determine if anything is wrong.

And for the other cat, it sounds like he's becoming overstimulated.  There are many theories behind this.  One suggests that a male becomes sexually stimulated when he's being petted, especially if petted on the belly.  When males mate, they bite.

Another is the nerves transmit the sense of touch too quickly to the brain in some cats, and the brain is unable to process the signals it's receiving as fast as they are coming.  The result is that the cat lashes out aggressively.

And there are some cases where the feeling of petting is good at first, but the nerves are oversensitive along the back, and petting ends up becoming irritating, similar to if you scratch a mosquito bite too long.

Best idea with these cats is to recognize the warning signs of overstimulation and avoid petting when those signs are displayed.  These include a thrashing tail, ears held back, widened eyes, and twitching along the back.