Sudden Personality/Temperament Change in Cat

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rm17
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Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 7:36 pm

Sudden Personality/Temperament Change in Cat

Post by rm17 »

Our cat is 3.5 years old and has been very social, friendly, and well behaved up until ~5 days ago.

The cat had a sudden change in personality and has become very fearful, aggressive, and on edge. The cat's behavior includes moaning, hissing, loud 'screams' and on a couple of occasions urinating at the site of people. On a couple of occasions, she has also bit our hands when she was acting scared (proximity to people has put her on edge over the last few days). After 5 to 10 minutes of being in a room, she will come to visit and is very friendly again, wants to be patted, and purrs and acts normal. A vet has inspected the cat and no physical issues were found. It seems like the cat has been scared/spooked by something and is having a hard time calming down back to her old self. Possible triggers include an 8 month old baby in the house, a recent 1 week long trip where the family was gone, and possibly mats in her fur around her hind legs (which were mostly trimmed by the vet).

What are some things we can try to help the cat calm down more quickly? She is improving each day but we are concerned about whether she is safe to have around with a small baby. Does the cat need to be rehomed for the safety of the baby or will they typically return to their old personality with time and be trustable again? How long can it take for a cat to calm down in this state? Is it probable that she will act this way again in the future?

Any information/advice would be greatly appreciated.
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BobbiRobbie
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Re: Sudden Personality/Temperament Change in Cat

Post by BobbiRobbie »

I'm not a cat behaviour expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have to monitor the behaviour of people as part of my job and see what the triggers might be to their different behaviours, some of which can be very aggressive.

I guess there could be a number of things affecting your cat's behaviour and sometimes it's about trying to whittle it down. I wondered if it would help you build a picture to keep a diary of when this behaviour occurs and note down what was going on just before/during when the behaviour occurred, who was there etc? That way you might begin to see patterns in kitty's behaviour and what it is that's causing the behaviour?

When I'm gathering information on people I tend to keep a note of: the date, time, where the behaviour occurred, which people were present/what was going on in the environment, and note when the behaviour started to reduce (e.g. did people leave etc?).

I wouldn't leave the baby alone with the cat if she's behaving like this but personally I'd try and do a bit more digging to see if you can get to the bottom of the behaviour, if it's safe to do so, before considering whether or not to rehome her.

In terms of calming your cat, have you thought about buying a Feliway plugin. I think they emit the pheromones of cats which helps to calm them down?

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. I'm sure someone else will have some more helpful suggestions :)
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