Nervous Cat...Any Suggestions?

focus_mad

We have a cat that was rescued (by me ma) in me aunt's back garden. She was only a few weeks old when we brought her home. Fast-track 2 years later and she is still the most nervous cat around, if you get up out of a chair at the kitchen table she jumps a mile! Now on Sunday me ma is heading away for a week and the cat actually looks like she is depressed! . She's sitting around the house and won't go out unless we walk the garden with her. There is a larger ginger cat that sometimes comes into the garden and chases her but the nervousness can't purely be down to that can it?

Me ma is getting quite worried about her and keeps mentioning a pet phycologist (mispelt that!) does such a thing exist?
Any suggestions or insights would be much appreciated!!

BengaLover

Aw poor thing..its probably not settled yet and another cat around is not helping.
You can get stuff from good vets, its a plug in thingy that emits anti stress scents, and you can get this in collar form too, think its called Feliway.

focus_mad

BengaLover wrote: »

Aw poor thing..its probably not settled yet and another cat around is not helping.
You can get stuff from good vets, its a plug in thingy that emits anti stress scents, and you can get this in collar form too, think its called Feliway.

I've passed that on to me ma and she said she was going to buy one of the plug in thingys! Thanks for the help

MaryK666

Hi focus_mad,

Yeah, I second the BengaLover's post above. Feliway comes in a spray or a plug-in diffuser and can help to calm an anxious cat. Most vets will have some in stock. It's not cheap and it doesn't work on all cats but it's worth a try.
Another thing that can help is to rub a drop of Bach's Rescue Remedy into the back of her ear. I know that it works for my lot.
Another thing that might help is to talk to her - a lot. We have several ex-ferals in the house and they arrived at different ages so the older ones took a bit longer to settle in and one of them is still very jumpy and hates any sudden movement or loud noises. We talk to all of them constantly, even if it's just general chatter, and when we're approaching them or if we're moving about near them. It's become a habit at this stage and helps to prevent them getting frightened.

Has she had her hearing tested at any stage? It might be worth doing to make sure that she hasn't got problems with her ears. If her hearing was impaired, she'd have to rely on her vision to protect herself and any sudden movements that she'd catch out of the corner of her eye would make her very jumpy.

Cats know more than we realise. Our lot know when we're going away long before the suitcases are taken out and one of our boys gets particularly clingy in the run-up to us going anywhere for an overnight stay or longer. We have a great sitter who comes in and spoils them rotten while we're away but they're still not happy about us going.

You mentioned a cat psychologist and there is at least one here in Ireland. I had one, a particularly great girl, in to help with one of my cats a little while ago and she was just fantastic. She looks at the surroundings, the cats history, her current circumstances and so many other things and can pinpoint where problems are arising and has some fantastic solutions. I don't know if I'm allowed to post her info on here but if you want to PM me, I'm more than happy to recommend her.