Sensing I'm ill

[Laujo]

My little Ivy (9yrs - rescue - been with me for 1yr) has always been a little nervous and skittish, but has been becoming more confident over time. I currently have a stomach bug and since I have been ill and slightly out of routine she is actively avoiding me and not even wanting to take dreamies from me.

Is it likely that I maybe smell a little different due to the sickness (I promise I wash!) and that is causing her to feel unsettled? Has anyone else experienced this?

[Ruth B]

Most definitely cats can pick up on illness.

Your body scent does change when you are ill (it doesn't matter how often we wash, body scent goes deeper than the skin), you also mention that your routine has changed a bit, which she will also pick up. With rescues we never know what they went' through before we got them, she has been with you a year and her life has been nice and settled, now she is sensing a change and no doubt is worrying about what it might mean to her happy home life she has started to enjoy. Give it a few days and hopefully you will be feeling better and the routine will return to normal and I'm sure her behaviour will return to how it was before, it might even improve as she realises that, while things may have been different for a short time, she hasn't done anything wrong and you aren't giving up on her.

[Mollycat]

Very good point. My dog gets anxious if husband is late home from work. When husband left his last home the dog stayed for nearly 3 months before we could get him back, so Dad being late home from work sends him into places dogs shouldn't ever have to go in his mind. And we know this one! There is so much with a rescue animal that we just don't know - the good as well as the bad, activities and foods and games they have loved before but have no way of telling us. My cat was rehomed following a relationship breakup, so it's likely tensions and raised voices would alert her to a potential upheaval.

So perhaps as Ruth says yours is tuned to pick up on any changes that could signal trouble for her, even if it's tiredness and not necessarily illness. The more Ivy goes through the same triggers and nothing bad happens, the more she will become sure that her place in your family is forever. It does take time, be careful not to be anxious or feel sorry for her, just try to be loving and as normal as possible with her, if she doesn't want to be near you.

[booktigger]

Sorry to go off subject, but Lucy has issues with the time I come home as well, up until last year, I went to my neighbours after work, so Lucy got used to me being late, and associated me coming home on time with a vet visit, so I had to try and book them a bit later to keep the routine, or she wouldn't get to the vet. Fell out with my neighbour last Oct, so now come straight home (well, on the days I go in the office) and she adapted straight away to me coming straight home, instead, she panics and hides under the bed when I'm late home, which is getting a bit of an issue as I'm trying to take advantage of the nice weather to do a 30-40 min walk on the way home!

[Mollycat]

Joining you in your diversion - this is one reason I try not to be too reliable, and keep some flexibility. I don't even feed Molly as soon as I get up any more (I used to) but teatime could be any time between 4 and 8pm. I make sure I go out at different times, the only thing they can be certain of is that if the dog is home they won't be left for more than 5 hours, and it might not be one of us. If I've learned one thing from the merging of two households with pets, it's prepare them for everything you don't imagine they will ever need to face.

[Laujo]

Thanks everyone.

We live in a very small house and I always joke that we have a time share for the bed, but obviously with me being ill I have been in it for much longer than usual. Yesterday afternoon she would come and meow at me every 30 mins or so, just to check I would wake up. I do know that as a kitten she lived alone with a woman who then at some point met a guy, had kids and then farmed Ivy off to the mother in law who hates cats. My poor baby!

Come to think of it she was a little skittish when I came back after Christmas (cat sitter visited for 4 days), but then relaxed again when I started back at work (wfh). The past month has been a little all over the place as I had a week ill with covid, a week of annual leave, a week of work and now this stomach bug.

As always, I knew this forum would offer some reassurance that she doesn't hate me!!

[Mollycat]

Sounds like Ivy has really bonded to you, so lovely.

[Laujo]

Yeah she has done really well seeing as this is her 4th home (inc cats protection foster home) to date - and obviously her forever home. We have had such a predictable life due to covid so its always a little nerve-wracking when minor things throw her off.

Normally its mainly the hoover that she hates and a little over stimulation biting when petting that we are working on. She was rehomed away from children, so I think she learnt that biting was the only way to get people to stop, so I have been learning her signs before we get to that point.

Thanks again for all the reassurance. I am feeling much better today, so hopefully tomorrow we can get back to our regular routine. If she carries on being so skittish and scared I will pop her to the vets for a check up. I think physically she is fine - eating well, using her litter tray and grooming.

[Mollycat]

Funny, Molly too is on her 3rd or 4th (and final) home with me, I wonder if having been rehomed so many times has something to do with being so very sensitive to any sign that something may be about to happen.

When husband first moved in with us Molly was scared of his rustly orange hi-viz work trousers and would bolt under the bed when he got dressed in the morning. We still refer to them as the Scary Orange Trousers, but this week I got a short video clip of Molly walking across his lap and settling next to him. On watching the clip again closely I see that in the process she looks up at him 3 times in less than 30 seconds with her tail raised and inviting a connection. It's so easy to miss little signs of settling and growing confidence, and then one day we wake up and realise how far they've come. I really love the scaredies, they make us work so hard and are so rewarding when they do little things others take for granted. At the moment I am a zombie, she has taken to sleeping with me and wakes me several times in the night for cuddles, and I just love and appreciate that it's taken her 8 years to decide it's ok to sleep by my side that I'm actually encouraging her.

[booktigger]

Yet another similarity - this is Lucy's 4th home (although she did two stints at the rescue, as the first person who offered her a home had to give up after 6 months as she was making one of his other cats ill), so I fully expected her to take at least 6 months to relax and realise she wasn't going anywhere else, as that was how long she was in the last home for. She also has issues with noise although somethings don't bother her - bin men are scary, fireworks aren't! Lovely that she's finally asking for cuddles

[Mollycat]

Check - Molly is fine with fireworks too! It must be the noises and triggers that mean something in past experience, I suppose, and not general nervousness? But rustling bags were her nemesis, until she picked one of her own to sit on and play with. Does Lucy still get the odd flashback, even now?

The bin lorry used to send Henry scurrying inside and upstairs but we deduced the injury he turned up with could easily have been inflicted by or in a bin lorry. He was funny, determined to move in but shy of people, but once he decided we were safe, then he was a loving, sensitive cat - like Ivy, I suspect. Very sensitive. One night I was very upset and he lay on the bed with me and put his paw in my hand, and when I woke up he was still there.

[Laujo]

Ivy hates rustling bags and will run in the opposite direction, but she loves to sit on crinkly, rough surfaces that make a noise. She loves the thick tissue paper that shoes come wrapped in and actively picks a hard surface over soft. It took her exactly 12 months to venture into the warm igloo I got for her when she first moved in.

Today I started back with work, so she had more time to herself upstairs and when she came down I let her initiate any contact. I have noticed that when she is scared its when I move my hands around. I have no idea why, unless I accidently touched her when I was in those feverish sleeps the other day. I am very careful to never raise my voice to her or aggressively put my hands on her. Lets hope she continues getting back to her more comfortable self.

[booktigger]

That would make a lot of sense, I've often wondered if it's the closeness of sound, sneezing and dropping cutlery make her jump more than other things. She loves bags, we have a carrier bag on the floor at the moment as she likes to sit on it and play with it! I did end up swearing at her the other day (I'd had a very long day at work and was shattered), she stopped and had a look of astonishment on her face and put her paw up like she was contemplating hitting me for that! not sure if she does get flashbacks, but she isn't good with raised voices (a friend and me were having a heated debate not long after I got her, so she walked round yowling till we stopped), so I think that living with a single person is the best kind of home for her.