New behavior, for Ella

[Susme48]

Hi! I'm new to this forum, 'cause I normally just ask my daughter who is a vet tech, emt, and a rescuer of potbelly pigs right now, but will "never" quit cats. She has approximately 34 pigs, a blind horse, a goat, 4 dogs, and large cat population. The numbers change, and they always have some fosters. However, she is bouncing back and forth between hospice and palliative care, so sometimes she is pretty medicated, and rather unintelligible.

I have been very ill and will be having surgery in about a week. The other day my cat started licking my abdomen and wouldn't stop. Then all of a sudden she bit it. I couldn't tell if she was trying to tell me something or just being cranky. She and I are both pretty old, though I think she is technically older. She was a rescue of my daughter, and was not expected to make it. But she did and really seemed to not have a lot of physical problems. I'm sure she has PTSD, I recognized some of the symptoms (my step son is special needs and has it). Animals, young children, and kids with learning and communication problems are hard to help as they will never be able to really talk about what happened to them, or really understand. You can just love them every day.

Anyway, if anyone has seen or heard about something like this, I'd love some input.

[fjm]

I have heard of this sort of behaviour occasionally, particularly in dogs who are very bonded to their owners, and it has often been an indication that the animal smells something wrong. It sounds as if you are already aware of health issues, but perhaps Ella is also picking up on something not being right. I hope your surgery goes well, and that you and Ella can settle into a comfortable retirement.

[Susme48]

Thanks, fjm. I hope so too. I think I am more afraid of the coronvirus than the actual surgery. It should fix one of the things wrong with me, and we can move on to figuring out why I have peripheral neuropathy. If they couldn't find it by draining 20 or so vials of blood, apparently there are quite a few other tests available to the doctors. I swear every time they do one then find something unconnected wrong. We are on the 7th new health problem since last April...and I am just a "little" (insert extreme sarcasm there) tired of it all. Ah, well... the excitement of being a baby boomer.

Thanks again. Hope Ella can move to comfort instead of biting...lol.