Normally confident, social, eager-to-eat cat is hiding, being overly-cautious, eating much less. AskVet

Species: Cat

Age: One year

Sex/Neuter status: Female/Spayed

Breed: Domestic shorthair

Body weight: ten pounds

History:Found on the street at 8-10 weeks of age in South America; we kept her when we were unable to find her a suitable home. Has traveled with us to four countries in the last 9 months without issue, current location is the longest time spent in one place.

Clinical signs: Hiding, reduced appetite, appears overly-cautious

Duration:6-10 hours.

Your general location: NYC

Links to test results, X-rays, vet reports etc: N/A

(crossposted to /r/cats)

tl;dr: my cat who is usually really confident, happy, and hungry was hiding in a tiny space above the refrigerator this morning, has been eating very little, and is generally acting overly cautious and timid. She doesn't appear to be injured. When should we call the vet?

Long version: I have a year-old cat who is normally really confident, friendly, and social. She's had a lot of life changes happen to her really fast and she usually rolls with them fine; my fiancé and I found her when she was small kitten while we were working overseas, tried and failed to rehome her, and ended up taking her with us to four countries, and we settled down in NYC in August. We adopted a second cat about a month ago, and they get along well and cuddle and play, and she is definitely the alpha cat of the household.

When I got up to feed the cats this morning, I couldn't find her and ran all over the apartment looking for her before discovering that she had hidden herself on top of the refrigerator in a tight space behind the microwave. She normally is the kind of cat who rushes into the kitchen and starts meowing for food the moment one of us steps into it even if she's just been fed, so the fact that she wouldn't be excited for breakfast especially is alarming. We got her down and she had a couple bites of food while looking around the apartment as if she were expecting something terrible to happen, and she since has been hiding in a drawer under our bed, coming out to stick her head into the hallway, peer around, and then go back into hiding. The drawer isn't unusual for her, but normally she likes being pet despite being in the drawer, but today she crawled out and hid in a further space away from us under the bed. She also just came out to stare into the living room but she's acting too afraid to go into it, which is strange since this is her usual hangout.

We looked her over for injuries and she doesn't seem to have any, she's walking just fine, and her litter box doesn't show any signs of stomach issues.

Should we chalk this up to something having spooked her last night? Should we call a vet right away, or wait it out? Are there any signs I should be looking for that I'm not aware of?

Submitted November 05, 2017 at 10:46PM by ReddishWedding2018 http://ift.tt/2AlPiv9 AskVet