My cat attacked me

[Confusedcatlady1]

My cat’s behaviour has changed over the last few days and I’m wondering if this has happened to anyone else. As background my cat is about 6 years old, she’s a very typical British shorthair. She has suffered from mega colon and had an operation last year to remove part of her colon and she has been in full health since. Over the last few nights she has randomly been ‘fighting’ with herself. At first I thought she was fighting one of our other cats but I realised she was the only cat in the room - it sounded awful and I thought she was having a nightmare (this happened two nights on the trot). But this morning she was on my bed and purring away happily when she started ‘fighting’ herself on the bed - I reached out to her and she attacked me, sinking her teeth and claws into me and not letting go. It was awful (and very painful). She then wandered off as if nothing had happened leaving me bleeding from my hand. For the last two days she has pooed in my room which is out of character. I am going to ring the vets when they open to have my cat checked out but I’m wondering if anyone has experienced this random behaviour with their cats? It’s as if she is suffering from a random madness. Thank you.

Sounds like she could be in pain. Especially if she's Not usually aggressive. Vet check ASAP.

I would concur with Toddler - urgent vet appointment required.
Let us know how you get on.

Yes, I'd say only the vet can help. Do you think she may have banged her head or she might have toothache? Hope you get to the bottom of it.

I've taken the cat to the vets and there doesn't seem to be anything obvious that is causing my cat discomfort but the vet is running blood tests to check her organs and I'll get the results this afternoon. Fingers crossed it is something easily identifiable because it's so out of character for her. She was like a cat possessed at the vet. Unfortunately I'm waiting at the hospital for a tetanus jab after she got me this morning so we're both feeling sorry for ourselves. She went through so much last year with her megacolon I feel so sorry for her today because she's unwell again.

Is she neutered? Indoor-only unneutered females commonly become suddenly psychotic. What you describe does sound though as though she's in pain.

Yes sounds like she’s in pain. The blood results will hopefully reveal what.

for you too. A true cat bite is frightening and painful.

Oh op I’m sorry. What a nightmare. Thinking of you xx

My old cat had mega colin - what a nightmare! Thankfully, we managed with using lactulose and he didn't have to have surgery. He often had bouts of aggression, but not necessarily out of the blue, mostly when I had to bother him.

Hope all is ok with both of you.

Thank you all. My cat has been neutered and is so gentle this has been such a shock, it really seemed though that she had no idea what she was doing. My husband is at home with her waiting for the vet to call.

How's your wee one? Did the vet come to any conclusion?

The initial blood tests didn’t show anything major but my husband is going to talk to the vets again to see if anything else is coming through. A good thing is that it isn’t anything to do with the cat’s colon (she wasn’t constipated ). Unfortunately my hand hasn’t improved and I’m seeing a plastic surgeon tonight (I’m at a&e now) so it’s going to be a long night. Bloody cat 🤒

Oh love . You poor thing

Oh crikey, that sounds bad. Horrid when they turn unexpectedly like that....and so hard to understand why. I hope you recover soon x

Best of luck at A&E and I hope they put you on strong antibiotics - when I got an infected cat bite I went to A&E after a couple of days, they took one look and admitted me and stuck me on an antibiotic drip. Nearly lost my finger.

Is there something that could be upsetting her in/ just outside your home? It's not unusual for a cat to attack their owner when they are distressed by another cat outside, just because the human happens to be in the firing line for their anger.

Agree that doesn't sound likely in the bed scenario, but it could equally be something else. We had an elderly semi feral that started doing it, turned out to be a rats nest in a barn he considered his, so the other cats stayed clear, but he also had the sense to realise he was past tackling it and was infuriated. A friends cat also did similar because of what turned out to be a high pitch noise.

Of course you should still go down the vet route, but it might be worth also thinking about anything else.

Was she trying to attack her own tail, and attempting to bite it? Does her back ever ‘ripple’? My cat has something called hyperesthesia, her first symptoms were pooing outside of the tray due to pain, and running around the house as if she was being chased with wild eyes, she would then stop and bite her anal area. We saw a lot of vets before one of them suggested hyperesthesia, when I looked into it (there was a video on YouTube that exactly matched her behaviour) it made a lot of sense. She is now a happy cat on twice daily gabapentin, you wouldn’t know there was anything wrong now.

I hope you have made it home to your own bed

Thank you everyone for your advice.
TrainspottingWelsh - I don’t think there’s anything out of the norm at the moment although we have a lot of noisy foxes in our area at the moment.
FlyingFlamingo - I hadn’t heard of hyperesthesia until you referred to it but my cat does have the ripple effect down her back and she is displaying some of the symptoms mentioned on YouTube. She had her three episodes in my bedroom when it was dark so I couldn’t see what she was doing but on reflection she could have been chasing her tail - she was going around in circles on my bed. I will speak to the vet on Monday regarding your suggestion and ask for medication to see if that helps.

I feel so out of sorts because of this incident because she’s such a gentle cat and my hand was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m spending my second night in hospital because the wounds have become infected and I’m worried about my cat but the suggestions posted above has given me hope that there may be a remedy.

It sounds possible then. I was really lucky to (finally!) see a vet with an awareness of the condition who noticed how uncomfortable she was when her pelvis was being examined. There is a UK Facebook group, there is lots of advice on there about things other people have tried. We have been lucky that a low dose of gabapentin is enough to keep her happy and pain free. Developing a technique to get a pill down her twice a day was fun however , she still sulks afterwards but at least I can give it without injury now

Hi FlyingFlamingo, we've been trying the gababendin and the back ripples have decreased but the tail twitching is there, I don't think the medication is having a great impact unfortunately. The cat seems to be slightly depressed and is hiding away, she's intolerate of our other cats and hadn't even been interested in cat-nip which is unlike her. She's in for another appointment at the vet soon so we'll see what is recommended then. Some articles on the internet suggest CPD oil but I'm not sure if it's a gimmick or not.

CBD has been proven to be effective in humans for a number of conditions including neurological ones, so if it's safe for cats I would think it's worth a try. I find it helps me a bit for a condition that they tried Gabapentin for (I really didn't get on with that!).

We've changed medication now and my cat is in anti-depressants to see if that improves things 🤞

I just thought I'd provide an update on my cat and her hyperesthesia. I had a good chat with the vet who suggested trying anti depressants as a last resort and thankfully they are working. The night the cat had her first dose was an eventful night (the cat was hyper, extremely happy to be with us and acted like she was on speed rather than Xanax) but she settled down as her body became accustomed to the dosage. She hasn't suffered any episodes of trying to bite her tail and rarely ripples her back. She's a lot happier in herself and we notice that as a result of her mental health improving all the cats in our house are getting along better as well. I want to thank FlyingFlamingo especially for suggesting hyperesthesia in the first place because there's no way I would have figured it out myself (and because it is so rare I don't think the vet would have figured it out either). We have to take the vet prescription in to the pharmacist for the tablets to be issued and every time I can see the pharmacy staff or shoppers having a little giggle when the prescription is called out as 'prescription for the cat' .

Thanks for the update, and I'm really pleased it seems to have been sorted out

Wow, poor pussycat, I'm glad things have improved, what a shame it's not more well known, Its good to know in a not so nice way.

How is your arm now?

It's great to see the improvement in my cat, it feels like we've been given another chance at having her with us for much longer.

I was surprised at the time at how quickly the infection in my hand spread, I spent three days in hospital and was off work for two weeks and it took much longer for me to regain full mobility in my hand but thankfully the cat and I are back to normal and enjoying the sunshine