Frightened Cat

by Kalena
(Scramento, CA)

Monkey

Aloha, I am wondering what to do with my cat, Monkey. She is 6 years old and we have just moved from a small apartment in LA to a bigger house in Sacramento. She will not come out from under our bed. She is usually not a scaredy cat. Right after our move a month ago, we left to travel for two weeks. I just found out that there was a little dog in our house visiting. This probably frightened Monkey. So we returned from our trip and the first night Monkey was so happy to see us and slept with us on the bed. After that night she has been in hiding. What should we do? It has been weeks since she has come out. And she's obviously not eating or excreting. How long does it normally take to adjust to a new home? Mahalo so much!


ANSWER

I hope I am not understanding your email correctly. What I am hearing is that your kitty hasn't eaten or used a litter box in weeks. If that is correct and she has also not been drinking all this time, are you sure she's still alive?

I can't imagine a cat staying under a bed for weeks with no food or water or litter box and no one has taken her to the vet or made her get out and stay in a small room where she can't hide. Why haven't you put food and water under the bed with her?

I hope her situation is not as horrible as it sounds and you didn't word things correctly or I have interpreted your words incorrectly.

If she truly has been under the bed for weeks and hasn't eaten anything for weeks, please get her out from under the bed immediately and put her in the bathroom or other small room and give her several different foods to choose from and water and a litter box and a bed. A lot of love and attention would help also. If she does not eat within a few minutes, you should take her to the vet immediately. In fact, if she has indeed gone for weeks without eating, she needs to go to the vet regardless of whether she eats for you now or not. Not eating in the first place could have just been from stress, (she certainly had her share of stress...a new house, her family away travelling for 2 weeks, a strange dog in the house....all enormous stress for a cat)but it could have been from diabetes, liver disease, kidney failure or any nmber of things. And now, after not eating, she indeed is at risk for hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver), kidney disease from dehydration, and several other things as well, some of which may be fatal.

She is so beautiful...I hope I have misunderstood or I hope it's not too late for her recovery.

Dr. Neely