Kitten behaving strangely

Question

We have a 10 week old kitten that I recently adopted at the age of 6 weeks. Since we adopted him he's been sick quite a lot including ringworm, diaria and lately he has contracted some sort of virus that caused a very high fever on and off - for this he spent almost a week hospitalized with an IV drip. During the time he was being treated for the virus the kitten started acting a bit weird - doing things he never did before and vise versa. For example he would cry asking for food (and look excited to receive it) but after we gave it to him he would sniff it a little bit and walk away not eating anything (and this is food he adored before he got sick). Also he used to drink a lot of water from the sink along with our other cat (it was their thing) but now he isn't interested in it at all.

Currently he is still on antibiotics to fight the virus but has generally recovered. Since he stopped eating we tried all sorts of foods but the only food he'll eat now is fancy feast - and even then he's picky with the flavors.

The doctors are saying that generally he's fine now, but are still in the dark regarding this strange behavior. Having said that I should mention that one of that doctors aids stated that it might be FIP (The most fatal cat disease ever) since some of the symptoms are strange behavior, but they can't really be certain until things get really bad or they don't.. So now I'm worried sick that he might be dying :(

Has anyone encountered this type of behavior with their cats? Or maybe know what can be causing it?

Thanks

Answer 1

I had a similar situation with one of my cats, years ago. My cat got ringworm, and then right as that was going away he got a high fever, and had to be hopsitalised with an IV and antibiotics. I was a nervous wreck the whole time. In hindsight, I suspect he had some sort of infection that lowered the immune system, and that made him more susceptible to ringworm. So even though the ringworm showed up first, the real problem may have been the infection.

When my cat came home from the hospital, it took several weeks before he had his full energy back.

The things you describe sound like normal cat behaviour. Of course, it's good that you're aware of differences in your pet's behaviour, and that you have reported the changes to the vet. But given that your kitten is only 10 weeks old, he's going through some personality changes anyway. The behaviour you describe (meowing, seeming interested in food but then rejecting it) sound to me like he's aware that something's not quite right (perhaps he feels very lethargic), but doesn't know what he wants or how to fix it. So he's probably not meowing for food or anything in particular; he just wants to feel better. Since you can't magically make him feel better, extra attention is probably the best you can give him.

I'm not familiar with FIT (did you mean FIP, Feline Infectious Peritonitis?) But I think it's best to try to put those scary possibilities out of your mind. The behaviour you described doesn't sound "strange" at all to me. Keep in touch with the vet, but try to be as relaxed as possible. You don't want to communicate your worry to the kitten. Best of luck to you both.