Freaked out - has anyone had a similar experience - how long to recover?

[berties mum]

Poor Lukey, how is he now Helen?  I had a similar experience with Minnie when she first moved in, as their feeding bowls are near the washing machine and she disappeared for two days after the spin cycle started in the middle of dinner ... she had never been an indoor cat before though so all household noises, even the humming from the freezer, freaked her out at first.  The thing about aerosols is so true - I only have to pick up a can of air freshener or body spray and my three scarper!

[dolcetta46]

Sorry Helen I am so totally late, I see the original post was made before I joined...  The original question freaked ME out as I read the first two sentence, I thought you are going to say you dug out frozen Lucas in the freezer and how long it would take to defrost him...

I am somewhat relieved, and I hope he is enjoying his din din a little more calmly!!

[bluecat]

feliway dosent always work i have a plug in on all the time and a spray no effect stilll sprinting from one hidey hole to anorther at least the peeing has stoped

[Lang]

Poor Lukey   Hope he rebuilds his confidence soon

Mine hate it when I put anti-persperant on me,as soon as they see the can they run away but then as soon as I'm done they come straight back in

I think the reason cats hate aerosols is that the sound they make is just like a feline hiss.  The cat hears a scared/aggressive sound from you, and reacts accordingly.

[Sarah (seldom_use)]

aww clever boy

i take it you got rid of the bad freezer and bin monsters

did you find the rescue remedy useful at all?

[Tiggy's Mum]

He's fine thanks Sarah    He eats from his normal bowl in the normal place now, such a brave boy! 

[Sarah (seldom_use)]

just read this helen..

how is he doing now?

xxx

[Gwen]

Stuart, feel free to 'babble'   Strangely enough he's not scared of the offending noise maker (the freezer) but was looking at the bin which is next to the freezer very nervously. 

I put his dinner in a different type of dish tonight and put it nearer to where he used to eat.  He was yowling his head off for his tea but then refused to go near it again, I pulled the bowl back a bit and picked him up and put him in front of the bowl.  This hasn't worked for the past week as he's backed away from it terrified but tonight he froze for a few minutes and then eventually after a bit of oustretched paw touching ate his food there.  He was very nervous still, crouched in a position that meant he could get away easily and constantly looking round.  Definitely an improvement on last week though so either the Feliway is working and/or he doesn't associate the new bowl with the scary noise.  Didn't manage to get any Rescue Remedy for him so will get some tomorrow as it sounds like a handy thing to have in.

He'd like to thank everyone for being nice about him but says he is definitely not a scaredy cat    He says he's a big brave boy  (don't like to shatter his illusions  )

Lukey is a big brave boy and we are all so very proud of him(and Riley of course)

Helen I think your right about the aerosol being part of the flea spray treatment,I never thaught of that but they both used to be sprayed regularily and only used frontline for the last say 5 years

[swampmaxmum]

yes, or it's the feeding in another room (far from the bin) on a bit of newspaper. Stuart, wonder why cats are so often so terrified of vacuum cleaners? Other stuff's just as noisy but not nearly as scary. That for me was the clincher that Swamp was 100% deaf when he no longer ran away from the vacuum cleaner (so it's not just the Thing Coming At Them).
Hope the bin phobia clears up soon; sounds like hunger's winning

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Maybe if you tried moving the bin?

[Tiggy's Mum]

Stuart, feel free to 'babble'   Strangely enough he's not scared of the offending noise maker (the freezer) but was looking at the bin which is next to the freezer very nervously. 

I put his dinner in a different type of dish tonight and put it nearer to where he used to eat.  He was yowling his head off for his tea but then refused to go near it again, I pulled the bowl back a bit and picked him up and put him in front of the bowl.  This hasn't worked for the past week as he's backed away from it terrified but tonight he froze for a few minutes and then eventually after a bit of oustretched paw touching ate his food there.  He was very nervous still, crouched in a position that meant he could get away easily and constantly looking round.  Definitely an improvement on last week though so either the Feliway is working and/or he doesn't associate the new bowl with the scary noise.  Didn't manage to get any Rescue Remedy for him so will get some tomorrow as it sounds like a handy thing to have in.

He'd like to thank everyone for being nice about him but says he is definitely not a scaredy cat    He says he's a big brave boy  (don't like to shatter his illusions  )

[Millys Mum]

When i first got da bird i stupidly used it inside the house, Taz went nuts and went splat on the trestle tables and fled the scene followed by Tabitha and Spike.
It took me nearly a week of putting natures menu treats near da bird to get Taz over his fear. I couldnt get it near the other 2 

Tabitha would hang on the fence from the neighbours side and peek through the trellis and now believes it safe enough to play with. Spike still wont go near it and runs from the garden as soon as he sees it. Shame as i know he would enjoy chasing it 

Hows Lucas doing? You could try feeding him in the next room and slowly move his dish back where it should be.

[Stuart]

Hi Helen, hmmm tricky one this.. My Misty has always been a scaredie Cat with strange noises, aerosol sprays and opening Coka Cola
Bottles, if it sounds like a Hiss he's off, and he just hates the Hoover(although the new Dyson is quieter and instead of fleeing from
the room, he now just climbs to the highest spot, usually a chair or wall unit and stares intently at the Hoover, till we're done.
But if there is a strange noise and he doesn't know whats causing it he will do the cautious ninja cat creep, for example... I would
come home from getting messages, and Hamish and Misty would follow me around (Cause they knew I always bought them a Treat
from the supermarket) and when the messages were put away, that left all the empty bags( which they would go mental for ) but
one day Hamish was inside a bag making it rustle, and Misty was freaked out and bemused why it was doing this, but curiosity got
the better of him, and when he discovered what was causing the noise, he would go into attack play mode. the laughs we used
to have over thier antics

Oops, I'm babbling again

Have you tried showing Lucas "What caused the noise"?? if He knows where/what made the noise he may disassociate it
with food !!
I got Rescue Remedy from Boots, and it fairly helped Hamish when going to the vet's
Is the Feliway working ??

Good Luck anyway
Misty and Stuart



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[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

You can also put RR on the backs of their ears 

Misa is absolutely terrified of anything in  can, well its the can and if I pick one up he will run for his life 

Poor Lu Lu, I hope all these measures help him to relax again. Prob thought it was giant rat coming to get him !

[Tiggy's Mum]

Mine hate it when I put anti-persperant on me,as soon as they see the can they run away but then as soon as I'm done they come straight back in

I bet that stems from the days when the only Flea stuff around was aerosol sprays and you had to spray the cat with it! Tiggy was of that era and hated aerosols, the boys don't bat an eyelid with aerosols but they are starting to wise up to the frontline spot on packet 

[Gwen]

Poor Lukey   Hope he rebuilds his confidence soon

Mine hate it when I put anti-persperant on me,as soon as they see the can they run away but then as soon as I'm done they come straight back in

[swampmaxmum]

Good luck with the Feliway; I think btw it's fine on hard surfaces but would wash them down first so there's no detergent mixed with the smell. Rescue works quite well and you could even put a couple of drops into his mouth although he may get used to the brandy....! Not 100% sure if it's the RR or the brandy that calms them down a bit. I'll see if I can locate the sugar coated RR tabs on the internet that you can get in certain countries although maybe he doesn't like having tablets??? they need to be put down the throat and when travelling they worked well on nervy Max. (back when we left SA).
They are so weird with the sounds they don't like. Hope he calms down and noshes again easily with a brand new bowl in a different area.

[Christine (Blip)]

Hope the Feliway and the bowl change do the trick.

[blackcat]

all our fingers and toes crossed for a good result. Poor wee boy and such a shame to have his confidence knocked like that ...

[Tiggy's Mum]

how about spraying some on a teatowel and hanging it in the corner??

Genius    I now have a Feliway soaked teatowel draped over the conveniently placed horizontal pipes, chose a cream coloured one to blend in with the wall so he doesn't get scared by the addition.  Will pop out to the chemists later and see if they sell Rescue Remedy, if it passes the taste test I'll slip some in his milk too

[Kittybabe (Ruth)]

  she does ok. I am sure a lot of it is to get my sympathy 

You can spray it on hard surfaces. I have the spray as well and use it on the wooden furniture legs and the stair case newels, it doesn't leave a stain that you can't wipe away with a damp cloth. BC's suggestion is a good one if you have the place to hang the tea towel.

The rescue remedy for about 4 drops in his milk I doubt it will make it taste different. Try it on your tongue and you will guage how much to add. 

Poor Lukey   

[blackcat]

how about spraying some on a teatowel and hanging it in the corner??

[Tiggy's Mum]

Thanks Ruth, thinking about it is Feliway spray going to work on hard surfaces?  The offending food area is lino flooring then painted walls and skirting boards.  If not I'll get him some plug in but obviously will take a few days to get here.  Not sure about the rescue remedy as he only drinks milk and if that tastes funny to him and he stops drinking it he won't be getting any fluids.  Think I'll get some for the water bowl for Riley though, he could do with calming down 

Poor Lexy, it must be awful to be afraid of everything - good job she's got you to look after her 

[Kittybabe (Ruth)]

Yep up his Feliway Helen. Lexy is like that, but she is afraid of EVERY noise. Something new, a plastic bag, a new toy, it takes her a bit to disassociate whatever used to scare her before she lived with me with anything I give her.  Feliway does help, and maybe some rescue remedy in his water (ok so Riley would chill out a bit too  ) just until things calm down.

It's just the scraping noise hon, he probably thinks its something huge in that corner.  Lexy won't go near the back room of the house because of (I think) all the sanding we had to do in there. She hated the noise.   

[Tiggy's Mum]

Good idea, I'll try him with a different type of bowl.  He's scared of the offending bowl and also another type of ceramic bowl that they have but it's worth trying him on the 'biscuit bowl' which is one of those shallow stainless steel ones.  Hadn't thought of Feliway either, I've got the spray version so will spray in the corner.  It's really upsetting seeing him like this, I just want him to get back to normal 

[blackcat]

It may be he associates eating out of that particular bowl with the horrid noise. cat's ears are much more sensitive than ours. Try him with a different bowl in a different location and see how that goes. Otherwise, the only option I can think of is lots of feliway plugins to calm him down ... Poor lad - and he is usually such a confident creature 

[Tiggy's Mum]

About a week ago I fed the boys and then opened the freezer drawer (which is next to where I feed the boys).  I couldn't shut the freezer door properly so I took the drawer out and went to scrape the build up of frost away so I could close it properly.  The noise of the scraping completely freaked Lucas out and he jumped into the air before running away.

I gently coaxed him back but he refused to eat, this is the boy who LOVES his food, is very greedy verging on piggy.  This happened over a week ago and he is still terrified of his bowl, he begs for breakfast/dinner but when I put the bowl down he just yowls at me and won't go into the food corner.  I move the food out of the corner for him and you can tell in his eyes that he is scared of the bowl, he gingerly approaches and tries to touch it with a completely outstretched paw before giving in and getting a bit closer.  If he hears the slightest noise he jumps into the air like he's been electric shocked.

Has anyone had anything similar to this ie freaked out by something innocent?  If so how long did it take them to get back to normal.  It's making me really sad seeing him so scared, especially of something I know he loves