Expert: Karen Craft - 10/29/2009

Question
Hi,

I have two questions about our new cat. He is a wonderful 9 month old whom we recently adopted from a wonderful foster home. He's been at our apt. three weeks now and there are two things that concern me about him. The first one is that he is extremely uncoordinated and will often land on his side instead of his feet when he jumps off of something. A few times it has certainly seemed to hurt him, although he always gets back up right away. We are trying to train him to stay off all the high places in our apt. but he will even fall off his cat tree sometimes. Is there something we should/can do to help him? I don't want him to get hurt. I just thought all cats landed naturally on their feet!Secondly, and I think this really affects his lack of coordination-he reacts very strongly, in fear, to things that startle him. While he recovers within a few seconds, his fear will distract him enough to cause him to fall if he is not on the ground (or run into something if he is on the ground). He is particularly afraid of his own tail and just now fell off the arm of the couch where he had been resting comfortably because he saw his tail out of the corner of his eye and flipped out. Is there something we can/should do to help him become more calm? We're very quiet, calm people and there are no other pets, kids etc.



Thank you very much!
Megan

Answer
Hi Megan,

I'll try to help. I need some more questions answered though. Did he just start this or did he do this at the foster home? If he did just start this, for how long? Is he doing it all the time? How is his appetite? Is he lethargic? How long do these attacks last? Does he walk ok? Do you think he has any hearing problems? Does he shake his head alot or paw at it? Has he been checked for FIV or FIP? Does he have any problems with his bowel movements or with urinating? What area of the states do you live in? Do his eyes move crazily when he has these loss of balance attacks? Do you think he can hear out of both ears? Can he see out of both eyes?

These seem like a lot of questions but they will help me give you an idea of what could be wrong. Get back to me. And feel free to add anything you can think of. Hopefully I'll be able to answer your question. Good luck.

Ciao, Karen