Expert: Norman Auspitz - 7/19/2009

Question
I was volunteering at local shelter and "socialized" with mom and kittens for a month.  Mom was always purring and wanted to be petted.  Comes day when all were spayed/neutered then next day put on off-site adoptions when Mom all of a sudden showed fear. Long story short, every time was separated from kittens and comfort zone, had so much fear. She was put down after moving to adoption section 2 days later after charging at employee cleaning kennel.  Was this fear underlying need for petting? Or was fear a separation issue and not trusting employees of shelter.  She had showed/received lots of love from volunteers.

Answer
Diane,

Remember, I am not a vet, but most of the time, a sudden change in personality of a cat seems to be due to a medical condition.  Sometimes the onset has no apparent cause, other times the onset is as a result of a reaction to a medical situation, and sometimes the onset is more gradual than realized as cats can hide their discomfort pretty well.

Given what you are describing, the first thought is that either the cat abreacted to the anaesthetic or something was not quite right when the cat was spayed, or the spaying brought to the fore another underlying condition.

It is not normal for cats to exhibit great amounts of separation anxiety and fear under any circumstances.  The first thing I suggest, as a lay person, is to have the thyroid checked.  If there is no obvious medical condition, sometimes kitty tranquilizers will work and the cat may overcome the behavioral disorder.

We have seen similar things, albeit rarely, in our cats, and the end result was to have the cat put to sleep.

So, there you have my lay opinion of what went on, but I would guess that it was a combination of separation anxiety heightened by an abreaction to the anaesthetic.

Only a really experienced cat vet might have been able to tell for sure, but such are very rare in shelters.  It also seems to me that more could have been done to find out why the kitty had suddenly changed behavior, but, this too, is often more than shelters are or able to do.

Best regards... Norm.