One Sad Kitty

Our cats went to the vet a while ago and we learned they both have (hopefully had, now) Bartonella, which is commonly called Cat Scratch Disease. It's called that because if a human is scratched or bitten by a car with the disease it can cause a nasty welt that can become infected and make you pretty sick. For the cat however, it's a bigger problem because it can cause all sorts of physical problems and even lead to death. It was a good thing they went to the vet.

The problem is, Coco, which I think of as our "older" cat even though she and Babby are sisters, is very sensitive and a bit of a scaredy cat. She was very unhappy about the three-week course of drugs we had to force her to take and took to hiding from us most of the time. I think the medicine also made her feel pretty icky, so she mostly kept away from us and was a bit gun shy.

When she no longer had to take the medicine we figured she'd get better and go back to being the sweet cat she normally is, but that hasn't been the case. In fact, she's much worse. She's taken to hiding around the house, sitting like a little cat loaf, wide- and wild-eyed in apparent fear for her life. She won't eat or drink unless the food is directly under her nose -- and I mean that literally, if the food is a foot away from her she won't move to eat. She's had a number of accidents around the house because she's so terrified, which isn't so bad and we've been lucky they haven't been in really bad places.

We are, of course, more than a little concerned. She's such a sweetheart normally and it really pains us to see her in so much fear and mental pain. We're trying to make her comfortable, control her environment, so we can keep track of how much she's eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom -- and we bought a diffuser that releases a chemical that's supposed to make cats feel safer and more comfortable (a synthetic version of the chemical they excrete when they cheek comb things). We've only had that for a day now and it seems to be helping since she's not quite as wild-eyed.

We really hope she recovers soon. Apparently this sort of thing isn't uncommon for cats, but this is such a huge change in her personality we're very concerned for her. I can't imagine how unfun it must be to be terrified all the time. So terrified you don't trust anyone, don't want to move, eat, or pretty much anything else. How awful would that be?

We just want her to be better, so hopefully the things we're doing will actually help her. I'll keep you updated.