Yes he has a vet. I pay the vets car payment ( or seriously close to it ) every month so don’t think he hasn’t been. Vet says "he’s a little different, leave him alone." She doesn’t live with him and his "oddness" bothers me. He’s a hand fed, Mommy worries.
Carmel is four months old. I got him from the engine block of a truck, in October, nearly dead. He is now the picture of health but I think he may be a "bit off?" You tell me what you think.
I have several other cats. Though Carmel has been here since he was just a few days old none of them will have anything to do with him, at all, and normally they are very social my cats, even with strange animals. They look at him like he has three eyes and avoid him like he’s a retard or something. And he makes no effort to have anything to do with them either.
He plays fetch. As long as he can see what he’s fetching he plays, but if he loses sight of it it’s over, it’s as if he has limited comprehension. If the ball goes under something or around a chair leg he won’t go after it once he loses sight of it. You go and get it, he goes nuts for it when he sees it again. When you leave the room and immediately come back he runs to you as if he hasn’t seen you in days but he won’t go looking for you in another room. Just as with fetching, if he loses sight of you, you’re just gone, the end. His bowl has to be in the same spot always, and it has to be the same bowl, or he doesn’t eat. He only eats one brand of kitten food or he doesn’t eat, literally, and he eats nothing else. No table food, nothing. I’ve tested this. I put down four bowls containing cat food, all different, he goes right for that same bowl every time. If I put down four different kinds of food, he goes to his normal food every time. But if his bowl is gone and HIS food is gone he walks around and screams, and he eats nothing..I have let him do this for a full 18 hours…and he will not eat.
Loud noises don’t affect him, never have. He will sit ON the vaccum cleaner or the shampooer. If something heavy hits the floor behind him he doesn’t flinch. I have never seen him startled by anything, ever. For the longest time we thought he was def. And when you call him, unless he can see you, he will not come. You can call him from another room all day long, rattle the food bag, whatever…no response at all. And he only responds to me, period. He sleeps with me, follows my feet, sits on me, etc… Other family members he just doesn’t even seem to notice. They call him, nothing. They try to play with him, nothing. They pick him up, he squirms and runs.
I’ve had a lot of cats in 39 years. I’ve had a lot of cats who were spoiled and God knows I’m good at spoling them. But I’ve got a DAY ONE hand fed who, though she’s completely rotten, doesn’t act this way.
Last but not least is his size and his eyes. He is super tiny, has been since I got him. He’s stocky but short and petite. Vet says he is the size of a normal 6 to 8 week old by her calculations. His eyes JUST started changing color from that pretty blue about a month ago, at 12 weeks. Now, they are grey…absolutely, solid grey, like gun metal grey….and they reflect funny. When light is reflected in his eyes, whereas most cats eyes flash green or yellow, his are no color at all, it’s just as if you’re seeing an opague lens.
He’s got to go to his vet Tuesday because I keep harping about these things and because he needs shots and a check-up. Give me some ideas to bounce off of my vet. Have you ever experienced any of these things with any of yours? Do you know of any way to test cats for such things as comprehension skills, hearing, etc?
Hi Tammy,
While you are paying for your vet’s car payments, I am paying mine to pave her driveway! Just a bit of humor before I dive into the question.
It does sound to me that he possibly may have suffered brain damage when he was that itty bitty baby that you rescued from the car engine. He may be somewhat developmentally challenged or slow due to that trauma as an "infant" kit. Bless you for rescuing him.
He has bonded to you as his "mom" of course, so you are the object of his affection and trust. He never had the opportunity to go through the developmental stages that are so necessary in his formative weeks, such as interacting with his litter mates and his mother. So he started life at a great disadvantage. His physical development is that of a 6-8 week old kitten, so that tells you where he may be emotionally as well. He just doesn’t know how to interact with your other cats. It is a weird thing for him. Often orphaned kittens lack certain developmental growth. Additionally your baby kit was rescued from an engine block. Gas fumes and other chemicals may have affected him, when comparing him to your other rescue orphan.
To test hearing, snap your fingers behind his ears when he is not looking at you. He should turn his head. Since he is not reacting to loud noises, his hearing may definitely be impaired. Kittens usually jump to the ceiling when startled. ( a slight exageration).
As far as his food choice is concerned, obviously his taste buds are not affected. I have a nine year-old Oriental who will basically only eat Wellness Kitten food. He turns his nose up to anything else, and thankfully my vet tells me that since he is of a perfect weight and size, this is not a nutrtional problem for him. Otherwise he would starve himself to death. He will eat baby food, but that is not a proper diet for a kitty as a mainstay.
If I were you, I would ask your vet to do some neurological testing and to check his eyesight and hearing as well. If he cannot do this, a visit to an eye specialist would be a good idea. But from what you describe he has vision as he responds to you on sight. However this being said, he may be responding through his sense of smell. Cats as you know have incredible scent capabilities.
With his apparent developmental stages appearing to be affected, he may well not have the comprehension skills and he seems to have a short attention span from your description, so that may be another symptom of some kind of brain damage.
I am not a vet, of course, and I am just postulating some ideas of what may be going on with your kitten. He may develop more skills as he gets older, but if it were my kitten, I sure would want to get a complete neurological assessment, just to know what issues I am dealing with.
I wish you all the best with your kitten. He does sound like one that is super attached to you, as his mom, of course. You did not mention if he is using his litter box appropriately, so I assume this is not an issue.
Just for your reference, I am including some links to the developmental stages of kittens, of course in "normal" circumstances, so you can compare where your kitten may be in comparison. The first one really addresses your situation really well.
http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/kitten...
http://www.boutiquekittens.com/Kitten-De...
http://www.bestfriends.org/theanimals/pd...
Hope this helps and good luck with your baby. Keep us posted if you can with the results of your visit to the vet, or please email me.
Troublesniffer
Owned by cats for over 40 years
Member Cat Writer’s Association
Hmmm, you found him in the engine block?
Maybe the lack of nutrition from his mother, the poison he received from the exhaust he was around, the fact e was near death when you found him an the bad genetic mix we can assume he is made up off have created a mentally handicapped cat.
He needs love, which you are giving him but he might not change.
And yes you should get his sense checked out.
Maybe he isn’t totally deaf or blind but a very god way close to being?
Like 80% blind and deaf? His eyes do sound malformed….
Sorry if I couldn’t be more useful.
Carmel sounds like a delightful cat. I have many and some of them do just what yours does. They only eat out of a certain side of a dual bowl, are frisky and friendly at times and at other times they are not. I did not read anything that alarmed me about your cat. Sounds like fun. The others probably avoid him because he is new and still a little feral. That is not unusual. They will warm up (perhaps after a few fights). Enjoy the kitten as a kitten and let him/her develop a personality. Riding a vacuum and not chasing things that are out of sight may be an indication of a hearing problem (it doesn’t know where it landed because he did not hear it land). The loud sound of a vacuum cleaner sends my cats slinking for cover. Check its hearing
I had a kitten once that I think was def. He was the same as you describe yours around loud noises that would normally scare a cat. Mine would just lay there and you could run him over with vacuum if you didn’t stop because he would not move. He acted funny compared to our other cats but we just accepted his uniqueness and we enjoyed him alot. We just had to be careful because he couldn’t hear therefore he would not move if he didn’t see something and would almost get stepped on and other things. I would talk to the vet though. My brother had a cat once that he had adopted. As a kitten his head was slammed in a car door and he was never the same. The old owners were gonna kill him so my brother took him in. He was super weird. He would be doing something and suddenly just freeze like he forgot what. He would be in mid step with foot in air and just stop. He would stay frozen for sometimes up to 30 minutes or more if you didn’t go remind him that the was moving. He probably would have stayed longer but that is the longest we ever let him stand like that before we went and nudged him or something to remind him that he was moving to go somewhere. He was a super sweet loving cat just mentally not right from the head trauma he received. The vets said there was nothing to do but love him and accept him the way he was. They explained he was kinda like a mentally handicapped child and we just had to accomadate him the best we could. As far as eating I think he is just a picky eater. I have a perfectly normal cat in every way except he will only eat one kind of food. He won’t even eat tuna. I give all my cats some every now and then for a treat and he turns his nose up. I have never before him seen a cat that didn’t like tuna. But he just prefers that one kind of food and its not even a real good brand (Alley Cat) But thats all he will eat so I feed it to him. Any way good luck!
It sounds to me as though he is a little nuts,too.Maybe he had a virus or something that affected his brain,or maybe he was just born with a defect.He does sound as though he is deaf.I have a deaf cat who has some odd behaviors – he attacks the other cats for no reason and with no warning,he chases things that are not there and he screams like a peacock.He is a blue-eyed white,and he is also small for a male cat.He weighs about 8 lbs and is 4 years old. He has no problems eating,though,and is very friendly to people and has never even attempted to bite or scratch,even when he had a broken leg. He is also fearless and seems to have no sense of danger.I believe this is in part because of his deafness.I wonder if your cat might be the product of inbreeding? I saw a litter of kittens once who had been fathered by their own brother,and they were abnormally small.I guess you’ll just have to get used to his little quirks! As long as he is physically OK,then I wouldn’t fret about it too much.I’d love to see a picture of him.Here is my little oddball,Patterson:
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n85/Luna810/PictureorVideo896.jpg
Edit: To test his hearing,clap your hands close to his ears while he is sleeping.If he doesn’t startle or at least wake up,the he is likely deaf.The vacuum cleaner reaction makes me think he is deaf,too,as Patterson pays no attention to ours at all ,while my other cats scatter.