Worried about my cat - is he depressed???

Little_Chicken

I have a 6-year old british shorthair, neutered male cat. And his behaviour is starting to worry me. He follows me around the house almost constantly, crying at me, and if I ignore him he will 'paw' at me. Not hard, but it is a bit irritating. I feed him, clean his litter tray etc, but it doesn't help. He's an indoor cat and he's also sleeping a bit more than normal.

We had two cats, but my girl died suddenly in October. They weren't brother/sister, but they got on fairly well. Do you think he's depressed? Or just bored? The thing is he's also the most timid cat ever, if people come round he'll cower under the bed for the rest of the day, and if the bell rings he bolts for the bedroom. So I hate putting him through the trauma of a visit to the vets.:D

Any advice greatly received. Also on a personal note - i know this is ridiculous, but I'm worried that he's meowing more because he's ill, and am getting paranoid that he migh suddenly die too.:o i do know this is bonkers, but I can't help it, when he's asleep I check to see that he's still breathing...:o

wishiwasarichgirl

do you play with him? drag a bit of string around for him to chase etc? he might just be bored. if he is an indoor cat and has no other company he's probably not getting much stimulation

MrsE_2

Mine has moany days when he complains a lot to me, he's vocal.
He also follows whoever is in the house around.

Does he do it all the time?
Has he been doing it long?

Its probably nothing at all to worry about, hes just moaning.

Little_Chicken

Yes - I do play with him, with toys etc. Maybe just not enough. It might help if my OH helped out with the amusement factor too. grrrr!

floyd

Our indoor cat does it when she is bored. We have found that she loves playing with a laser pointer, just be careful about pointing it directly at them, ours likes it if you snake it along the carpet then up the walls.
Also we had a Panic Mouse which went down really well. It may take a bit of experimentation until you find what floats his boat. The favourite game here is to cover her in sheets of newspaper then lightly touch the top sheet in different places with a ruler so she can jump out and kill you then run back under and hide to do it all again......

floyd

Oh I forgot to mention playing chase too although this might just be because our cat is a bit odd! She absolutely loves it if you chase her up the stairs then play peep-po so she can chase you back and nip your ankles then run off for you to chase her.
Its hilarious because if you don't chase her back she will come and nip you again to 'provoke' the chase!

Good luck, I know purebreeds can be quite high maintenence in terms of keeping them entertained but I am sure you will find something

leoetal19

have you thought of getting him a companion?? mine occupy each other for hours.
our 4 year old was killed suddenly and we had his mum-they appeared to hate each other but she pined awfull when he died and only really perked up when we got our 3rd cat (she never took to the 2nd for some reason)-so either a companion or lots of playing-usually if they're ill they tend to go off n hide more not follow you round
good luck n let us know how he goes on x

chinagirl

Cats can suffer from anxiety - took our year old cat to the vet thinking he had bad case of fleas, as kept pulling clumps of fur out. Vet said no fleas present, he is anxious and over-grooming.
Cure for it is a (wait for it---) Cat Pheremones Room Difuser, very much like to plug in air-fresheners you can get. Cost me £40 and I went away thinking the Vet saw me coming, but amazingly, it worked, the Pheremones are 'species specific' and so no effect on humans or other animals. My cat became noticably more relaxed, my other cat also seemed supremely happy and chilled out. Superb product! Give it a try!
Oh, and you can get refills for the plug-in unit also.

Jem8472

our cat likes to be chased when she is in the right mood.

We have a number of toys for her but there is really only on fly on a sting that she loves. and a green ball. Not her purple or blue one, just the green one.

Little_Chicken

Thanks for all your help - I'll try out some of your ideas and see how it goes. funnily enough he's being quite good this morning.

Ephemera

Have you tried fresh catnip? My cat loved the stuff so much I couldn't grow it fast enough. Thought for a while she was selling it to the other local cats!
Failing that good dried catnip's pretty good, and Good Girl do catnip choc-style drops that my cat loved too. Silly moggy used to rub herself all over them before eating them.
Beware that it can make your cat hyper for a bit!

HTH!