<p>I’ve heard that parrots get so attached to their owners that they literally will starve themselves to death if the owner dies.</p>
<p>This is our third bout with cat depression. Every fall, it seems both of our cats go into a deep funk when ldgirl leaves. Both are Siamese, one overweight, the other very thin. For about a week, they rarely leave her room and I worry about their calorie intake, especially the thin one. (They have always been fed separately at least once a day because big kitty eats little kitty’s food.) When the separation issues crop up, we usually entice them out of her room with tuna…which our vet said was not ideal, but ok as a last resort. At times, they turn their noses up at the tuna too, but it at least gets them out and near the water bowl which is the most important thing.</p>
<p>After about a week or so, they voluntarily transistion into my son’s room and attach to him and all is well.</p>
<p>The cat was taken to the vet today. We are waiting for the blood tests results. The vet said that we needed to make sure the emotional distress and self-starvation were not transforming into physiological problems, like liver failure or something like that. Yikes, I have no time to worry about D - I’m deeply worried about the cat!</p>
<p>Good luck, BB, and do keep us posted! We had to put our old dog to sleep the day before S left for college, and the remaining dog is also acting depressed. But he has kind of a sad face so it’s a bit hard to tell. He’s still eating, at least, so it’s more poignant than alarming. I’m glad your kitty is getting attended to.</p>
<p>My cat refused to eat for awhile after a major surgery for a tumor on her back. The vet told me to mix some high calorie food with home-made chicken broth, blend it into a slushy mixture, and force feed it to her (using a large syringe). He said when cats are angry or upset they can become anorexic, and it leads to a very serious liver disease. After a couple days of this, kitty finally started eating “people” tuna, which is her all-time favorite food. We quickly segued back into regular cat food.</p>
<p>I don’t know about kitty anti-depressants, but my mom has had cats on tranquilizers. One became traumatized when my parents were away for a week and the cat sitter FORGOT to come! Luckily they had a long-term water bowl (like a bubbler) and the cat knocked the box of dry food off the counter and managed to dig some food out of it. But afterward, he began urinating on the furniture. A few months of tranquilizers solved that problem, and they eventually weaned him off the drugs. </p>
<p>We also had a cat that was very attached to my brother, she practically lived in his room. The day he left for basic training in the Army she refused to go into his room. She didn’t set foot in there for 6 weeks; we never figured out how she knew that he was gone permanently/long term. When he returned home (medical discharge, turns out he had a previously undiagnosed spine abnormality), she went right back into the room as if nothing had happened.</p>
<p>lafulum - was your cat’s tumor a lipoma? We discovered a lump on Skinny Cat’s chest between his front legs,and after much testing, it was diagnosed as a lipoma. For now, it’s not big enough for surgery…but if it grows and impedes his ability to walk, we’ll have to have it removed. I hear it’s a pretty big surgery.</p>
<p>I don’t remember what it was called, but that term doesn’t sound familiar. It was between her shoulder blades. When D first felt it while petting her, it seemed to be about the size or a dime or nickel. The vet said it was probably a tumor that sometimes arises from the preservatives in the vaccine shots. But when he opened her up, it had long “fingers” that went everywhere. She ended up with an incision that went from her collar halfway down her spine. It was an awful recovery for the poor cat. But that was 3 years ago and she’s a fine healthy kitty today!</p>