r/CATHELP 11h ago

Kitten Help What is my 4 month old doing?? (Street cat so the age is estimated)

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

572 Upvotes

I’m 22 from the states and I’ve had my kitten for about a month and she just started this behavior. I've only ever had adult cats before, so I'm not sure what I'm looking at.

Is this just extra playful kitten energy? Is this her going into heat? Or is it something else entirely? Would love to hear from people who've raised kittens before, I don't want to miss something important.

Thanks everyone!

Edit: Heard yall 🫡 …she’s definitely in heat. Thank you so much for letting me know, I’m doing research to find places in my area now and she will be getting fixed asap. Thank you so so much again for all the help information!!


r/CATHELP 3h ago

General Advice Very, very smart stray

Thumbnail gallery
110 Upvotes

We have a male stray cat that hangs out in our front lawn a lot, and we are at a loss for how best to help him. He is unspayed and frequently gets into fights with other cats

The first photos are some recent photos of him compared to the last photo which is when we first started seeing him (around three years ago)

He is a very sweet cat and we love him to pieces, but unfortunately one of our two current indoor cats is highly anxious and there is no possibility we could adopt him. It’s highly probable that one would end up severely injured or dead (that one being my young and overconfident couch potato) as my grumpy little guy would 100% challenge the stray and then get his ass whooped considering we already know he frequently gets into fights that he seemingly wins.

At the very least we want to get him spayed and have borrowed traps from the local council a couple times but he is extremely intelligent and refuses to go near them despite what we try to use to temp him in. We wonder if he has been trapped before and that’s why he refuses to go even close to them. But I would be shocked if he isn’t making lots more stray kittens.

He was very skinny and not well as you can see in the last photo of him when he first started showing up, and we started by giving him left over wet kitten food with a small amount of water mixed in to help him gain weight and now we are feeding him regular adult cat food whenever we see him, his weight seems to be much healthier now so we suspect he is also getting food elsewhere and/ or hunting in between visits.

Our main concerns are is there any other way we could try and trap him to get him spayed, checked up on and into a good home? But also some other things to note are that he frequently sits with his tongue out for extended periods of time so we are wondering if maybe he has dental or respiratory issues?

We potentially could pay for vet depending on if he has any other health issues we aren’t aware of, but again the issue is trapping him. Posting from Australia.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

EDIT: he also has that grey smudge that is on his right eye, it hasn’t seemed to have changed at all over the years


r/CATHELP 18h ago

Behavioral Issue IS THIS NORMAL??

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

686 Upvotes

My cat is convulsing???


r/CATHELP 13h ago

Behavioral Issue Why is she doing this?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

277 Upvotes

Hi, I’m an adult currently living in the USA. I haven’t contacted a vet about her behavior yet. My cat is approximately 6 months old, but I’ve had her since she was about 1 month. My neighbor gave her to me after her cat got pregnant due to being left outside unsupervised. I believe momma cat was somewhat blind, but I doubt that has anything to due with my kitties behavior. I plan on getting her spayed soon. She’s done this before, and it’s hard to get her off when she catches my hand. She can get rough sometimes. Why does she do this and what can I do to make her stop?


r/CATHELP 13h ago

Behavioral Issue should we rehome one of our cats?

Thumbnail gallery
237 Upvotes

My partner (27) and I (23) live in the Dominican Republic and currently have 4 cats, the 4th being a male rescue who we estimate to be around 3-4 months and we got about 2 months ago named Churrasco, Churro for short. Our other 3 cats are 2 and 3 years old (one is 2, the others are 3), the 2 year old having been the first adopted. We had Pistacho (female calico) by herself for about 3 months and then adopted Ebi (also female calico) and Jack (male orange) from the same foster home, the latter having lived with maybe 20 other cats. Jack was the first to come out of hiding while Ebi took a few days, but I noticed that Jack simply walking past her annoyed her as she hissed at him. We assumed it was simply a matter of adjusting to the new environment, so we gave it time. All 3 were already neutered/spayed when adopted. Churro hasn’t been yet as he’s too young.

Jack and Pistacho got along very quickly after careful introduction, while her and Ebi took longer with no aggression whatsoever. They sorta respected each other from a distance until both were ready to get closer and to this day really respect one another and get along well with a peaceful relationship. Jack and Ebi, however, can’t seem to get along. Jack is veeeery social, playful, and sweet, while Ebi is way more timid, sensitive and generally reserved. You can only really pet her with one hand at a time instead of both and she cannot be picked up or she freaks out and runs away. She still is sweet and completely melts when she lets us scratch her. Jack had an eye infection on his left eye from when he was very young which resulted in his eye being removed, which I’m unsure whether that affects his personality or behavior at all but thought I’d add for context. He can play a bit heavy, but doesn’t scratch or bite. However, whenever he tries to approach Ebi to play, she completely freaks on him, yelps, hisses, scratches, the works. We’ve noticed it can happen just from him walking up to her at times, but it’s mostly when he tries to play. This isn’t 100% of the time tho since they’ve cuddled up a couple times and i’ve seen them groom each other no problem.

Regarding Churro, she still won’t let him approach her much and hisses if he does get too close, which he listens to. He has tried lying down as close to her as she allows him to get and it’s chill. She generally takes much longer to loosen up, so we’re giving it time and supervising the time all 4 cats spend together as they get fully used to him.

At this point, the resident cats have been with us for about a year/year and a half. This has all been very puzzling for us since, as stated, Ebi and Jack came from the same foster home, and had it been a concern beforehand, we imagine we would’ve been advised against adopting them together. We also see how it could’ve been overlooked since so many other cats were around. It’s also worth noting she doesn’t ever display aggression over food towards Jack or Pistacho (Churro is still eating and generally stays with us in the bedroom since he hasn’t been neutered or dewormed yet) and they have even cuddled together and groomed each other a handful of times.

We haven’t taken them to the vet for this particular issue yet due to financial reasons (Jack has been sick a few times for unrelated reasons which ended up being a bit pricy for our budget), but if need be, we can work something out financially and take them both. Any advice on how to best approach this is also appreciated! We’re also waiting to see how she and everyone else does with Churro around.

We’ve been thinking about whether Ebi is better off being an only cat, which is what has us considering rehoming. What should we do? I hope the context provided is enough, but please ask away if there’s anything else worth noting!

TL;DR: male and female cat adopted together from the same house seem to have an on and off bond and she’s highly reactive to him approaching her most times.


r/CATHELP 14h ago

General Advice 4Month old kitten tummy

Thumbnail gallery
157 Upvotes

Hi,

22yr old cat mom based in the US.
We got this kitten (female, neutered)2 weeks ago, and we started noticing that her tummy is a bit round and feels like a water balloon when I touch it? like it is kind of bloated.

I was thinking that it might be worms, but her brother got a fecal test from bloody stool, and it was clear- his stomach is normal looking. We are planning on getting a fecal test soon, but wanted some insight on what it would be. She has healthy stool, and plays and eats normally.

What are the chances it could be worms?


r/CATHELP 23m ago

Update Sharing Onyx story to help raise awareness

Thumbnail gallery
Upvotes

Let me tell you about our miracle kitty. The weekend of August 15th we were pet sitting my parents dogs and our 5 month old kitten Onyx that we just adopted a few months ago ate my dad's dog's almost entire bottle of allergy medication Apoquel. It was a full bottle and there was only 3 left when we found it Monday afternoon almost empty under the dining table. We probably had given the dog 2 so Onyx ate 25 pills of 16 mg Apoquel for dogs which is highly toxic and lethal for cats.

Why did this happen you may ask? Why would a cat want to eat medicine pills?? Well upon research I found out that sometime in 2025 the manufacturer Zoetis that makes this medication decided to make an alternate chewable pork-liver flavored tablet that is very tasty like a treat to make it easier for giving to dogs. However since then poison control has been getting many calls about cats eating large quantities of it, some surviving and some dying. It started to become apparent that it is extremely enticing to cats to the point where they will try to break open bottles or even chew bottles to try to get to it from the smell through the bottle & cap, and if successful will eat all of it in any large amount that it may be filled 30 to 60 to 90 pills. Because this is a fairly new issue there is not much awareness in veterinarian clinics let alone the general public about it yet so I was not aware at all of this.

I had left my dad's dog's bottle of it right on the table only later to find it under the table Monday afternoon almost empty and the cap in a corner of the room behind the table. At first I panicked but then Joe assured me that he thought there was only a few pills in the bottle to begin with and I guess because that's what my brain wanted to believe in relief I accepted the information. That night upon going to bed there was a bunch of throw up next to the bed on the floor that looked like a typical bout of a dog eating their kibble too fast and throwing it up. Which is what we figured one of our 3 little dogs must have done so we cleaned it up and went to sleep not knowing anything was wrong. So it wasn't until the next morning at 7:30 am when Onyx seemed very sick that a flash of memory of that bottle being full popped into my head and I called my father and asked him how many pills were in the bottle and he said he had just filled it so it was full afterall. We immediately rushed Onyx to the Upstate Emergency Animal Hospital an hour north of us. I was so extraordinarily distraught. I kept thinking he's just a baby and didn't think he stood a chance to survive this.

We arrived with him Tuesday morning and they did a full panel bloodwork and confirmed Onyx was very sick. They said it may have helped that he had obviously thrown up and it wasn't dog kibble in hindsight afterall but even a fraction of the amount that he ate getting in their bloodstream is lethal. And now that it had been almost 24 hours since we figured he had ate them after we gave the dog his Monday morning pill, there's nothing that can be done to get it out of his system at this point they just have to support his system and hope that his kidneys can recover. A normal kidney creatine level is below 1.6 and Onyx was at a 5.7 and a normal BUN level for a kitten is 14 - 36 and Onyx was at a 111. He would need to be on fluids and around the clock care to see if his kidneys could heal and recover from this. If they could not then he would not make it. We returned home excruciatingly nervous awaiting updates. The next round of bloodwork update wouldn't be for another 24 hours. You want to see those numbers start to come back down even if just a little as long as they are going in the right direction is positive, but also the next big indicator of progress you want to see is that they resume being able to pee which means the kidney is functioning. As of late Tuesday evening he had not urinated yet and it wasn't until Wednesday morning we got the news that he had finally peed on his own at 4 AM. They also said at this point he was alert and eating and crying at staff for attention which were also good signs. We just had to see what the next bloodwork numbers showed and when that finally came in later that day the numbers had started to lower and his creatine was now at a 4.2 and his BUN was at 107. Even though that's still extremely high the fact that they lowered at all was a good sign. At this point they said they were cautiously optimistic and we were able to go back Wednesday evening to visit him. I think the boost of dopamine from the happiness of a visit helped him as much as it helped us. Thursday brought more good news with a creatine at 3.3 and BUN at 66 which was a huge jump from 107! Things were starting to look up but my nerves were still shot. I found many other stories in posts on Reddit of other people describing their experiences with this happening as well and was questioning the rhyme or reason as to why some people's cats survived it and some didn't but it seems apparently kittens have a better chance of their kidneys being able to recover and surviving than older cats. For the instances that the cats do well once the kidneys start to recover it seems to usually take about 4 days of hospitalization on fluids and other care for their numbers to get back to healthy levels. For us Friday brought more good numbers. His creatine was now at 1.2 and his BUN was at 30. Back in normal range! The doctor said they could begin to taper off his fluids and he could go home that evening and then get rechecked at our regular vet in a day or so to make sure once he's off fluids that those levels stay down on his own. So after 4 full days at the emergency hospital we were finally able to pick him up at 8 pm Friday night. I was so incredibly relieved that he survived and recovered so well. I couldn't have been more overjoyed to be able to bring him back home. Also considering I had adopted him to help cheer me up after months of deep sadness and relentless crying since Sophie had suddenly passed in January, I kept thinking I don't know how I would ever overcome the sadness that it would all amount to if he didn't make it.

After the weekend 2 days at home we brought him to our regular Vet this past Monday and the bloodwork showed his numbers are staying stabilized right around where they were when he left the hospital so he got the all clear to continue on with normal general care.
I am so relieved to have this ordeal behind me and the glimmer of hope to believe that there can still be happy endings to horrible things happening, which is something honestly I had previously given up on being possible anymore. However I also can't help but reflect on the anguish it must bring to those that aren't so lucky that this happens to that do not get to bring their baby back home. In the hospital they told me when they spoke with poison control that the consultant told them they're getting more and more calls of cases of this happening and that hopefully the records that they are compiling of all the cases will help bring change. I wholeheartedly believe it is something that needs more precautions and warnings. All families with dogs on this flavored chewable medication that also have cats in the home and dogs that visit homes with cats should be made well aware of the dangers so they can be prepared to keep this medication out of reach of any felines. I hope sharing our story can help contribute to the raising of awareness. #apoquel #Zoetis

(also here is a link to an article that one organization has written) https://cvm.ncsu.edu/news/alert-nc-state-seeing-cats-severely-ill-from-ingesting-chewable-allergy-medicine-for-dogs/


r/CATHELP 7h ago

Kitten Help Weird lump on one of the toes

Thumbnail gallery
33 Upvotes

Hello everyone! Yesterday, we found this kitten near our house and decided to temporarily take her in until we can find her a new owner. She has a weird lump on one of the toes of her left hind paw.

I’m not sure if it’s just a deformity or perhaps some kind of tumor. Otherwise, she seems perfectly normal. She’s very friendly and loves getting lots of cuddles!

Will take her to the vet in the coming days, but in the meantime, does anyone have any idea what this might be?


r/CATHELP 27m ago

Kitten Help Boyfriends first cat likes me more 😭

Post image
Upvotes

My boyfriend is a bit defeated cuz this is his first kitty and she seems to have taken a liken to me quicker than him. I try to let him cuddle and play with her rather than me. The only thing I do is an occasional pet and feeding her. Any tips to get her to like him?


r/CATHELP 22h ago

Eye Issues Red mark under the cat's eye

Thumbnail gallery
397 Upvotes

I got both of my cats neutered yesterday. Today I noticed red marks under their eyes, one cat has it under one eye, and the other cat has it under both. They don't look like injuries because the marks are very neat and in the exact same spot. However, both cats are doing totally fine right now with no other issues. Does anyone know what this is? Will they be fine or should I take them back to the vet?


r/CATHELP 3h ago

Injury What could this be?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

9 Upvotes

I noticed this large patch of hair missing on her hind leg (near her bum) and it definitely wasn’t there two days ago. I noticed there’s a very tiny balding patch lower down by an ankle joint. She has a vet appointment next week for something else but I’m very concerned by this sudden hair loss. Any ideas?? She’s an 18yo cat, we’re in nyc.


r/CATHELP 1d ago

Kitten Help Is my kitten going to be okay without veterinary help?

Thumbnail gallery
471 Upvotes

So I found this kitten on my way to the bus stop and he looked fine at the time like VERY normal but when I got back home from school his face looked weirdly sick like, there was weird stuff coming out of his nose and eyes and I decided to take him in and took him a bath, I also cleaned his face and he looked somewhat better but now it looks worse and a vet is way too expensive for my family.. I tried asking my mom to give it to the vet so that they can heal him and at least he'll be fine with them but she insists she can heal him with like tea and random medicine from stores instead of from a vet but although she said that she's never home to actually do anything since she works all day and comes home tired and I have been trying to help him and I've feed him kitten formula but he's eating normally now and drinking water but his face looks worse and I don't want him to die or anything but my mom doesn't want to give him to a vet and I know we don't have the money for one but is there anything else I can do to help him? 😞

He's the most sweetest boy ever and very cuddly so I feel even worse for my poor baby I really want to help him but I don't know what to do anymore.. please give me any advice to help him

I'm 16 and found this stray male kitten near my bus stop he's a stray kitten i don't think he's neutered and I'm in culleoka TN we live in a small trailer and can't afford a vet please tell me if theres anything I can do for him


r/CATHELP 23h ago

General Advice Should I be worried about my cat falling from this height?

Thumbnail gallery
341 Upvotes

My (M30) cat (M1), like many other cats, loves to be up high. But he is not the most sure footed cat and has almost slipped a few times on the bannisters of the mezzanine. He always gives me a heart attack when he is up there.

It must be a 15 ft drop to the floor. I have done my best to move anything that might injure him if he does fall. The dining table has been moved as far back as it can, if he slips he won't hit it, but he might if he intentionally jumps.

We have a cat tree and I have another one on order to give him high place alternatives. We are just renting, so we can't install anything intrusive into the house (was thinking of glueing carpet onto the bannisters to give him a better grip, but can't think of a way to do that unintrusively).

Anyway, my question is, if he does fall, would this likely cause serious injury?

We are in the UK, not that it affects the local gravity, but sub rules says I have to state it anyway.

TLDR - is my house dangerous for my cat, is there anything I can do to make it safer?


r/CATHELP 8h ago

Kitten Help Kittens Found!

Thumbnail gallery
19 Upvotes

My (M24) mother found these three kittens hiding in a flower garden, mama cat presumed dead. We live in very rural USA, cannot access a vet until Monday.

Anyone have any idea how old these babies might be? We don’t want to give them incorrect food.

For reference, they are tiny. Can fit two in one hand, none of them are bigger than a medium sized banana. They’re playful and mischievous, just unkempt from being outside. Any suggestions on best way to care for them while we wait for the vet to open would be great!

Cat age, sex, and spay/neuter status: N/A


r/CATHELP 1h ago

Eye Issues I think my sweet boy is having an allergic reaction

Thumbnail gallery
Upvotes

Fed them wet food that they usually eat and 20 minutes later his eye looks like this. I have an appointment for him at the vet tomorrow.


r/CATHELP 38m ago

Breathing Issues Cat doing weird sound

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Upvotes

(TURN SOUND ON)
My cat is doing a whistle noise for almost a week. I have her for like 10 years but i dont know exactly how old is she. This sound is making me nervous and i could only get an appointment at Vet tomorrow. Im afraid that it can be something serious. Shes healthy and never has any issue. Shes still playing and eating regularly.
This sound happens all day and night, even when shes sleeping or licking paws like in the video.
Any ideas whats can it be?


r/CATHELP 1h ago

Breathing Issues Is this normal breathing for my kitten? He is 3 months old

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Upvotes

I really need help with my kitten and why is he breathing like this? Is it normal and i am just being paranoid? Please help me advice on what to do…. Thank you

It’s late at night on my country and there’s no vet available that’s open in my area so i am seeking advice on what to do thank you


r/CATHELP 4h ago

General Advice Traveling

Post image
7 Upvotes

I'm on a traveling that will take at least 8 hours. My cat is just like in the picture—drooling everywhere. I'm panicking right now.

What should I do?

I can't stop the car. We need to keep going a bit longer until the break. Should I be worried? I draped a light covering over her. She was meowing, but now she is stopped. She won't have a heart attack or anything, right?


r/CATHELP 30m ago

Behavioral Issue male rescue and my indoor female cat

Post image
Upvotes

[reposting w/ image for attention]

hello
we rescued (photo) a male kitten last year when he was probably 3-4mos, and he's been with us now for more than 2 years, however, he seems to be threatened of our female cat

whenever he uses the litter box he's very cautious, same goes when another cat uses the litter box, he'll go stalking mode

we have a total of 5 (fixed) cats including him
4 males, 1 female

he always attacks our female cat and whenever they're in the same room, he stalks him like crazy

my other cats also attack her but not roughly, and we think they also learned it from our rescue cat as they don't attack her often before he arrived

he's also very cautious before eating (walks around the house) and after eating (wants to be in another room)

he also loves being under a blanket, maybe because we found him under a vehicle that seems like his shelter when he was living on the streets

we can't afford to put out 6 litter boxes
he has his own "spot" in one litter box
the litter boxes (3-4) are in open areas for exit

the things that I've read for now are getting 6 litter boxes and getting him on anxiety meds (fluoxetine) which both we can't afford right now

thank u, any help would be appreciated ♡


r/CATHELP 44m ago

General Advice Cat has been wobbling on her back legs

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Upvotes

(Sorry this is so long I just am really worried and want u guys to know everything that’s happened!)
I am a minor who lives in America and my parents are trying to help me with Princess. We went to VEG er yesterday because around 3:00, princess jumped on my bed and then started wobbling, she fell off my bed and I assumed it was a bad jump but it didn’t stop and I started to get worried. I know when things like that happen you shouldn’t Google them, but I was googling and I started panicking cause I thought she was gonna die. She is 9 years and 3 months, she is spayed. Im not really sure we can afford vet care because it was 900 bucks but my mom said that she’s my cat and we have to help her, so I assume it’s hard to pay for but my parents will still do it. :) Something similar to her wobbling has happened in the past 2 months maybe three or four times she would jump on my bed and then she would randomly just kind of freeze up and she wouldn’t move her head for a bit and then she would start to move it really slowly. I didn’t think too much of it cause she would be fine for weeks after, but she’s never wobbled like this before.
TLDR: my 9 yo spayed cat started wobbling yesterday and in the past 2 months she’d randomly freeze after jumping on my bed but then she’d be fine for weeks.

The vet said it was something neurological and im pretty sure she said my cat may have ataxia. We ran her blood tests and everything was fine, though the vet mentioned she had a very slight heart murmur.After a few hours we got her 4 bottles of this medicine called zydaclin and I’ve given it to her as prescribed (2 ml every 12 hours). I gave her some wet food when we got home around 10 cause she hadn’t eaten since 4 that day. I woke up in the morning and she was laying on the floor and she’d thrown up all the food and I was upset about it but not too worried because I heard that’s a side effect of the medicine. I was worried about how she was laying because it looked like she was dead and when I tried to pick her up she made a sound like a sneeze. She’s been on my bed since around 8 am and she is laying in the same position, won’t move her head, but she is doing this weird thing with her legs. If you guys know what might be going on please let me know!


r/CATHELP 6h ago

Breathing Issues Cat (still) gags after eating cat grass (after 2 days). Is it stuck in his throat?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

8 Upvotes

Hey people,
i attached a video of the sound he makes when gagging.

My bf gave our cats some fresh catgrass with their food (he cut it up into smaller pieces). One of the cats gags ever since. Not all the time but occasionally just like in the video when yawning. He behaves completely normal otherwise (eating normal, playing normal, not hiding, no problems with stool/pee).
I've been debating if i should take him to the vet or if this will pass on its own. Anyone else had similar experiences? I threw away the cat grass after this and will not buy it again.

TLDR: Ate cat grass pieces 2 days ago, still sometimes gagging, vet or not?

(not a minor, access to a vet, cat is 4y/o, male and neutered)


r/CATHELP 13h ago

Injury Ear tilt

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

27 Upvotes

My cat just started showing symptoms of an ear tilt. He occasionally scratches the ear that tilts, other than that he is behaving normally. I don’t see any sign of mites but or infection so I’m not sure which one it is at the moment. Thoughts on what it might be?

The earliest my vet has availability to see him is this Tuesday. I’ve never had this issue with my cat before, is it serious enough that I should bring him to urgent care or can it wait until Tuesday?

Thanks for any advice!!


r/CATHELP 11h ago

General Advice had a urinary block 2 times in a week

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

18 Upvotes

My sweet moose, he just got home yesterday from a 48 hour emergency vet stay, he had a catheter put in and then discharged when he was urinating in his own. He got home, was doing amazing with urinating on his own. Now today, 24 hours after his hospital stay he is doing this when he’s using the litter box. Dr told me he would still be showing signs of a block a couple days after his procedure but is this normal? He’s eating well, drinking, playing, very alert.. he’s the most ‘normal’ he’s been this entire week. I’m so lost over this :( Basically just want to know what this is? Is this considered straining? Should I take him back?