We adopted our tortie cat a little over a month ago. They shelter estimated she was about 3 or 4, but she's quite small and has kitten-like energy.
We don't know much of her background before she was brought to the shelter or even how she was brought there. When we first brought her home, she was a total cuddlebug. She wanted to snuggle next to you all the time, and would allow you to pet her for hours on end if you wanted. She had signs of separation anxiety and would cry when locked out of a room from you. She follows me everywhere I go and luckily I work from home so I'm around all day. She's a chatterbox and talks all day long. She was sweet and never, EVER bit.
Now, she has progressively gotten more aggressive. She will come up to you randomly and give you a nip. They're never super hard bites, but they oftentimes are more than the playful "lovebite". Sometimes they accompany a swat. In particular, they occur while laying in bed. But again, happen throughout the day for seemingly no rhyme or reason. It's a nip to the hand or leg or swat to the face. You don't even need to be interacting with her for it to happen. She'll even do it after sitting herself in your lap and you haven't pet her at all.
We try to wear her out by playing for about 2 hours a day throughout the day, but that doesn't seem to curb her biting. We try to say a firm "No" or a loud "OWCH" to discourage the behavior when it occurs. We will leave the room and not interact with her when she does it. We try to reward good behavior with treats.
She had a few health issues which are now all taken care of. They suspect she has allergies and she had ear drops to clear them up, but they may come back. She had an upper respiratory infection with fever which she has now finished antibiotics for. Lastly, she had tape worms.
Suffice to say, we assume most of her health issues are taken care of, but I can't help worry if there's something else causing her pain or discomfort and that's causing her to act out. I will see her do the half-loaf position quite often which I have read could signal pain. But yet I see her do a full loaf as well. She lays with her head on the floor, which I also see could mean respiratory distress but she shouldn't have any issues anymore. She's had multiple vet visits but at this point I'm not sure what to ask to check for.
Is she showing signs of being in pain? Could it be mental health issues? Is it just her personality? Is she perhaps younger than we thought and just going through young cat things? We have even considered perhaps she has too much access to toys with cat nip and are currently testing non-catnip only toys. She has plenty of food, water, two meticulously cleaned litter boxes, multiple cat trees, beds, tons of toys, and free roam of the house. We really are at a loss and just want her to be happy and healthy.
I know it all comes back to needing another vet visit, I just want to be sure I'm not missing something or what to inquire when we do go. Is there any hope that it will get better? Every day seems worse than the last. I worry she will begin to bite harder or more frequently.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/owummk/our_cat_now_bites_for_no_reason/
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