# Trouble jumping and depressed/lethargic behavior



## slothy (Sep 22, 2005)

Gist of the problem: my cat suddenly became lethargic and has trouble jumping on and off my bed

Details:
I have a 5-year-old cat that I adopted from a rescue organization last year. He has always had great health, aside from the occasional hairball and an incident last spring when I adopted a second cat and he was rather upset at the change and stopped pooping - requiring the vet.

My landlord varnished her floors last week, so on Monday, I took him to stay at my boyfriend's. He likes it there and does very well in new places (even a trip to Florida), and my boyfriend is a familiar person. I went to stay with my boyfriend on Thursday when the varnish smell was too much to handle and stayed for the weekend. When I was there, he was his usual active self.

I didn't take him back with me because my landlord is still doing repairs and I didn't want him around the dust and lingering varnish smell. My boyfriend reported that he stayed under the bed for Monday and some of Tuesday, which he attributed to depression due to Misha (cat) being left there. Wednesday during the day he was fine. But when I went to pick him up yesterday, he didn't greet me at the door - I found him sitting in that scrunched up 'loaf' position and he wouldn't move. I picked him up and hugged him and he walked around a bit and then hid under the bed (either mad at me or knew that my arrival meant carrier time).

When we got home, he walked around and seemed happy to be home. But, he wouldn't jump up on my lap when it seemed like he wanted to and he really had trouble jumping on and off the bed. He could do it, but it took a lot of effort - false starts, clunky landings, no springiness in his step. This morning, he didn't get up with me - he just laid on the bed like a lump (on his side) until I put him on the floor to make the bed... at which time he crawled under the bed, not to his little fleecy sleeping spot, but to a random spot, leaving half his posterior and tail out from under the bedskirt.

My boyfriend thinks Misha might have strained a muscle because he would jump up on the back of the couch, which has a cloth cover on top in the same fabric - so twice his jump would ended with him and the cloth in a tangle on the floor (hard wood).

Throughout this whole period, he has been eating, drinking, peeing, and pooping normally. He hasn't been vomiting or making sounds like he's in pain. But last night, although he was walking around, he didn't play with any toys or run.

So - what do you think could be happening? Everything developed so suddenly. If he was just lethargic, I would chalk it up to some sort of anger/abandonment feeling, but the jumping thing freaks me out. One last bit of info: when I got kitty #2 and Misha stopped having bowel movements, my first clue was that he had trouble jumping, which made me monitor his bodily functions. So, this might be ridiculous, but he's a smart guy and maybe he remembers how I reacted last time - freaked out and really sympathetic. Or could this be some very serious thing?

Thanks for reading all of this!


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## betsy (Jun 18, 2005)

Well, if he did in fact injure himself jumping on or off that couch, the only way you'll know is by taking him to the vet so he can take some x-rays to make sure there aren't any broken bones or anything - which may be causing him to be in pain which would explain why he's being lethargic.

geez...sorry for that long run-on sentence!


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