As a cat parent, you must provide all the needs of your pet whether it is for food, shelter, or attention. But most importantly, you have to keep it healthy and take care of its overall wellness.
It is undeniably a challenging task for all pet parents and at the same time, the most important thing to do. In this article, I am about to give you some of the things to observe to tell if your cat is sick. Knowing these things will also help you to become aware of what your feline buddy feels.
Let’s see the 10 most common indicators that your cat might be sick.
1. Sudden Change of Appetite – This is the common sign to observe if your cat is sick. Change in appetite like eating too much food or eating too small food indicates possible disease. If you observe this behavior from your cat you should tell your veterinarian immediately. The veterinarian will do the job to further investigate why your cat has an appetite issue.
2. Bad/Stinky Breath – If you happen to play with your cat and suddenly smells a foul odor coming out from your cat’s mouth, this can mean gum disease or maybe a tooth decay happening inside its mouth. Like humans, brushing your cat’s teeth is a great way to minimize the risk of having cat mouth disease. Can you imagine if you went 2 – 5 years without brushing your own teeth? That smells really bad and maybe has a kingdom of bacteria already. So try to brush your cat’s teeth to keep them away from possible diseases.
3. Removing Outside of the Litter Box – The cause of this disturbing habit can be an indication of a disease. Go and talk to your veterinarian and discuss your cat’s symptoms to manage the bladder infection or blockage of urinary before dealing with this as a behavioral problem.
4. Weight Loss or Weight Gain – If you observe this by lifting your cat or holding your cat and you feel like your cat becomes more lightweight than before? This can be an indication of Thyroid Disease or much worse like cancer. But if you feel your cat becomes heavy or getting fat, this is not always a good sign that your cat is eating well and is healthy. This issue can be related to different conditions like pyometra and obesity itself. Obesity is harmful to your cat’s health because it can lead to arthritis, tumors and as a result shorter lifespan.
5. Change of Behavior – There is a medical reason why your cat that is normally a friendly cat then suddenly becomes antisocial or becomes frightened to its environmental surroundings. If your cat feels bad and hides in a closet or under your bed from other pets and other people, certainly without a doubt something is wrong. Hiding is a typical sign of illness. So if you’re seeing this for a while to your cat better bring him to the vet.
6. Not enough for grooming – Lack of grooming can be a cause of plain or oily hair of your cat. This indicates a possible skin disease or other skin problems. Over-groom cats end up with bald spots. Fleas, parasites or mange causes this problem even worse. Do not overdo or lessen grooming for your cat, just do it right.
7. Change of Activity – Sudden increase in your cat’s activity level during a middle-aged to an older cat can be a sign of an overactive thyroid. If your cat loses interest and less thrilled about moving around and playing around with you or with other cats, it may indicate a motion problem like arthritis or other problems.
8. Sleep cycle change – If your cat is sleeping when it should be active during the night, walking around, vocalizing and looking overactive, maybe your cat is trying to tell you that there is something wrong and your cat is not feeling well. Also if your cat seems to play during the daytime but is sleeping all-day there might be a hiding cause to it.
9. Induced Stress Behavior – Change in your cat’s habit can be a sign of Stress. Cat’s can be sensitive to changes in their life like change in its environmental surroundings, like additional other pet to the house, construction site nearby, party at your neighbor’s house can all cause different stress-related behaviors.
Those changes can cause stress-related behaviors like hiding, depression, lack of appetite, no interest in playing around. Be sure to mention and explain any changes in your cat’s environment when going for a check-up with your veterinarian.
10. Voice Change – Voice changes is one of the easiest ways to observe if your cat is sick. If you are not hearing the normal voice of your cat this actually indicates a problem. Voice change can be noticed if your cat is normally quiet suddenly increase its vocalizations or a vocal or chatty cat suddenly becomes quiet, this might mean underlying disease.
If you see any of the 10 common signs of sickness above, better see your veterinarian and have them investigate your cat’s issue to find the cause and to let them treat it as soon as possible.
Conclusion
Knowing how to tell if your cat is sick is very important for cat owners. This will help cat owners to detect possible disease or health problems immediately.
Because of these 10 common signs, we can now address our cat’s issue as soon as possible before it can get to a worse issue. So the next time you observe these on your cat you will know what to do and what to tell to your veterinarian.