05/30/2026
Happy Saturday! Today we would like to celebrate a special mother cat and also talk about the strong link between pain and problem behavior.
This beautiful mother kitty, who graciously took on four orphans in addition to her singleton, was suffering from medical issues. The problem was that she is a cat: she does not know why she feels so badly, and doesn't speak our language to tell us what hurts!
When she would try to use the litter box, it hurt. We found several puddles of dark urine outside of her litter boxes. This is the #1 sign we can't ignore as kitty parents: inappropriate elimination is a symptom, not a spiteful behavior! This turned out to be a UTI.
When her kittens would nurse, she would yowl, growl and arch her back away. Confused, but still instinctually trying to nurse! This turned out to be mastitis.
When something in the environment scared her or threatened her babies (in her mind), due to her unpleasant medical issues she would experience pain to the degree where she felt the most salient things in her environment must be the cause of the pain. This looked like scratching and biting humans.
Because she used aggression to communicate something was wrong, the people caring for her chose to stop. She was brought back to our rescue. The mastitis, UTI, and suffering moved with mom cat and didn't disappear, but thankfully, the new caretakers recognized she needed a vet ASAP.
Companion Animal Clinic saw her and her babies so quickly! They carefully examined mom and three babies, gave us a treatment plan, and called to check on us. We love them! They found that mom and babies were also suffering from coccidia, stunting the growth of the three smallest. We are so happy to report that all babies have now reached 1 lb after their treatment. Thank you, CAC staff!
When a kitty in your care is suffering, please do your due diligence in identifying what she's truly trying to tell you and get her to the vet as soon as you can.
