by MOJI
(Oxford UK)
My lovely little year old kitten has suddenly gone off her usual food -likes new stuff- but the weird thing is the way she rests her head… she places it down face first on a pillow as she rests. She either looks depressed or as if she has a headache? Can’t seem to find any similar symptoms on line. Am I too paranoid… she is also quite clingy…bless.
Admin:Thanks for the submission on cat headache. My regards to your one year old cat. I think the key to this is whether there are any other symptoms. Resting a head straight down is not necessarily a sign of illness in my opinion. Kittens can sleep in the most strange positions. Although a sign of a cat headache is to sit with eyes partially closed and the head hanging (src: Dr Carlson and Giffin).
Going off usual food is also not unusual. Cats can get a bit picky on food. Is she going to the toilet OK, usual stools, no diarrhea, not over urinating etc.? A check on toilet habits is a way of checking on some health issues.
Other symptoms like losing weight, lethargy, not liking to be touched etc are indicators too.
It appears that a good sign for a cat headache is when the cat is involved in “head pressing”. The cat puts his forehead against a wall.
It is well known that it is very dangerous to give pain killers to cats so this should not be done. A watchful eye and monitoring plus an early visit to the vet might be indicated if her general demeanor looks different and/or there are other symptoms. It may be that your routine has changed. Perhaps you are away more than usual? It seems that you can see a difference in demeanor/behavior in your kitten. As kittens can fade quite quickly it may be advisable to see a vet.
Note: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified.
I welcome and value comments. Please share your thoughts. All comments are currently unmoderated.
This blog is seen in 199 of the world's country's according to Google Analytics which is pretty much the entire world.