I spayed my cat October 5th, this is the incision now. How worried should I be? The vets not opened until Monday and I sent an inquiry to the doctor who did the surgery to do an emergency stitch today ( Sunday) not sure if she will accept it though.

Icey ( my cat) is eating using the bathroom drinking and sleeping fine my main issue is she stretches too much and loves to play. She also licks the incision from time to time but I try to prevent it as best as possible. Before spaying her, I planned on buying a recovery suit or cone but when I contacted the vet they said it was not necessary as the stitches would be from the inside. I need advice like fast, I'm so worried and really just want this wound to heal

He's 2 or 3 years old. He just got his vaccines updated along with other cat in the house and a very clean bill of health.

I AM NOT HIS OWNER. I just live here. I only feed the cats when home alone.

It's worth noting, I've lived here since housemates got both cats at the same time. The other cat is so chill he almost seems sedated and he fears nothing. It's kinda freaky to be honest.

But this guy had a hard time adjusting. I think because people pryed too much and pushed his boundaries all the time so he'd get freaked out when people would try to force him to be affectionate or pick him up. I noticed and didn't do this, took things slow, let him nudge my hands on his own terms, now he follows me around all the time

He also runs across the house as fast as possible to see me when he hears my bedroom door open. Sometimes I open my door to go pee at 2am and he's sitting there looking up at me with big ol bug eyes. (Weirdo)

He purrs intensely whenever I pet him and he seeks me out specifically to jump up on his hind legs to ram his head into my hands when I'm standing around and they're idle.

He also bites my calves all the fucking time. More specifically when I stop petting him. He doesn't stop until I hold his stupid smug little face away and continue petting him. He does not bite my hands or scratch from this, he goes back to purring and rubbing and circling around me. Sometimes if he's really being a shit I throw a little fabric mouse toy thing and he fetches it and after a few throws he gets distracted and finally let's me do other things.

I fear I may love him and I improvise little songs about him all the time. His name is Blaze but I've started calling him "Little Plumpkin" (a redundant play on plump and pumpkin since pumpkins are already plump... but the pumpkin part is also to articulate how orange he is.)

I slow-blink at him a lot because I've heard cats like that? He slow blinks back? But I've also heard people says cats are just oppurtunists.

Does he just really fuck with my vibe? Or am I anthropomorphisizing him because I am a depressed 24 year old?

There’s a stray cat that has these eyes, is it an infection or a birth defect?

TL;DR 4.5yo spayed female, mixed breed (rescued as a kitten in Spain, stray mother, indoor EU cat since). Lifelong mild "rolling skin" on the back that was never a problem, but ~4 months ago she started to experience frequent episodes of frantic grooming/biting at the spot (she once broke skin on her left hind leg from overgrooming), running/hiding, sometimes real panic, occasionally her front paws twitches before/during/after. We are unsure if it’s the same condition worsening or something different. Full bloodwork is unremarkable, toxoplasmosis titers clearly negative (IgG 6.30 LE, cutoff <50; IgM 5.89 NTU, cutoff <9). We removed certain foods (no fish in wet food, only hypoallergenic dry food), balcony/outdoor allergens, and fleas as sole triggers via weeks of elimination with no improvement. We are looking for hypoallergenic wet food at the moment to be completely sure, but are not too optimistic. The one intervention that DID help: when the overgroomed spot on her leg got treated with a cortisone + antibiotic injection, episodes clearly improved for 1.5–2 weeks before returning to baseline. Her littermate sister (same household, same environment) has zero symptoms. We're now deciding between fluoxetine, gabapentin, or phenobarbital as a next step (leaning fluoxetine per recent FHS literature). We would love input on whether this pattern points to a specific diagnosis (even if it does not fit 100%), and thoughts on that medication choice.

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Longer version for those interested:

Cat:  4.5 years old, spayed female, orange-white, 4,5 kg (slightly overweight), mixed breed (DSH), rescued as a kitten in Spain (mother was a stray/feral cat), EU pet passport confirms unremarkable health/FIV-FeLV-negative status at the time of adoption. Always been a somewhat easily startled cat with minor recurring issues (mild eye inflammations from time to time and slightly dirty ears) but nothing major so far

Condition:

- Mild rolling skin on the back her whole life, never bothered her. ~4 months ago, she started to have increasingly frequent and intense episodes of rolling skin with frantic licking/biting, running away, sometimes genuine panic and hiding. The front paws sometimes twitch right before (most of the time the right front paw), during, or after (not every time). 

- The rolling skin is mostly on the back (right > left, roughly 70:30) and tail base — spread out enough that we and our vet are leaning away from a localized orthopedic cause (e.g. hip) toward something more systemic/neurological. Since it comes in episodes with breaks in between, we are increasingly skeptical if its dermatological. the vet also expected it would be more consistent if dermatological itching / burning would be the primary cause. But as said we are not sure of anything.

- She overgroomed one spot on her left hind leg badly enough to break the skin. Our vet gave a one-off injection of cortisone + an antibiotic (name forgotten, started with a C we think). Episodes clearly improved for about 1.5–2 weeks afterward, then gradually returned to baseline. This is the strongest signal we have toward something systemic/inflammatory rather than purely behavioral or orthopedic.

- we are doing a diary for about 4 weeks now. The frequency is increasing over the diary period, not stable or decreasing.

- we attempted to eliminate certain triggers (weeks each, no improvement):** fish in wet food; balcony/outdoor access; flea spot-on treatment (that one made things clearly worse for ~2 days afterward, presumably due to local irritation from the product itself).

- the episodes happens almost exclusively while awake/active, essentially never while lying on one of us. Calm reassurance + distraction (often her favorite toy, hair-ties) sometimes interrupts an episode, not always. Tentatively, more play the day before and a cleaner apartment seem associated with fewer episodes, but really unsure if this is an artifact in our observation. Today for example she had attacks nearly the whole morning, but we did larger play sessions with her the day before yesterday, yesterday and today and the apartment is freshly vacuumed and the litter box is completely cleaned.

Any thing else worth mentioning:

- New plants on the balcony this year: Tagetes, buckwheat, borage

- she loves cucumber (we only give it to her peeled because of pesticides) and playing with hair ties/elastics; her unaffected littermate sister has no interest in either. 

-  she occasional has asthma-like breathing episodes, clearly distinct events from the rolling-skin episodes, none in at least 12 months. In general this is maybe once per year.

- Bloodwork (23.09.2026): essentially unremarkable (liver, kidney, electrolytes, glucose, T4 all normal; leukocytes mildly low at 5.1 G/l, ref 6.0–11.0). Toxoplasma IgG 6.30 LE (neg. <50) and IgM 5.89 NTU (neg. <9),  both clearly negative, despite the clinical picture otherwise fitting toxoplasmosis reasonably well.

- She also has one very small lump/nodule(?) in her ear that's been there a while. vet says it's too small to biopsy yet. Possibly unrelated to everything else, just listing everything we've noticed.

Our vet has suggested gabapentin or phenobarbital as next steps, we told her about fluoxetine if it’s FHS. We're leaning toward trying fluoxetine first, partly based on a recent paper (Pauciulo et al., "Long-Term Clinical Response to Medical Treatment, Behavioral Therapy, or Their Combination in Cats With Hyperesthesia Syndrome," J Vet Intern Med. 2025;39(4):e70174) showing good outcomes for FHS, and hoping for fewer side effects than gabapentin/phenobarbital. We know it's a bit of a shot in the dark without a confirmed cause, and we'd rather not commit her to lifelong medication if avoidable.

Questions:

1. Does this overall pattern point you toward a particular diagnosis — feline hyperesthesia syndrome, focal seizures, something else? We are happy about all ideas and differential diagnoses as we’re kind of clueless at the moment 
2. Given how clearly negative both titers are, is toxoplasmosis safely ruled out, or should we test it again with different measures?
3. Any thoughts on fluoxetine vs. gabapentin vs. phenobarbital as a first trial?
4. Anything else worth tracking in our diary or ruling out before escalating to a neurologist or dermatologist?

Videos of Episodes:

one episode before it got worse: https://youtube.com/shorts/v4w0iIwIt3A?feature=share

one typical episode without running: https://youtube.com/shorts/teZ8IaCrqHA?feature=share

one typical episode with running: https://youtube.com/shorts/KEXiNqyx1OY?feature=share

EDIT: one typical episode with paw involvement: https://youtu.be/R1QAT5VATco 

I’d left my home country for college for approximately 6 months now, i will be visiting home for 4 months and i’m afraid my cat might not remember me and hide away when i come home.

We were rather close back then, it would always follow me around the house and wait outside my bedroom’s door to be let in when i leave my cat out, or fetch slippers and random stuffs (ranging from a wrench to a small, foldable fabric chair) from the first floor to the third floor of the house, leaving it in front of my door. It was an extremely introverted cat though, so it would always hide away whenever a stranger enters my family’s house.
I’ve heard people say that it would be best to prepare a gift for it (like churu’s, or some type of cat food)—but my cat really isn’t motivated by food or anything but me and butt-pats.

Now i’m worried that when i come home, it would think that i’d abandoned it and hate me, or won’t remember me and hate me too. : (

I found this on my new cat and I’ve found a couple on her bed I’m wondering if it’s a flea egg

Someone left two kittens on the pavement near my apartment. They seem like 6-8 weeks old. I brought them with myself and am planning to give them to shelter or friends who want it.

But one of them is eating properly the other one is not.

I tried to feed it but she is shy and scared and not eating at all.

Any advice on how I can make her eat something.