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Q.: Hello! we have a new young cat (now almost three months old). There are two things that are puzzling us, three in fact!
1. Her eyes seem to be very busy producing much discharge , and we find ourselves removing a sticky thread of ??? from each eye twice a day... is this normal? Is it a sign of something potentially bad and is there something preventative we can do about it..?
2. "Chicken" as she's fondly called, often speaks to us in a silent fashion - opens her mouth as if to communicate but no sounds come out. This is not to say she's mute - far from it in fact ! (a fine pair of lungs on her already...) is this is a common situation though?
3. Ahem, I saved the best to last. Chicken recently opted to use our bed as her toilet rather than her toilet which she'd been using previously. We figure it's maybe to do with the litter she was using before coming to us being different to what we use. However the family we got her from threw out all the litter she'd been using, and we're waiting to hear from them as to what brand it was. Is litter difference a problem? We've had her for one week presumably on different litter....should we change to what she used before or maintain course now with this one..? She often goes in and comes out again, without doing anything....why??!! She also seems to think certain other objects (bed with striped sheet/quilt cover, sofa etc) could be toilets and has been found to begin the litter digging ritual with her front paws in said places.....is there a reason or something that we're missing here??!!
A.: 1. No, this is not normal. It sounds like an eye infection the vet should have a look at. If I'm right about that, this problem may be causing problem 3).
2. This is rather common actually - I have a British Shorthair myself who does this - and she's not mute either! I think cats doing this are actually saying something but in a pitch humans can't perceive. Cats can hear extremely high pitches, and it's therefore likely that they can also "speak" in these pitches.
3. If it is possible at all, I think you should go back to the litter she was used to before.
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