Our barn cat’s personality has drastically changed and we’re just wondering what’s up with that. He’s nine months old, neutered four weeks ago, and overnight has gone from funny, super-affectionate, and fearless to afraid of everything and everybody, running from people he once loved to see. We miss having him around, and are just curious if this type of thing is normal.
Normal? No. Sounds like he might have been badly frightened by something. Can you catch him at all? I would want at least to take a look at him and see if there is nothing physically wrong with him. Maybe another cat terrorizing him? Poor guy.
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I hope he comes around soon. It does sound like he was scared by something. Did you have visitors recently? Work done on the farm?
Has anything changed recently? I remember a day years ago when a cedar tree had snapped in an overnight storm and apparently had been caught by the wind in all of its cedar fronds and blown several dozen feet. It was in the middle of the pasture instead of at the side where it belonged.
Every critter on the farm, horses and cats, was bug eyed and with puffy/arched tails, skittering around, shying away from me, and generally acting feral. I noted their behavior going out to feed the next morning even before I noted the tree in the wrong place. It was definitely the tree that was the catalyst; when I went out to look at it more closely, they all followed me halfway and stood there puffy and alarm snorting. Their behavior slowly went back to normal with me over several days, but for those initial few days, I, too, was getting spooked at. It was like they weren’t sure if anything was actually what it seemed on the farm anymore. But they did settle down. Wind conditions let me burn the tree a week later, and by that point, they would tentatively come up to it to watch its doom.
Big storm? Even if you didn’t see a misplaced tree, maybe something fell on the barn roof overnight and bounced off. Sliding ice/snow from roof that could have hit him as he walked beneath? It does sound like some event just freaked him out. I’d watch closely for a few days and see if he starts to settle.
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I don’t know anything about cats, so many thanks to you all for pinpointing the likely cause. It had to be the New Year’s fireworks that gave him PTSD; the barn owner reported that it sounded like a battlefield. Poor little guy, hopefully he’s not permanently spooked. At least we know what’s going on with him. Thanks again!
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If you are genuinely concerned and the barn is willing to put in the extra effort, I would pop him in the tack room in an oversized dog crate with a litter box his food and water. Let him hang out until he is crawling the cage walls, not with fear, but with boredom and desired interact with people. When they get spooked like that, I do think it can become a reinforcing pattern where they stop remembering the original thing that spooked them and just started to develop a genuine mistrust for everyone and everything. I think when addressed early, it’s pretty easy to help them reset but the behavior persist for weeks or months on end you can end up with a cat reverting to essentially a feral state and totally disappearing.
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Hope the kitty is getting back to normal…my newest rescue got stuck in a bag handle and it took two trips of racing around the house to catch her and remove the bag. She was not herself for a couple of days. Give it time and sit quietly until he is ready to come to you!
I agree with the “give it time” (and food) theory. Gordon was dangerously feral (attacking small dogs and other cats and aggressive --growling—at people who tried to approach). Trapped, Neutered, Confined for a month, twice daily feeding and 1) he never left my farm (he was a city feral) 2) he meets me at the barn door daily for his ear scratch AND FOOD.
But, anything new and Gordon reverts to feral-ness. Having hay delivered made him disappear for a couple of days (probably in the hay mow exploring). Still, food brings him back.
I am disappointed that Gordon has quit his job of mouse-catcher in the barn. I bought him a heated house on Black Friday. Since then, the mouse-catching has slowed to nothing. [I have cameras in the barn and can watch his activity]. He used to be a couple of mice a week guy --now, nothing. I think he’s in his house playing video games all day . . .slacker.
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Maybe Gordon’s caught all the mice. Or survivors have told the tale of what’s happening at your place and the mice have moved on 
@swmorse: I did read that the smell of a cat in the premises is a mouse deterrent. And maybe he’s grabbed all the “low hanging fruit” [slow/old mice]. But these days he doesn’t make much effort --eats, sleeps, leaves to go on his feral patrol (keeping other feral cats away from his territory.). That’s his daily activity.
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Look into anesthesia affects. I’ve known two male cats that were affected by it.
This could be a reason. I’ve heard of a few cats going through this.
Also it could be that he was spooked before/after the surgery.
My then feral Ella had quite a behaviour set back when she was fixed. When I went in to pick her up the cages were in an open door room behind the front desk. The woman at the desk was quite busy with phone calls and the vet came out to tell her something. The woman got quite irritated and it showed. She went to get Ella, opened the cage door and just roughly shoved her hand in to get her. Ella still being drugged up jumped high and threw herself into the cage wall.
After I got her home she would spook and run every time I reached for her. It took her a week to realize that I wasn’t going to do to her what the woman at the vet did.
It sounds to me like he was neutered four weeks ago, was fine after, and then more recently changed personality overnight. Maybe I’m misreading the timeline.
