# Pain near the base of tail?



## yelloutkid (Dec 14, 2014)

Hey guys,

I have a 9 year old half-Persian Leila. She's a very sweet cat, loves to curl up on your lap or in bed with you - in short affectionate, quite vocal.

Let me give you some context of the situation first.

*We have a new addition to the house - a 5 month old female kitten -* we've made slow introductions, first month or so through the door as the kitten seemed to scare her, then we'd let them have the roam of the house in 'shifts', then supervised visits, and the past 3-4 days they've both been allowed out and about day and night. The first few days were pretty good - occasional hisses, swipes and growls when the kitten got too close or startled her, but no more than that. *Yesterday and today however Leila has been getting more and more aggressive, swiping and hissing with little provocation, and even coming up to the kitten to swipe at her.*

The problem is, as the title suggests, that she seems to have developed *pain near the base of her tail.*

It started some time ago - sometimes it seems that you pet her "the wrong way" and usually she just gave an annoyed meow, got up and walked away. In the past few weeks however, her reactions got more aggressive. She'll meow in complaint, swipe with claws out at your hand, and sometimes even hiss.

After, she's usually happy for you to resume petting her - unless you touch that spot again.

I've observed this behaviour for a while, and just moments ago I started paying attention and *narrowed it down to occurring when she's touched near the base of her spine/tail, specifically.*

So that's the current definitely-a-problem-problem. I did some research and this kind of specified pain can sometimes indicate some serious conditions. Leila gets extremely scared when leaving the house in a carrier and going to the vet's, so I'd like to make the trip worthwhile and not put her through more distress, so I want to gather as much information as possible. I suppose that I'm scared that she'll just be given a general exam and I'll be told to 'keep an eye on her' while the symptom persists, and I'll have to come back again and again before the problem gets solved and diagnosed. She really doesn't take well to travelling and I want to have some potential answers for the clinic before I take her in.

So I'll share some of my thoughts and observations with you, in case something rings a bell or any of you have suggestions. I'm not looking for a diagnosis here and I will be going to the vet, I'm merely after a discussion and ideas on what to look out for.

The following may or may not be related:

- occasionally, one of her *front paws twitches or flicks *- this has been happening for years, even back when she was living with my mum, but vets had no ideas and just told us to 'keep an eye on it' (we did however notice our kitten do this too, so perhaps it's your run-of-the-mill normal paw flicking)

- she constantly has *black scabs/crusts on top of her nose* - they get bigger, fall off, then come back - several vets concluded it's from sun damage as she used to be pretty outdoorsy, but due to the location there's nothing they can do and we just need to 'keep an eye on it'

- activity level: she's quite sedentary and doesn't engage with toys much, but recently she's been more interested in playing even if they don't keep her attention for long - sometimes she also randomly bolts upstairs - though perhaps we just found toys that she likes

- conversely, she's been going upstairs and *sleeping seemingly* more than usual - perhaps to get a break from the kitten though

- the past few days her *pupils seemed extremely dilated* to me considering the light conditions - although we don't have the best light in the living room I've seen them at their biggest during the day - to the point where I'd switch a lamp on and off to see if they reacted (they'd contract, but to their medium size and never back to slits even if I made sure it's as bright as possible)

- her sister died tragically of HCM (Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy) three years ago, at the age of 6

- after grooming, she occasionally is found chewing/swallowing bits of fur (she's a long hair, as I said)

Okay, I think that's all.

*Now - I've read around and there seem to be quite a few possibilities. Again, just trying to gather information before the vet trip.

The thing that caught my eye when I first read about it is Feline hyperesthesia syndrome - it can be brought on by anxiety (kitten), there's 'back twitching/rolling', wild tail swooshing, excessive grooming (her grooming seems a little more aggressive lately, though not to the point of self injury), increased activity level, pupil dilation, and so on. On the flip side, I haven't seen her 'buck' and flick her ears wildly like some cats diagnosed with it do on youtube, nor does she pounce on her tail. It's also said to be rare. I'll watch her like a hawk anyhow.

Fleas - not an outdoors cat for a long time now but I guess it's a possibility, but she only has a bad reaction near the base of her spine. As far as I can see there's no hair loss, I'll check again thoroughly when she lets me get near the spot.

Abscess - again possible, and I'll check for anything odd near the area.

Intervertebral Disc Disease - don't think I've seen anything protruding, though as I said she has been sleeping more and as she's getting older she's been getting less and less 'graceful' if you will, landing heavily etc.

Anyway, these are my thoughts and observations so far. If anyone has any ideas of what might be happening or how to proceed, that would be much appreciated!

I hope I don't come across as a bit too worried over nothing - after losing her sister so young and so unexpectedly I don't want to let anything bad to happen to her, nor do I want her to live in distress or pain.*


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## ALR (Apr 16, 2014)

If it's fleas wouldn't a flea treatment work. I doubt its that though and I do think you'd need to take her to the vet. 

My initial thought was arthritis - she's not very old but some cats can get it early. Although it's very hard to tell. Can you find a vet that would do home visits? I hope they find what's wrong with her.


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## yelloutkid (Dec 14, 2014)

Hi, thanks for the reply!

Poor thing has gingivitis as well (after reading up on here I'm taking her off dry food, no doubt that didn't help despite what the vet kept telling me!), and as the kitten is getting spayed soon I figured it'd be easier to take them both in at once since it's an all day thing.

I've told the nurse about the pain so she also booked her in for a pre-op check to see if she's fit for surgery and hopefully figure out what's going on. She'll speak to the vet about the problem and said they'll ring me back in case the vet thinks she should get seen earlier than on the day of.

Edit: I just looked up arthritis symptoms in cats and some of them do seem to match up. 

3 years ago she would have jumped on top of a 5-foot paw-narrow garden fence with no hesitation, nowadays she'll only go on the table from the chair and seems very unsure and heavy-footed when jumping down. She plays less than back then as well, and recently she seems to be more prone to spending time alone and sleeping while it'd be more typical for her to follow me around the house from room to room and come upstairs only to use the litter or when I'm going to bed.

Thanks, that gives me a new direction that seems more sensible than these 'rarer' diseases - I'll mention these changes to the vet.


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## ALR (Apr 16, 2014)

Aw poor thing. It'd be easier for the vets to examine her while she's unconscious. I hope it's nothing serious. Good luck.


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## yelloutkid (Dec 14, 2014)

Ok, I have another little update - vet will see her in a couple of days - but - in the meantime I've observed something else.

I was skeptical about Hyperesthesia at first - first of all, I'm no doctor and this is diagnosed by the process of elimination - plus it's been mentioned in all articles that this condition is relatively rare.

One thing I noticed in the youtube videos where the owners would film the symptoms of their cats with the diagnosis is their reaction to touch - Leila was on my lap, first I was petting her near her head for awhile to make sure she's comfortable being touched. Then I slowly and applying relatively little pressure moved my hand down her spine, and when I got to the tail, she got up, sat on the arm of the chair, and turned to start licking herself/chewing near her tail. Then she stopped (so it was nothing like when she grooms herself after dinner, which covers more than one area - plus she appears relaxed then).

Now I understand this could also be symptomatic of arthritic and who knows what else, as she could be reacting this way to alleviate discomfort of the pain - either way, just wanted to write everything down and organise my thoughts somewhere so that the vet hears the full story. 

Visits are always stressful for me cause I'm aware of how much stress she's under travelling, and I feel like I always forget to say one thing or the other or don't ask the right questions.


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## XXxxMiaxxXX (Jan 15, 2015)

yelloutkid

Did your vet manage to find out what was wrong?

One of our cats (also 9) seems to have to same issue we thought it was Hyperesthesia too and in a way I still do as Molly goes crazy and gets the ripples down her back the lot but the vet thought it may be an old injury/arthritis based on her age.

I was wondering what your vet said and whether it was worth us getting a second opinion.

In regard to the kitten we did have a few moments when our cats got fed up of the kitten so we separated them again for an evening and gave the 'big' cats lots of cuddles and by the morning they were stressing out trying to find the kitten haha.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

My understanding is that FHS (Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome) usually develops in young cats and the symptoms often become milder as the cat gets older. This is certainly the case with my cat who has FHS. He had frequent quite extreme symptoms as an adolescent, but his symptoms gradually reduced and now at the age of 5 his symptoms are mild most of the time.

My suspicion with your 9 yr old cat would be arthritis in the spine. I would have suspected a bite in the base of the tail and an abscess but as she doesn't go out it can't be that, unless there is a chance the kitten has bitten her? 

Whatever the cause it does sound as though she is a lot of pain, so I hope you can get some pain relief medicine for her soon.

Whilst she is in pain she won't feel like bothering with the kitten, so I would keep them apart for the present. This will prevent hostility developing between the two of them which might become the habitual way they relate to each other and could be a hard habit to break.


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## Pitbullwlip (27 d ago)

yelloutkid said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> I have a 9 year old half-Persian Leila. She's a very sweet cat, loves to curl up on your lap or in bed with you - in short affectionate, quite vocal.
> 
> ...


Do you monitor her bowel movements? My cat is 10 and all of a sudden she started acting freaky when you pet her down her back by her tail. Meowing hissing growling running jumping like a freak. She is indoor but travels with me everyday in my vehicles. 
As it turned out she was constipated! Gave her some sardines and the juice with half and half after and stopped her treats ( she is a temptations junkie) she peed and finally pooped the next day and is fine now. What a scare. 
I think alot of cats irritate a nerve in their back when constipated and it causes this weird pain. 
I have degenerative disc disease in my back and the same thing happens to me I'm really irritable and can barely walk when I'm constipated and it's pressing on my spine. So I figured if it bothers me maybe that's her problem too and as it turned out that's what it was thank God.

She licks the fur off the belly and legs still (has for 2 years) benadryl antihistamines worked while she was on them. 
Hope this helps someone.
Teri


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## OrientalSlave (Jan 26, 2012)

The post you have replied to is from 2015...


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