Hi, my name is Dr. Uri Burstyn
I'm a veterinarian in Vancouver, B.C. and I'd like to welcome you to my series of practical skills for pet owners
I'm here with Mr.Pirate to talk about a question that I got asked quite a few times
uh, after publishing my squish the cat video and that is: 'why I can't touch my cat?'
Some people are feeding cats outside and really are wondering why these cats are very standoffish
Other people have house cats and they're just not that cuddly
So, I'm making this video to kind of help you understand a little bit as to why that might be
So, the way I think about it, there's two reasons
why a cat may not be super cuddly
behavioral and medical
So let's talk about behavioral causes of why a cat may not be that cuddly
The thing we need to understand is that cats were never domesticated
They co-evolved to live with humans, but they're vicious wild predators that choose to live with us
Not animals that were selected for wanting to live with us.
Now this little predator right here, obviously
falls on one end of the spectrum where he has pretty strong human affinity. He loves being around people.
Um, other cats fall on the other end of the spectrum
where they're essentially a wild animal, where they just don't care for humans at all
And, that's just the way they're born
You know, I think there's a rough estimate that 10 to 20 percent of kittens will never make a terrifically
cuddly, close, house pet
because they just don't care to be around people; they kinda want to be doing their own thing in the wild
And, and that's just a fact of life
So, you know, if a cat doesn't want to be cuddled by you, maybe they're just not a cuddly cat
Having said that, cats do acquire a lot of learned behaviors from their mother.
So, again, if you have a kitten that
has been brought up by a cat who's afraid of humans, such as a feral cat,
Uh, that kitten may learn to be human averse and they may also unlearn it
So, I'm not gonna tell you to give up on every feral cat or 'every cat's not cuddly'
Sometimes with some patience and love and a careful attention
You *can* make a cat who's afraid of humans quite fond of hanging out with you
But, you may run into an issue or you just have a cat who's just not that into people and that's okay
that's just the way they are. You may get into
a scenario where you have a cat that, whose mother just didn't teach it to be into people and now,
Again may be a little standoffish, but they might eventually warm up to you
Come on, little guy
So, Mr. Pirate here is obviously very into people
Hey *cat kiss*
But again, I raised him, so I'm basically his mother
I raised him from when he was a week old, bottle fed him, um
so, not only does he have a high affinity for humans, but he also learned that people are kind of okay
So, behavioral issues, just intrinsic personality may be one reason why your cat's not super cuddly
another reason that I come across
very often as a veterinarian is chronic pain and
pain in cats can be really really subtle, it is incredibly difficult to diagnose.
People often say to me: 'Well, you know, he's not whining or anything'
'I don't know if he's in pain or not' and they're right. You know, dogs are social animals
they display pain, they display signs of discomfort
Cats are not. Signs of discomfort in cats can be really subtle
uh, an increased aggression is one of them
Hah, sweetheart, you want to be on the shoulder? Hang out on the table a little longer? Okay?
So, aggression is a really common sign of pain and chronic pain can lead to chronic aggression
Um, other signs are hiding, eating less, really subtle stuff! sleeping more in some cases
Um, but let's talk about aggression. A cat who's in pain will snap and react
even Mr. Pirate, you know, when he's, if he's sore and I poked him in the sore spot
He might turn around and hiss at me or swipe at me or snap at me because that's just how he communicates
Right now he's communicating he wants to be up on my shoulder
but you know, natural way that cats are communicating is: bite, swat, hiss - and people get put off by that
Cats in chronic pain is a little bit trickier. When you have a cat that's in chronic pain
They may be completely untouchable
but if you remove that source of chronic pain then they become a sweetheart, or at least reasonably cuddly at home and
The most common sources of chronic pain in cats, *the* most common one is a sore tooth
Dental disease. Resorptive lesions. We see this all the time
We see cats who cannot be touched; you look in their mouth, you diagnose the problem, you
do a dental cleaning, you pull the sore tooth
and the cat becomes a sweetheart! Owners are calling me a week later saying that 'I can't believe how sweet and cuddly'
'this cat has become, we thought he was just a jerk.' Whereas in fact
he just had a sore tooth, potentially for years - cats get these things called resorptive lesions
They're very similar to cavities in humans
It can be very hard to diagnose, even the cat might have nice-looking teeth
But it's just a little red spot there that's sensitive
But these are incredibly painful, even under anesthesia if you touch them the jaw chatters, so even under general anaesthetic
It'll cause a noxious(?) pain response in the cat
So, dental pain is probably our number one cause of chronic pain in cats that is
completely preventable and treatable and, again, we do this all the time
we see this regularly: cats who are just jerks, you pull a tooth and they become sweethearts
Uh, as I demonstrated with Sesame
Something as subtle and seemingly, like,
Something that's not very obvious like skin... like hair mats
can cause severe discomfort for a cat and leave them to be completely untouchable, really aggressive animal, whereas in reality
They're just uncomfortable
another common cause is
The neck and back pain, arthritis, and I'm gonna do a whole video on that later
But arthritis pain can be really subtle, real hard to diagnose
But it can make a cat cranky and really not wanting to be touched and again, that's something that's manageable
you get them on some painkillers, you make them lose weight
You help those cats and they become cuddly and sweet again.
So, the message I would like you guys to take away from this video is that
Not all cats are gonna be human-centric or really cuddly
But not all angry, dangerous, aggressive cats have to be that way
You have to look for a source of chronic pain
Find them, treat them. And then at the end of all that, you can have a much nicer cat
to work with, someone who's relaxed
much more easy to get along with, can be cuddled, can be patted, will hang out with you
and it's all about just addressing those sources of chronic pain.
So that's part one of my video on 'why you can't touch that cat'
please stay tuned for part two, when we'll discuss some medical reasons
why certain cats may not want to be patted or picked up
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