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My senior cat is stressed, hiding, and losing weight. What can I do?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Domestic Shorthair | Female | unspayed | 15 years and 4 months old

For the last three months my 15 yr old female cat has been stressed. I moved in with my daughter, a high traffic household. She was accustomed to quiet with minimal noise. Now she isn’t eating dry food only can, having diarrhea for the last week is one of the issues. She is losing weight and is scary or nervous around people. Constantly hiding. The other day I finally moved into my new apartment and it’s just me and her. How do I nurse her back to good health? What steps do I take?

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Rodrigo Roca, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on May 8th, 2018

Hello, sorry to hear about Kit Kat. Things you can do include offering plenty of household enrichment to include toys, cat trees, and scratching posts. Make sure that the litter box is in a quiet private place for her. You can use pheromone diffusers such as Feliway sprays to calm her down as well.

Ultimately, Kit Kat should also be evaluated by a veterinarian if these signs do not resolve or if they get worse as she could have an underlying disease which is causing her weight loss and diarrhea. Please have her evaluated if the signs do not resolve.

Hope this helps and best of luck.

1Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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