Hi, I posted once before with a behavioural problem with our cat and got some very helpful replies which worked wonders so am hopeful someone might have some insight into this.

Our cat has been acting very strangely for a week or so. We noticed last weekend that she was walking a little oddly and completely randomly she would jump across the floor as if there was something in her way.

She has also stopped going upstairs, previously she would sleep on a bed in a spare room now she stays downstairs on her own all night. When I take her upstairs her fur stands up and she hides in a corner before running down the stars (again jumping down them three at a time).

We took her to the vets, they gave her some pain killers and said she might have twisted or sprained her back leg but she doesn't seem to be in any obvious pain so I'm wondering if perhaps she's had a scare of some kind but can't connect it to anything in the house, especially not anything upstairs.

It's all very odd, she has a pre-existing condition she got bit by a fox on her head a few years back which left her with nerve damage, no blink reflex in one eye and she eats on one side of her mouth. It's never bothered her before but could it be related to that?

Hopefully she'll get over it but any ideas or similar experiences would be appreciated!

It's a tough one, it could be injury related but it maybe that you'll Nd er know! If she's s ared of upstairs, don't force her up there, and make a safe area for her down stairs (quiet, protected) and ensure you do not disturb her in that area, she needs somewhere to retreat to.

Perhaps you also have a ghost.

this sounds odd and dont take offence. Have you got fleas. Sometimes they can see things that we cant or sense things and it does put them off going into rooms that they could have seen them in. If you can i would give the house a spray i use indirex. Its happened too me years ago and one mine wouldnt go into the living room for ages.

Why do all cats do that thing where they stare fixedly at something that we can't see? Do they really see dead people?

I guess it could be related to her injury, but with the way she's reacting to being upstairs it sounds to me like she might have had a fright there. Is there any chance another cat could have got in and scared her?

In my experience it's quite common for cats to suddenly adopt a new sleeping place as their favourite so the fact she's chosing to sleep downstairs for now might just be a coincidence.

Funnily enough, my cat has suddenly started scooting across a part of the living room just inside the door, and we're sure it's that something's either given her a start there or something's hurt her (a thorn in her fur or a nip from a flea) and she's associating that area with whatever it was at that moment.

They do worry us though, don't they?

I think this is a cat joke. It was a favourite thing of one of our cats when I was growing up. She'd wait until we were all looking in the same place on the ceiling as her and saying "What's there...?" then she'd get up and walk away. You could practcially hear her sniggering.

I don't have a similar experience of this, at least not with a cat, but walking oddly....occasional jumps across the floor when there's nothing there....not going up the stairs...then jumping down them 3 at-a-time when taken upstairs....is it possible she has some degree of arthritic joint problems, perhaps in that hind leg the vet thought was sprained?

Maybe one of her joints can become stiff, perhaps following a rest, so that when walking across the room she jumps, freeing it up with a different action to that used when taking short steps, or does this as avoidance of something she imagines is on the floor. If she associates the discomfort with being upstairs she won't be happy to be up there, so reacts with fear.