My neuro Cleo is 4 years old now (some of you probably recall her from previous posts over the years) and starting last Monday she has been steadily declining, but in a way I've never seen beforee. Rather than being lethargic or hiding in her nest, or just generally giving signs that she's not feeling well, she's running all over the place (well, running all over as many places as she can get to). She runs circles in her cage, runs up and down the ramp between the floor and the bed (she's never been able to jump), and is awake for far longer during the day, even at times when she would ordinarily be napping. She does this all morning long and into the afternoon and refuses to eat anything. It's at the point where I have to hold her down and forcefeed her just to make sure she gets a few calories, but she fights me the whole time. I have no idea where this energy is even coming from!
The soonest vet appointment I could get was for Wed and in the meantime I have to feed her Critical Care Omnivore formula, but it's difficult to get more than 1-2cc into her at a time. I keep thinking it has to be some kind of neurotoxin or something, right? The only time I've ever seen her behave anything close to this was when she started doing laps around the bedroom after I put Revolution on her. I immediately washed her with Dawn soap and she calmed down. When the vet didn't believe me about this reaction, I tried a second time and the same thing happened. I don't know if the Revolution would've affected her appetite because it didn't stay on her very long. But that's the closest thing I can think of to what I'm seeing now. I also note that she does seem to be drinking a bit more during the day. Or at least, she goes over to the water bottle more frequently- I don't know if she's drinking everytime.
And that's the final kicker- she seems somewhat confused as well. She goes to the edge of her rug or to the chair I usually feed her in as if she knows she needs to eat, but then looks at whatever you've given her like she doesn't recognize it as food. She used to love her HHBs and now they all just get hard and stale because she won't even touch them. I tried soft foods too, including roasting a pumpkin that I made into a puree for her and she wouldn't take more than a dab from my finger. She's losing weight now and I'm worried sick (thankfully she's not too bony yet, as she's always been a bit on the 'fluffy' side but this can't go on much longer).
I wiped her down with Dawn, changed her bedding, and went around the whole room looking for any signs she'd gotten into something, but that room has always been pretty squirrelproof and I never use bugsprays or chemicals in there anyway. It just doesn't make any sense. Has anyone else ever seen anything like this?