hi i woundered if any one can help me?

i have a five year old turkish van, FELIX (or turkish water cat as commonly known) black and white long hair and yes he loves a bath usually when i'm in it, we've had him since he was six months old, i have trained him to come to my whislte and if he runs from me i trained him to stop lie down at my click the finger and point at the floor and he waits to be picked up and he is an outdoor sort of cat. any way back on topic he has never been affectionate or loveing absolutely refuses to be picked up for a cuddle and never been vocal, thas untill september this year when he changed over night quite literally, he came in through kitchen window as usual and started meowing i thought he was hurt as he only spoke when he's hurt so i rushed to him to check as i was checking him he rubbed my face with his giving me a kiss and started purring like mad (wich ive nevered heared him do in five years i had him even when he has a bath he is usually silent and its on his terms too weather he gets in or not), so savouring the moment i fussed him a for a while not like him to stay either for a fuss he usually dashes back out, but anyway while fussing him i must of had about 40 kisses off him and constant purring, not to detur him i left it at that went in room for a game on pc he came in behind me wanting more jumping on comp desk purring and rubbing my hand till i fused him more so i fussed him a boit more only for him to jump on my lap and curl up to sleep he's never done this!! i woundered if it was my cat for a second but it was he's noticably larger than the normal moggy. since then e's jumped on my lap everytime i sit down he comes up to bed when i go have a liedown he's allways purring now he kisses me whenever my face is near his and he also loves my kids and allows them to stroke him (i have twin girls also five and 22 month old) today was a real shocker as he jumped up into my wifes arms for a cuddle and wouldnt get down and stay down untill she made a complete fuss of him wich lasted a good 30 mins. he's never allowed us to pick him up if he sensed you were going to he would hop skip and jump out the window. he's also taken to being indoors so we got a litter tray wich he refuses to use and uses the downstairs toilet to releive himself yes the toilet he cant flush so meows by the door till you do it for him. he's taken to sleeping at the bottom of my twins bed during the night (before this he refused to stay in over night) or shares the bed with wife and i usually cuddled up to me with his head on my arm. he's continued to shock us everyday with his affection and behaviour i was woundering if something was wrong with him and considdering taking him to the vet, as lately hes been eating a tin of cat food and minate later asking for more going outside and woundering retraceing his steps and when we go out for some hours coming back in he looks at me or wife cowers down as if he doesnt recognise us and darts out the door only to stop turn around and comeback in as if he suddenly remembers its me and wife and he is vocal almost everytime he is awake he's also been eating loads and loads and drinking well but loseing a bit of weight i have de-flea'd and de-wormed useing same product since weve had him regularly and upto date with all jabs includeing felv wich he has every year he will only eat felix cat food and drink only semi skimmed milk have tried others but wont drink them. can anyone shed some light on to what maybe wrong with him if anything and explain the not so normal behaviour for him. im worried yet delighted he's found his affectionate side. sorry this is so long winded but tried to give a detailed amount of info. (yes i am a male who is a majour cat lover)

Regardless of the new behaviour, if he's eating and drinking more and losing weight, I would take him to the vet to have that checked out and mention the behaviour change at the same time. If the vet says he's ok, then just enjoy the cuddles

Welcome to the forum

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Owned by Ratty girls Hera, Athena, Boomer and Kitty the Cat
RIP Apollo and Starbuck, together again at the Rainbow Bridge. Till we meet again.

Yes I concur with Jaxx with such major changes in behaviour it is worth a visit to the vets for a check up and especially if he is eating and drinking more and still losing weight. Would love to see a photo of him

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Kaz

For kittens, joy is for the asking and smiles are for the giving

i will post photo of him as soon as phone is charged, made apointment with vets and briefly spoke to vet over the phone who reasured me it doesnt sound serious as he's not vomiting, useing toilet regular,eating and drinking.

did find out that a cat in our housing estate died early september he was quite fond of her might be he lonly now.

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not very good pics cheap camera sorry but as you can see he aint small and he needs a brushing due for a good brushing
he has what seems 3 layers to his furr the furr closest to his skin is like kitten fluff, then he has a medium lengh furr wich is sort of thick n fluffy then he has is main coat that is about if measured 4-5 inches long in lengh i have to use 3 types of brushes on him and he hates being brushed, especially once he's got out of the bath.

Glad to hear you're going to see the vet, thats a definite must.

The death of the the other cat may be a clue, possibly. If he got on well with it, maybe the other family were taking him in, and he was getting al his cuddles there. Maybe they turned him away when their cat died. Just a thought, I wouldn't recommend approaching the other family with that suggestion!

Providing al is physically well, it's great to hear about a personality giving rise to a more affectionate cat. It's usually the other way round (or maybe we normally only hear about it when it's the other way round?...)

The nervousness followed a quick switch recognition is also very interesting...I have no idea what it might mean, but it's interesting!

Keep us up to date with progress, it's quite intriguing!

from what i gather from the deceased cats owners (they're neighbours a street away on our estate) that he would regularly run n play about with her (she was spayed and so is he) they did not feed him (they knew he was ours) and he didnt attept to enter their house when she was inside the only thing that i can put this behaviour to is depression as he got his affection from our neighbours cat(though he hates other cats with a passion he's the king of cats on our estate), i was reading up on eating and drinking healthy but loseing weight and this could be due to him spending more time in the house and sheding his weight as he doesnt need the extra weight as its allways warm indoors. he had a bout of forgetfullness today when i arrived home from spending the night away with my bro in law (wifey stayed home with kids i had lads night out) he took one look at me cowered down growled and shot out the door in seconds only to turn around come in and rub against my leg to say hi!
i dont know what this memory loss type of symptom could be can cats suffer altzhimers disease do you think!!! the memory loss type symptom has been a kinda build up thing over the last 8 months i put it down to him just being nervouse with kids but evidently as his overnight switch of behaviour has proven he loves them wich has made me think twice.

when he was 1 he was kicked by a bloke who was visiting my ex next door neighbour (in return he had a broken nose, he did it infront of me!) and suffered a painfull injury to his pelvis well what was left of it anyway it was smashed and the vet said that it would build back but wouldnt be as strong and he may develop athritis in mid age and that'll be £1900 please!. his back region has allways been a no go area and he suffers jumping and balance.

he's a hunter usually but hasnt brought home any mice from the field behind us since spetember when he changed, he's spends 99.9% indoors now and sleeps 40% of the day and the rest being a lap cat and 1% outside checking his patch hasnt been overtaken by another tom. i'm hopeing nothing is wrong with him if anything. i maybe reading into things but worrieing for the worse.
he's my little baby and allways has been even though we never spent much time with him (his choice though not ours) and i'm overjoyed he's become soppy and a fully blown softy peerhaps thats his choice he made when loseing his pal?

also one more thing sorry to bore you is it normal for a cat to play with fox cubs? felix does just that every year when the local vixen has cubs she doesnt see to mind him playing with them either! as she sits back and watches them all play. i can see the field at night as the raod out back meats the feils and it slightly ligh by street lamps have tried to film it but it comes out too dark. me and wifey watches from bedroom window laughing as they roll around playing its un-natural to us and friends who have witnessed it, usually round 3:00am in the july to end of august time.

ok felix has been left at the vets. vet said that his temp is ok but theres something up with his pelvis and he needs x-rays his personality change could be that he's missing his queen the vet put that down to and missing affection so he's turned to us to provide this his forgetfullness is worrieing the vet said and weight loss but when weighed he has lost a it of weight from his last vist to vet. vet kept him in to do a full x-ray on his body and closeups of his pelvic area and bloods i wont find out till early afternoon when the in house lab finish the tests on his bloods. expecting a call anytime now

just an update on felix he's got pelvic arthritis it not advanced as such to his spine but it has started at his pelic area, bloods confirmed this aswell as x-rays. vet said that it will advance and worsen and so will the pain he said that i may want to consider putting him to sleep before its advances too farr also vet said that he may have cat form of altzhimers disease thats in its early stages that is linked to unexplainable weight loss. vet was all up for him to be put to sleep as he said it would be kinder to him, but him being my baby and all i want to spend some time thinking about this decision and woundered what opinions you may have on this i personally think a cat deserves some quality of life even though he i'll do you guys think this is cruel? if i kept him alive for a year or so before he gets into too much distress.

I would give yourself some time to make such a decision. I think from what you have said that it is still too early to consider such a drastic move as PTS. He still seems to have a good quality of life. I think you will know yourself when the time comes to let him go but in the meantime enjoy the cuddles - try to make life easier for him. Maybe an idea to get a food bowl which is slightly raised; just let him out in daylight and so on......

Do keep us advised as to his progress.

Good luck.

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Kaz

For kittens, joy is for the asking and smiles are for the giving