hi I'm dr. Q with dr. quest ENCOM and today we're gonna talk about the hyperactive cat well what is a hyperactive cat can be anything from a young kitten to an adult cat that's exhibiting unusual behavior that one might call hyperactive so let's talk about the different kinds of cats that we might call hyperactive one would be a young kitten very normal for young kittens to be very active to do everything from climbing the curtains and jumping out from under the bed to attack your ankles all those kinds of things that's not hyper activity that's normal kitten activity so any cat that's being those kinds of behaviors that's under six months of age that's probably just normal the kitty behavior so after six months of age what about if you're seeing hyperactive activity well after six months it might be more related to sexual maturity and so if your cat has not been spayed or neutered that would definitely be the first place to start if cats are not spayed or neutered then they tend to be thinking about things other than being your best friend and so it's definitely a good idea to have them speed and neutered so that they think more about being your nice calm house pet rather than running around trying to find a boyfriend or a girlfriend so then we have of course the adult cat that's hyperactive and in that case if you're seeing something like that you want to take that Kitty to a veterinarian and have them examined there are actually some attica lawes's for hyperactivity in cats including something that's relatively common in older kitties called hyperthyroidism and hyperthyroid cats are extremely active especially at night and it's something that would be a change from their normal behavior so if you see something like that and a cat that was kind of mellow before and then suddenly becomes hyperactive definitely warrants a trip to the veterinarian now if it's not a young kitten and your cat has been spayed or neutered been checked out by the veterinarian and doesn't seem to be any kind of abnormal blood work then the next thing to think about is just make sure that you're interacting with your cat we tend to think of cats as this voluntary creatures but they actually get quite bored sitting at home waiting on us to come home from work so having some toys and activities for them and playing with them on a daily basis is actually really important so some of the things you might consider would be playing with having them chase like a sparkly ball having a tree for them and that they can scratch on or this puzzle ball that we have here for Timbo which unfortunately he's figured out how to use and so it's not too challenging for him anymore when you put treats in there and he has to use his little brain to find them or actually I shouldn't say little brain but to find them and back them out of there so that he can get those treats out so other things to consider would be what kind of a breed of cat that you have if you have an exotic breed cat such as my friend timba the toy girl here who's actually one-quarter non domesticated cat this behavior is gonna be a little bit different than your typical kitty cat but that doesn't mean anything domestic cats can also have pretty engaging personalities as well so if you are playing with your cat on a regular basis they have been checked out and deemed to be normal by your veterinarian and you're still having issues then that's definitely a time to talk to your veterinarian because it could be time to involve a behaviorist who might prescribe some medications such as Prozac might sound kind of strange but opposed that Prozac is actually used in kitties fairly commonly to treat a variety of conditions it's relatively safe and it can really improve some of the behaviors that might be undesirable so overall what have we talked about well what is normal kitten behavior we've talked about spaying and neutering we've talked about making sure these guys are healthy from the inside out with some blood work done at your veterinarians we've talked about making sure we're using lots of toys and games and interacting and playing with your kitty cat every single day and if you're still having issues then it's definitely time to consult the behaviors and who might want to prescribe some medications for your kitty on that note I'm dr. Q and the rest is up to you thanks for stopping by you