Free · about 2 minutes
Is your cat stressed? A 2-minute check
About eight quick questions. At the end: what may be filling your cat’s glass, and one thing to try today. Not a diagnosis: only a vet can rule out pain or illness.
Call your vet today.
One or more of the signs you ticked can mean pain or illness that shouldn’t wait. Call your vet now, or an emergency vet if it’s out of hours. Everything else can wait.
What you ticked
A cat who strains and passes little or no urine, especially a male cat, may have a blocked bladder, which can become life-threatening quickly. Don’t wait to see if it passes.
Tell the practice what you’ve seen, so they can plan the visit.
Once your cat has been seen, you can come back to this check. The free preview of our guide is here whenever you want it.
Your result
What may be filling your cat’s glass
What you see most: peeing outside the box.
It often comes back to the box, its place, or something in the home or outside that feels wrong to your cat. The drops below are worth looking at, one at a time.
What you see most: scratching the furniture.
Scratching is natural, and no cat should stop. More scratching, in more places, may mean the post doesn’t suit your cat or is in the wrong place, or that your cat has more to say: the drops below.
What you see most: hissing, swiping or biting.
A swipe or a bite is often a cat’s last resort, when the warnings didn’t work or there was nowhere to go. Fear, frustration and play gone wrong are common reasons, and so is pain.
What you see most: hiding, and running away.
Hiding is how a cat copes. It may become a problem when it takes over the day, and there are often a few drops behind it: the ones below are a place to start.
The drops worth looking at first
Think of a glass of water: every small thing that bothers your cat adds a drop, until it spills over. From your answers, these may be adding the most. A starting point, not a verdict: a few days of notes tell you more.
The litter box
Its size, the litter, how often it’s cleaned and where it is all matter to a cat. A box that feels wrong is worth looking at whatever the problem you see.
Changes at home
A move, new furniture, new people or a new routine can each add a drop, even when the change seems small to us.
Another animal
Sharing food, boxes and resting places with another animal may be part of it, even when nobody fights: tension between cats is often just a stare, or a blocked doorway.
Something outside
A cat at the window or in the garden can be a drop your cat can’t do anything about, and the tension may come out somewhere else.
Hands, visitors and noise
Being picked up, stroked for too long, visitors, children or loud sounds: each one is small, but together they may fill the glass.
Nothing stood out in these questions. Quieter drops often show up in a few days of notes: that’s what Days 1–3 of the guide are for.
What to try today
Scoop the box twice today, then crouch beside it at your cat’s height: can they see out, and step in easily? Write down what you notice, and don’t move it yet.
Keep today predictable: meals, play and quiet time at the usual hours. Put a blanket your cat has slept on next to whatever is new.
Give each animal their own food and water today, out of sight of the others, so nobody has to pass anyone to eat.
Close the blind or curtain at the window your cat watches, at the time the other cat usually comes by.
Let your cat come to you today: no picking up, and stop stroking after three or four strokes, before the tail starts to flick.
Keep everything as it is for now, and watch.
And start a one-line diary: where, when, and what happened just before. It costs nothing, and it’s how the guide begins.
Hissing or biting is part of it. If anyone is getting hurt, people or animals, read the safety rules on the aggression page today, whatever you work on first. A bite that broke the skin goes to a doctor today.
Read the first five pages of the guide, free
The Stressed Cat: free preview covers all four problems: the full glass, the vet checklist and one small, safe thing to try today. No email needed.
Download the free previewThis check isn’t a diagnosis, and it can’t see your cat. If anything changes suddenly, or your cat seems unwell, see your vet.
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