Beware severe separation anxiety with cats

Hi guys
I’m what I’d class as a very experienced cat person with over 4 decades with various cats including 22 family cats, over 50 cats sat via THS and 2 years volunteering with a cat shelter but rarely have I seen what I saw on my recent sit. That was severe separation anxiety. I don’t mean a shy, nerious or skittish cat that hides but is otherwise ok. I mean a cat that shuts down and hides but doesn’t want to eat or drink anything despite me tempting the cat with various food and treats and placing a bowl of water in the room the cat was hiding.
Time is unfortunately not an option as cats can become very ill if they don’t eat or drink for 72 hours. I confirmed with the excellent THS vetline after 48 hours this fact.
I contacted the owner and we decided to start removing stuff from the HO’s business room she asked me not to touch in order to find the cat. She was indeed hiding at the back of the sofa bed.
The good news was that after bringing the cat out and closing the room door so the cat couldn’t go back to hiding I got her eating and drinking quickly. She was even wanting to play through the 4th night.
So just something to be aware of although I think this level of separation anxiety in cats is super rare in my experience as scared cats still tend to eat when you’re not around.

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