Cat With New Amputated Leg Not Accepted By His Mates

Our 1 year old half Bengal cat was hit by a car and lost a leg. He also had big bandages on the other rear leg but now just a small one. He's been home for weeks though still confined mostly to a cage, so I don't think he smells funny. But his mom and his brother won't accept him. They were buddies, Now they hate him. They hiss at him. He's very sad about it. Luckily the dog still accepts him. I don't see how to search the forum. Is there anything that can be done?

Sounds like he may still have the smell of the vet on him. Your other cats no longer recognize him as they know by scent.

I suggest trying small bit of baby power (rub on your hand), and rub on all cat's heads by their scent glands. This will make them all smell alike. it helps when one of my cats has to go to the vet.

If that fails, try a reintroduction- Rub towels on the bengal, and let the other cats sniff it. And do the same vice versa. You may need to separate them in separate rooms.

Thanks. I have figured out how to search now. I found an article about non recognition aggression and it has some tips. They are separated with the amputated cat alone in a cage in my room or on my bed with me. I will try the scent rubbing trick but I really doubt he still smells like the vet. I think it's the missing leg.

It might be the leg since it would make him move differently than he used to and maybe not like they're used to, but cats do go a lot by scent. In our household, for some reason, one of our cats has non-recognition aggression whenever his brother has been kept away from him overnight even in our own house. That surprised me a bit. It takes him about 5 day for so to stop with the occasional hiss and head bop.

Maybe they forgot his scent. He was gone for days. I just tried the sock trick of putting the other cat's scent on them. The mother cat really doesn't like his scent. She growled hissed and scratched me when I tried to rub the sock on her. I think they see he's injured, and they've decided he's doomed and want nothing to do with him. Maybe when his wounds are healed and he's running around they will reconsider.

Cats can also smell different (to other cats) when they are ill or stressed, which your bengal buddy obviously is. And as the sock experiment showed, mother cat is obviously reacting to just the smell of him rather than any recognition of her seeing his current status as injured!
Keep up with the non recognition aggression techniques including scent swapping now and a reintroduction process once he is able to come out of the crate and I don't think there's any reason they won't accept him again.
I know how frustrating it can be to see one of your cats injured and sad, but you are doing great. It will just take some time for them.

Thank you. I will keep the scent rubbing thing going. It's so sad because he gets so excited to see them and then is so crushed when they hiss and growl at him. He has another brother who was more accepting but he's vanished. Dead or stolen. He never wandered at disappeared on the morning of December 16. Sigh.

Here's a photo of poor lonely Tigre.

Poor baby. If worse came to worse can you get him a kitten friend?

I think with time they will accept him. He continues to approach them. Today he graduated out of the cage to one room. He managed to jump on things anyway. Next week he is free within the house, so it will work out somehow I think with time.