Adopted blind feral cat attacking house cats

LaVitaGatta

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First time posting but I’m not sure what to do. I found a blind cat on the street 4 months ago and adopted her since she was very friendly. But! She is very aggressive toward my other cats. For awhile they could escape her on high surfaces but she is very smart and gets around well despite her handicap and will literally stalk them and try to fight. Any time they are peacefully coexisting just means she doesn’t know they are there yet. She is very friendly toward humans and ignores my dogs. My other 2 cats avoid her if they can help it- they never initiate fights. I took nearly 2 months to try to introduce them but her blindness made it difficult because we have to jump right from scent swapping to in-person introductions without line of sight. I eventually figured it was ok to let her out since the others could easily climb and escape her, but now it’s not an option. Should I try re-introducing them? My husband thinks she is just aggressive and we need to re-home her but I know that will be difficult (and I’m attached to her now). I don’t want my other cats hurt or stressed though! Any advice about re-introducing a blind, feral cat?

Also all are adults
 
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LaVitaGatta

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Hi! The original two are- spayed female and neutered male. The new girl hasn’t been yet but has an appointment next week. Do you think that will help? I know it does for males but didn’t think it mattered as much for females
 

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Hi
It can help, your new girl should be less territorial and more calm.
When she gets back home be on the lookout for "you don't smell right" which might cause the resident cats to get cranky. Having some calming products may help with this :)
 

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It should help. right now her instincts, or her previous experience, is telling her she needs territory, a good bit of it, to support future kittens. It's also telling her that she has to get ready to protect the kittens. If nothing else the other cats have to accept her space.

Still, I'm surprised that she's ignoring the dogs. Cats who live outside know that most other animals consider them prey. Why wouldn't she consider the dogs dangerous? The two answers I can think of is that she doesn't realize the dogs scent isn't part of the human scent. That makes me wonder how she survived outside without another animals taking her down. The other possibility is that she was a house cat who recently lost her human and the human's relatives or landlord threw her out.

If you get her tranquilizers for the time from spaying until the hormones are less, be aware that not all tranquilizers work the same for all cats. Give her a test one while you're going to be home. I tried one, vet Rx, with one of mine, it left her back legs paralyzed for several hours, which did not make her more relaxed around the other cats. It was a long time ago, they may not use that tranquilizer any more. It worked fine for a different cat who was afraid to go in the carrier. Vet said that one was dangerously stressed, try this. So, you see it depends on the cat as much as the medicine.
 
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LaVitaGatta

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Hi
It can help, your new girl should be less territorial and more calm.
When she gets back home be on the lookout for "you don't smell right" which might cause the resident cats to get cranky. Having some calming products may help with this :)
Ok thank you! Let’s hope that’s the case! I bought a feliway diffuser to try to help! She won’t eat the calming treats I got lol.
 
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LaVitaGatta

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It should help. right now her instincts, or her previous experience, is telling her she needs territory, a good bit of it, to support future kittens. It's also telling her that she has to get ready to protect the kittens. If nothing else the other cats have to accept her space.

Still, I'm surprised that she's ignoring the dogs. Cats who live outside know that most other animals consider them prey. Why wouldn't she consider the dogs dangerous? The two answers I can think of is that she doesn't realize the dogs scent isn't part of the human scent. That makes me wonder how she survived outside without another animals taking her down. The other possibility is that she was a house cat who recently lost her human and the human's relatives or landlord threw her out.

If you get her tranquilizers for the time from spaying until the hormones are less, be aware that not all tranquilizers work the same for all cats. Give her a test one while you're going to be home. I tried one, vet Rx, with one of mine, it left her back legs paralyzed for several hours, which did not make her more relaxed around the other cats. It was a long time ago, they may not use that tranquilizer any more. It worked fine for a different cat who was afraid to go in the carrier. Vet said that one was dangerously stressed, try this. So, you see it depends on the cat as much as the medicine.
That makes a lot of sense! Hopefully the spaying helps (and good to know about the meds!). Thank you! I don’t think she is afraid of any of the pets now (though she was initially); it definitely seems more like a territory thing. The other cats try to avoid her but she will sometimes get close or even walk right into them unintentionally and then start hissing and yowling at them which leaves them pretty confused. I guess she thinks the whole house is her territory :/
She was skittish around the dogs at first but got comfortable pretty quickly once she realized they weren’t going to bother her. She’ll swipe at them if they get in her face, but they’ve learned not to do that and they all coexist pretty peacefully now (maybe since they aren’t vying for territory?). I do think she may have been abandoned since she is very affectionate and even clingy towards us. I found her in front of a house for sale- a neighbor said it has been empty for over a year but he had just noticed her there for a month or so. Sad to think about :(
 

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Yes, I think Furballsmom Furballsmom is on to something. I suspect she can hear the dogs breathing, which is much louder than the cats, so she knows where they are. Same for people. Bells might really help a lot and they might not bother your cats, some don't care.
 
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LaVitaGatta

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Can you bell them for a little while? It sounds to me in this case, rather than being so much territorial, that she's being startled by walking into an unexpected cat, and reacts more out of a bit of fear.
I wish that was it since it would be an easy fix, but that’s only a small fraction of the incidents and she usually doesn’t scratch and backs off when that happens. They actually all started with bells to help her out, but if the other cats are just lying around not moving she can still run into them (and I don’t blame her for being fearful then). The problem is more that she will often specifically wander the house looking for them and corner them if she can, especially the other female. It’s like she’s hunting her. The running into is more the male cat since he is big and lazy and tends not to move. I actually took the bells off the other cats recently so they could avoid her better because I felt bad she could track them. Since she is more aggressive to the other female, maybe it really is a territory thing. I thought it was just because she is smaller
 
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LaVitaGatta

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Yes, I think Furballsmom Furballsmom is on to something. I suspect she can hear the dogs breathing, which is much louder than the cats, so she knows where they are. Same for people. Bells might really help a lot and they might not bother your cats, some don't care.
See my other response, I wish!! The bells didn’t bother any of them but did make it easier for the other female to be “hunted” :(
 

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Sorry I missed that. We can only hope the spaying and the slow easing up of the hormones works. If you make 'escape' houses (cardboard boxes are good for this) for your other two kitties be sure to put a front and back door in them. When I did similar, I made hallways with heavy cardboard inside the boxes so they could be inside and not seen from either the front door or the back door depending on which side of the wall they were on.

I've always gotten new ones fixed as quickly as possible, (terrified of kittens) and I've noticed it takes some longer than others to accept this is the household and no, you can't move the cats who were here when you arrived out. The fighting did stop, eventually.

If you consider adding catnip into this, try it out on her separate from the others. Catnip can make some cats rather, shockingly, aggressive.
 
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LaVitaGatta

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Sorry I missed that. We can only hope the spaying and the slow easing up of the hormones works. If you make 'escape' houses (cardboard boxes are good for this) for your other two kitties be sure to put a front and back door in them. When I did similar, I made hallways with heavy cardboard inside the boxes so they could be inside and not seen from either the front door or the back door depending on which side of the wall they were on.

I've always gotten new ones fixed as quickly as possible, (terrified of kittens) and I've noticed it takes some longer than others to accept this is the household and no, you can't move the cats who were here when you arrived out. The fighting did stop, eventually.

If you consider adding catnip into this, try it out on her separate from the others. Catnip can make some cats rather, shockingly, aggressive.
The escape houses are a great idea!! It will be difficult for her to figure those out and buy the others more time. Maybe with more escape options and the hormones dying down things will get easier. She seems totally unaffected by catnip which is interesting… she’s kind of goofy to begin with though :)
 

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What about some distraction and something else she could beat up? Stuffed doggie toys with a squeaker inside. Big and with a unique scent. I'm not sure what scents are safe and attractive for cats. Let her get used to it near her, touching her, and then wrestle her with it. Once she not scared of it, make it's noise and toss it between her and her intended victim.

Most infant and toddler toy are also cat safe. Many cat toys have bells and if she was in a home before she might have associated bells with something to attack and it was easy for her to switch that over to a live "toy". Try some baby toys with other noises for her to play with.
 
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LaVitaGatta

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What about some distraction and something else she could beat up? Stuffed doggie toys with a squeaker inside. Big and with a unique scent. I'm not sure what scents are safe and attractive for cats. Let her get used to it near her, touching her, and then wrestle her with it. Once she not scared of it, make it's noise and toss it between her and her intended victim.

Most infant and toddler toy are also cat safe. Many cat toys have bells and if she was in a home before she might have associated bells with something to attack and it was easy for her to switch that over to a live "toy". Try some baby toys with other noises for her to play with.
That’s a great idea! I’ll try that too. She does tend to bite sometimes playing with us and I’m trying to teach her not to, maybe she is trying to play and is bad at it 😂 come to think of it, she mostly hisses/growls if she is startled by the others but when she “hunts” them she’ll just bat and nip at them and doesn’t hiss or have her ears back or anything. They respond with aggression because they think they are being attacked, but maybe she thinks she is playing and doesn’t get it? Definitely worth a try anyway
 

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Another thought. If you think she might have previously been a house cat you could ask your vet for an AMH blood test. It would indicate the presence of ovaries and be less intrusive than a (maybe unnecessary) surgery.
 
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LaVitaGatta

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Another thought. If you think she might have previously been a house cat you could ask your vet for an AMH blood test. It would indicate the presence of ovaries and be less intrusive than a (maybe unnecessary) surgery.
Ok good to know!! I’m only assuming she hasn’t been spayed, so that would definitely be helpful.
 
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LaVitaGatta

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Aww how precious ❤❤❤ Things are status quo but Luna has her vet appointment tomorrow. I got her a toy with a squeaker and she had a great time attacking it but hasn’t changed her behavior toward her siblings :( 5FCDB993-7121-4558-ABAD-E352B00D0E07.jpeg
 
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