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- Jan 3, 2010
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I'm trying to keep this short but with as much info as possible - hopefully, it won't be too long!
About two weeks ago we came home and found that the screen on our back door was ripped, not sure what did it but it was a huge, gaping hole that our large king shepherd can jump in and out of. Since then, we've been pretty good at keeping the back door shut so the cats can't get out through the screen. We were BBQing in the backyard a few days after it happened and Meowzers jumped out and ran over to the neighbour's yard. I went in there and retrieved her before she got into anything. She's always wanted to go outside and actively tries to get out, we kept her out all the time but since the screen has been broken, we've been bringing her out on a harness because she has managed to escape and go out on her own a few times. We figured if we had her out on the harness, maybe she wouldn't be so keen to go out on her own. It has helped a bit. Anyways, none of that is the issue.
Some more info on Meowzers, we got her when she was about 10 months old and have had her for about two and a half years. Her old owner had her front declawed when she was spayed. She is not and has never been a very nice cat. We call her the grump most of the time. When we were living in an apartment, she would actually chase me around trying to attack me fairly often. She does come and ask for cuddles about once a day, but if you're not careful she gets over stimulated and will bite and rabbit kick your arm. Since we have moved into a house she was getting better - no chasing me around trying to attack me, she was getting along with the other cats just fine and spending more time with the dogs when they were out. Most often now you can find her cuddled up to the shepherd on the bed.
This was all until she first got out. Since then she has been getting more and more aggressive. She will seek the other cats out and then just start hissing at them, growling and swatting. At night and at points during the day, she'll sleep on the bed with them and have no problem. She doesn't always seek them out, but if one crosses her path while she's walking down the hall she'll hiss at them.
The other cats are Lloyd, a late neutered 1y6m old male, Moww, a neutered 7 year old male (he's relatively new but she was fine with him before going outside) and Riddick, an intact nearly year old male that's being boarded here (he's been here for a few months and she was fine with him before outside too). Riddick has been in isolation for about a week now for a wound he has, but he wasn't at the vet for treatment.
She is due to go in for her annual and I will be bringing her in next week but was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to what could be going on with her? Her litterbox habits are normal, no blood in her stool or urine. No pu/pd, no vomitting, dirrhea, coughing or sneezing. Nothing tramatic happened to her the first two times she escaped - I was right there and scooped her up. Nothing has happened when she's been out on the leash. There were two times she escaped and came back on her own within 1/2 hour. No cuts, doesn't seem painful anywhere, not vocalizing more than normal. We will run some bloodwork because I really have no idea if this is behavioural (from going outside) or medical. The timeline corresponds to her first escape. I'm just wondering if anyone else has gone through this and what the solution was. I'm going to order a few Feliway diffusers, we use the Adaptil collar on one of the dogs (the shepherd that she cuddles with) and it works great, so I'm hoping the Feliway will help as well. I have a few Feliway wipes, I was thinking about wiping down a thundershirt and putting it on her to see if that would help... she has no problem with the thundershirt, although it doesn't seem to do anything for her.
I tried confining her to a room by herself at first, she can open door handles so she just kept getting out. I tried putting Lloyd in there with her to keep her company, but she just opened the door. I tried putting her in a spare dog crate we have, she opened it. Short of physically locking a crate in a room, she'll get out and I'm not comfortable doing that incase something happens.
About two weeks ago we came home and found that the screen on our back door was ripped, not sure what did it but it was a huge, gaping hole that our large king shepherd can jump in and out of. Since then, we've been pretty good at keeping the back door shut so the cats can't get out through the screen. We were BBQing in the backyard a few days after it happened and Meowzers jumped out and ran over to the neighbour's yard. I went in there and retrieved her before she got into anything. She's always wanted to go outside and actively tries to get out, we kept her out all the time but since the screen has been broken, we've been bringing her out on a harness because she has managed to escape and go out on her own a few times. We figured if we had her out on the harness, maybe she wouldn't be so keen to go out on her own. It has helped a bit. Anyways, none of that is the issue.
Some more info on Meowzers, we got her when she was about 10 months old and have had her for about two and a half years. Her old owner had her front declawed when she was spayed. She is not and has never been a very nice cat. We call her the grump most of the time. When we were living in an apartment, she would actually chase me around trying to attack me fairly often. She does come and ask for cuddles about once a day, but if you're not careful she gets over stimulated and will bite and rabbit kick your arm. Since we have moved into a house she was getting better - no chasing me around trying to attack me, she was getting along with the other cats just fine and spending more time with the dogs when they were out. Most often now you can find her cuddled up to the shepherd on the bed.
This was all until she first got out. Since then she has been getting more and more aggressive. She will seek the other cats out and then just start hissing at them, growling and swatting. At night and at points during the day, she'll sleep on the bed with them and have no problem. She doesn't always seek them out, but if one crosses her path while she's walking down the hall she'll hiss at them.
The other cats are Lloyd, a late neutered 1y6m old male, Moww, a neutered 7 year old male (he's relatively new but she was fine with him before going outside) and Riddick, an intact nearly year old male that's being boarded here (he's been here for a few months and she was fine with him before outside too). Riddick has been in isolation for about a week now for a wound he has, but he wasn't at the vet for treatment.
She is due to go in for her annual and I will be bringing her in next week but was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to what could be going on with her? Her litterbox habits are normal, no blood in her stool or urine. No pu/pd, no vomitting, dirrhea, coughing or sneezing. Nothing tramatic happened to her the first two times she escaped - I was right there and scooped her up. Nothing has happened when she's been out on the leash. There were two times she escaped and came back on her own within 1/2 hour. No cuts, doesn't seem painful anywhere, not vocalizing more than normal. We will run some bloodwork because I really have no idea if this is behavioural (from going outside) or medical. The timeline corresponds to her first escape. I'm just wondering if anyone else has gone through this and what the solution was. I'm going to order a few Feliway diffusers, we use the Adaptil collar on one of the dogs (the shepherd that she cuddles with) and it works great, so I'm hoping the Feliway will help as well. I have a few Feliway wipes, I was thinking about wiping down a thundershirt and putting it on her to see if that would help... she has no problem with the thundershirt, although it doesn't seem to do anything for her.
I tried confining her to a room by herself at first, she can open door handles so she just kept getting out. I tried putting Lloyd in there with her to keep her company, but she just opened the door. I tried putting her in a spare dog crate we have, she opened it. Short of physically locking a crate in a room, she'll get out and I'm not comfortable doing that incase something happens.
