- Joined
- Oct 9, 2017
- Messages
- 112
- Purraise
- 96
Having finally conquered the kittens’ many ills we are now facing unrest in the household. Cookie, my 10yo female has always been a precious little thing - I suspect she suffers from slight touch-sensitivity and also general moodiness, so sometimes she will suddenly nip or swat at our hands when we pet her for too long and this is highly dependent on her mood. She will also get into these ‘agitated states’ where she does not allow me to touch her/pick her up and she moves from place to place, like she has a hard time settling down and sometimes she will make unhappy chirps while doing this.
Enter the kittens. Without going into it too much, part of the reason we got the kittens was to help with some of these behavioral issues. We were beginning to suspect she gets bored as an indoor cat (she grew up in a multi-cat, indoor-outdoor household). We tried getting another cat in the past and while the match didn’t work, I actually saw a dramatic improvement in her behavior and irritability that lasted well beyond that additional cat leaving our family.
So anyways, the introduction of the kittens seemed to go really well at first. There was minimal hissing but no attacks and she tolerated close proximity early on. She would come up to sniff them while they were sleeping, but hiss and growl if they ran up to her while playing. She often sniffed and touched noses, especially with Marcel. Sometimes she even licked their ears.
However, in recent weeks she seems to be bothered more by their presence. We did let them start coming out at night and that sort of coincided with the change in her irritability. Sometimes we still lock them up so that we can sleep and relations do not improve (in fact they seem worse after those nights). Usually it will start out with one of the kittens going up to her and sniffing noses, which she seems fine with. Then they will often start going for the tummy (they are both suckling fiends) and this FREAKS her out. She hisses and sort of coughs and sneezes and walks away from them. After this happens she will seem to be more bothered by them being close by. If they push it and follow her up onto the bed or play with her tail she will eventually get to the point where she is giving ‘warning meows’ when she is on the bed and sees them moving around in the floor and does the agitation thing where she keeps moving around and laying down for a few minutes then getting up and moving again. If they jump up onto the bed sometimes she will lunge at them to get them to leave, but I don’t believe her claws are ever out. If they walk up next to her while she is eating she will swat at them until they leave, again with no claws. Since we got the kittens she has not allowed me to trim her claws and I am really worried about this for two reasons: I obviously don’t want her to hurt the kittens if she does have her claws out, and I see her getting her claws caught on things and I think this contributes to her agitation.
We did just buy a feliway multicat diffuser and plugged it in yesterday. Doesn’t appear to be doing much. I am thinking maybe play therapy could be good for her, but she is reluctant to play for more than a few minutes. I feel so bad for her because she seems stressed out all the time. I am a little surprised that the kittens bother her to this extent, because the last cat we had would actively stalk and attack her - even pin her down and bite her (and if it was anywhere as hard as he bit us, it was hard) pretty much all the time. I believe we had that cat for about 3 months and she actually adjusted to his presence fairly quickly. I don’t remember her being this agitated, however right before we got that cat she was downright unreasonable (I could hardly touch her, she was basically upset all the time), so maybe it’s just the juxtaposition.
I have also noticed that she is scratching around her ears more often than I remember, and it suddenly occurred to me that something else could be bothering her, like FAD. The kittens came home with fleas about 6 weeks ago and everyone was treated with Revolution. They were just given their second treatment a few days ago. When I pet her I feel two little bumps, like they could be cuts or bites(?) behind her ear but when I root around I can’t see anything (she usually gets fed up with me doing this before I can find anything). She did go to the vet a month ago after the kittens brought in the fleas and she was given a clean bill of health. I know the obvious thing is to take her to the vet, but I have been taking three cats to the vet a lot recently and money is a little tight right now. Plus, I don’t want to stress her out more with another visit to the vet if she’s not sick.
Finally, I awoke last week to the sound of alleycats screaming bloody murder outside and I heard Cookie jump down from the bed growling softly. Could this be the cause of her agitation? unfortunately many people around here let their cats outside, so they aren’t necessarily feral and I can’t trap them.
What do you think? Should I do a reintroduction? Are there any calming products that people have had success with, either for agitation or cat introductions? What about fixes for cats outside that can’t be removed?
Enter the kittens. Without going into it too much, part of the reason we got the kittens was to help with some of these behavioral issues. We were beginning to suspect she gets bored as an indoor cat (she grew up in a multi-cat, indoor-outdoor household). We tried getting another cat in the past and while the match didn’t work, I actually saw a dramatic improvement in her behavior and irritability that lasted well beyond that additional cat leaving our family.
So anyways, the introduction of the kittens seemed to go really well at first. There was minimal hissing but no attacks and she tolerated close proximity early on. She would come up to sniff them while they were sleeping, but hiss and growl if they ran up to her while playing. She often sniffed and touched noses, especially with Marcel. Sometimes she even licked their ears.
However, in recent weeks she seems to be bothered more by their presence. We did let them start coming out at night and that sort of coincided with the change in her irritability. Sometimes we still lock them up so that we can sleep and relations do not improve (in fact they seem worse after those nights). Usually it will start out with one of the kittens going up to her and sniffing noses, which she seems fine with. Then they will often start going for the tummy (they are both suckling fiends) and this FREAKS her out. She hisses and sort of coughs and sneezes and walks away from them. After this happens she will seem to be more bothered by them being close by. If they push it and follow her up onto the bed or play with her tail she will eventually get to the point where she is giving ‘warning meows’ when she is on the bed and sees them moving around in the floor and does the agitation thing where she keeps moving around and laying down for a few minutes then getting up and moving again. If they jump up onto the bed sometimes she will lunge at them to get them to leave, but I don’t believe her claws are ever out. If they walk up next to her while she is eating she will swat at them until they leave, again with no claws. Since we got the kittens she has not allowed me to trim her claws and I am really worried about this for two reasons: I obviously don’t want her to hurt the kittens if she does have her claws out, and I see her getting her claws caught on things and I think this contributes to her agitation.
We did just buy a feliway multicat diffuser and plugged it in yesterday. Doesn’t appear to be doing much. I am thinking maybe play therapy could be good for her, but she is reluctant to play for more than a few minutes. I feel so bad for her because she seems stressed out all the time. I am a little surprised that the kittens bother her to this extent, because the last cat we had would actively stalk and attack her - even pin her down and bite her (and if it was anywhere as hard as he bit us, it was hard) pretty much all the time. I believe we had that cat for about 3 months and she actually adjusted to his presence fairly quickly. I don’t remember her being this agitated, however right before we got that cat she was downright unreasonable (I could hardly touch her, she was basically upset all the time), so maybe it’s just the juxtaposition.
I have also noticed that she is scratching around her ears more often than I remember, and it suddenly occurred to me that something else could be bothering her, like FAD. The kittens came home with fleas about 6 weeks ago and everyone was treated with Revolution. They were just given their second treatment a few days ago. When I pet her I feel two little bumps, like they could be cuts or bites(?) behind her ear but when I root around I can’t see anything (she usually gets fed up with me doing this before I can find anything). She did go to the vet a month ago after the kittens brought in the fleas and she was given a clean bill of health. I know the obvious thing is to take her to the vet, but I have been taking three cats to the vet a lot recently and money is a little tight right now. Plus, I don’t want to stress her out more with another visit to the vet if she’s not sick.
Finally, I awoke last week to the sound of alleycats screaming bloody murder outside and I heard Cookie jump down from the bed growling softly. Could this be the cause of her agitation? unfortunately many people around here let their cats outside, so they aren’t necessarily feral and I can’t trap them.
What do you think? Should I do a reintroduction? Are there any calming products that people have had success with, either for agitation or cat introductions? What about fixes for cats outside that can’t be removed?
