Cat suddenly violent toward other cat

[writingislove]

Hi all. I have two indoor cats, Winston (11) and Orville (10). They've lived together for 10 years and have always gotten along amazingly well. They hardly ever fight and when they do, it's mostly playful and short-lived.

Since last Thursday, Orville has been violently attacking Winston, completely unprovoked. It happened both Thursday and Friday, scaring Winston so badly he peed himself during one fight. The weekend was nice and calm, but today Orville has attacked Winston any time he tries to leave our bedroom. I have broken up 5 or 6 extremely violent fights today. Orville has been pacing the house looking for Winston and attacks the second he sees him.

I do have a vet visit scheduled for both cats but the soonest they could get me in is in three days. There have been no big changes in the house lately so I'm guessing there's a chance it's a medical issue. In the meantime though, I'm wondering if this kind of thing has happened to anyone else and if you could share your stories with me to give me ideas of what I could potentially discuss with the vet. I'd also love any advice--we have a Feliway diffuser and I'll be keeping the cats in separate rooms for now. We can't do a calming collar because they cause Orville to have seizures. Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[ArtNJ]

Absolutely a good chance its medical, especially given the aggressor's history of seizures. However, pessimism would be premature since this can also be triggered by lots of things, including a stressor. Most often, seeing an outside cat through a window or glass door. Sometimes its something as simple as a dropped dish that really scares a cat and the other cat gets blamed just for being in proximity. Sometimes its something that changes a cats smell, like a vet or groomer visit. And many times we just can't figure it out.

A period of separation is always a good thing to try. If its a temporary thing like seeing an outside cat, sometimes a relatively brief one (hours) will take care of it. Since they actually fought it sounds like, longer might be required, perhaps several days or longer. In extreme cases, a formal and slow reintroduction process might be needed. Of course, if its medical, separation is likely to do nothing.

Even if its medical, it could be something pretty routine, like arthritis. Anything that causes a bit of pain or discomfort, or an illness, can all potentially cause this. While the seizures is certainly something to ask the vet about, there are just too many possible causes of these kind of inter-cat problems, many minor, to be pessimistic at this point.

I'd just keep them separated for the 3 days and not mess around with an attempted reintroduction prior to the vet visit since it sounds like there was some pretty significant fighting involved.

Good luck! Fingers crossed for something minor!

 

[writingislove]

ArtNJ, thank you for the reply. I’ll definitely separate them until Thursday and then take it from there. I didn’t realize something so small could also set this behavior off!