Cat Will Not Stop Attacking

[help_me_and_my_crazy_cat]

We have an adult cat that we are on the verge of taking to the shelter or offering free on craigslist (or maybe pay someone to take!). I am on here seeking some last resort advice.

I'll try to keep the long story short, I could go on forever. Our neighbors had him as a kitten and abused him some... we saw their young (3-5 yr old) kids kick him on probably 5 different occasions, so who knows what we didnt see. It didnt seem to affect him then, but maybe it has done some permanent damage to his perception of people and their legs. Basically he hung around our house 24/7 even though we didnt feed him a drop of food in an effort to not "steal" their cat. He just likes people and the attention he got from us. So our neighbors let us have him when he was about 1 yr old. At the time, he had a habit of attacking our legs - I'm not talking about playing with us, I'm talking full out run up, wrap around our legs with tooth and nail causing really really bad, deep damage to mine and my kids legs. The only way to describe it would be to post some pics of our legs, but I will spare you of that. Just know its a complete bloody mess with deep teeth wounds. Now most people would probably call us crazy for even thinking about taking him in, but I thought by us doing so, we could get him neutered and give him proper care and maybe he would get over it. He actually is a very loving and sometimes even a lap cat when he wants to be. Always runs up to us when we come home, rubbing our legs, purring, tries to get me to hold him. Its been about 2 years since we got him neutered, and ever since then we've given him chance after chance. Sometimes a month would go by without an attack, but then all the sudden one week he would attack two of us.

What i read online is to give him plenty of stimulation and play time..which we have tried. We've tried mice, laser pointers, toys on sticks, balls, etc. And he does play with them some. At the height of our playing with him he still randomly attacked us. And he spends half the day outside with all you can get stimulation (chasing insects, killing mice, etc). Its like he's Bi-polar or something. I can come home, and he will rub my legs and purr, and i'll pet him and he'll get all squinty eyed, all happy and drooling like cats do. Then I'll walk away to be viciously attacked seconds later. This doesnt happen every day, but at least 1-5 times a month to someone in the family. To the point that my kids are afraid to walk past him.

What do I do??? Someone tell me that I need to get rid of him, because I need to hear it (and have heard it from my wife, from friends, etc) and thats the reason for this post, because I'm at my wits end. Its just hard since 98% of the time he is a loving cat, but he just gets that brutal crazy streak all of the sudden. Its like on cartoons, maybe we turn into a Chicken leg to him. Or maybe mental damage was done when he was a kitten.

But please also tell me if you can think of anything to stop this. Because we all love him and dont want it to come to that. Things we dont want to do but i suppose could: Make him an inside cat and de-claw him. I know its cruel and I know I will have haters for even mentioning, but if it means no claws on my legs and no more scars, its worth it. Problem: that doesnt take care of the teeth that do maybe the most, deeper damage (infections to prove that). So it would probably require a de-fanging as well. Now does that sound cruel? (sarcastic) I know, but it also sounds nice. If you were me, you would understand. Or maybe we just wear shin guards 24/7 and provide them to our friends/family to wear when they visit?

 

[Animal Freak]

I'm sorry to say I don't have a whole lot of advice other than if you can find a professional cat behaviorist, then I would do so. It would have been best if something had been done when he was still a kitten to prevent those kids from hurting him and all of this could have been avoided. Of course being abused like that is going to change him and his perspective. It would change anyone's. Declawing isn't going to help. You might have fewer marks on your legs, but it's only going to injure him mentally even more and make it harder for him to trust and get over these problems. And if he got out? Was attacked by another cat or a dog? He'd be as good as dead.

I know this is frustrating and hard to deal with. I haven't had a people aggressive cat, but I have dealt with issues(and still am). I also think it's perfectly understandable if you do decide to give him up. Especially with kids. Some animals need a certain kind of person to be able to help and, of course, you don't want your kids or anyone else ending up in the hospital. However, please don't put him up for free on craigslist. You don't know where he'll end up and, with his issues, he could end up far worse. If at all possible, find someone who's willing to try or has the money and resources to get someone who can help. If you're willing to keep trying, then I'm sure others will come along with more advice. I'm sure Feliway will probably come up. I've had no luck with it, but it seems a lot of others have. I'm currently using Whisker City's At Ease spray. I won't say I'm certain it's helping, but I think it's eased the tension some.

Considering he is a good, friendly cat most of the time, I do believe this is something he can get past with time, love, and effort. What little advice I can give you is this: reward the good behavior. If you walk past and he doesn't attack, pet him or give him a treat. Try to remain as calm as possible. I know it's hard, but he can sense your fear and he will act on it. And keep up on playing. The more you play with him, the less energy he'll have to spend on attacking you. It's a great thing that you've given him another chance at life and I'm sure there will be more people to give you better advice than I can.

 

[talkingpeanut]

You should 100% not consider declawing or defanging your cat. You might think that would make your life easier, but it will not relieve any of the inner anguish that your cat feels. It will make him more likely to bite and to lash out. Your cat may begin to pee in inappropriate places. He may also be in permanent pain, which would certainly cause more panic on his end.

You can't allow this to go on, and you are right that it's not safe for your family. I would give him anti-anxiety medication from the vet and see how he does. Has he gotten a full check up recently? Are you sure that he is not in pain for some reason you're unaware of?

Play with your cat and reward him. He sounds like he gets overstimulated, so I would limit petting, and play, to short increments. Tell your kids to ignore him. Let the cat come to you 100% of the time.

 

[help_me_and_my_crazy_cat]

talkingpeanut, I would give him up before I went the declawed/defanged route. I was sorta joking (and 5% not) when i said that, just to see what people said. Anti-anxiety medication is an interesting idea and might be worth looking into. I had forgotten about those sprays that Animal Freak mentioned above. Those are probably worth trying as well.

Other comments to what you said - I'm pretty sure he's not in pain in any way. He's had checkups, and this has gone on for years now. And he acts perfectly normal, so I dont think it would be that.

You're right that he can get overstimulated. He'll typically bite if you pet him too long just as a warning to leave him alone. So for the most part we do leave him alone, until he comes to us for attention, which is several times a day. But even when we do approach him and pet him, he seems to enjoy it for the first 20 seconds or so, then warns us.

 

[maggiedemi]

Does this only happen when you are playing with him or petting him? Or does he just come out of nowhere and attack you?

 

[help_me_and_my_crazy_cat]

Does this only happen when you are playing with him or petting him? Or does he just come out of nowhere and attack you?

I can't actually think of a time when he has done this vicious attack when we're playing with him or petting him, other than a few times it has been after he comes up to greet me when i come home, so I pet him a good deal and then walk away, then he pounces on me before I get 5 feet away. Like i said, thats very, very occasionally. So this attack I'm describing is always to our legs and is almost always out of no where. Sometimes its a complete surprise and we didnt see it coming until we felt claws and teeth. Other times we see him from 50 feet away running straight at us like a psycho cat headed straight to our legs. We've had it happen enough now that if we catch it in time we can ward him off before a real attack happens. He's also done it on a few occasions when the kids are screaming. He hates loud noises apparently and has attacked the person making them. Sometimes he'll just come up and give a quick warning bite that isnt as bad. Other times its the full force wrap around inject the teeth and claws attack. Haha thinking about this, he's just a biter. He'll also bite when he wants something, like if we're cooking dinner and he wants a treat. But then its almost always just a small bite to get our attention. He'll even bite when he's loving on us. I can only imagine thats not a mean bite since its usually a nibble, but he still gets his teeth on our arm/leg/whatever and it can catch us off guard.

 

[abbi hinshaw]

when he attacks you are you walking away from him? Or just walking in general?

 

[help_me_and_my_crazy_cat]

when he attacks you are you walking away from him? Or just walking in general?

It's definitely both cases. Some are after walking away from petting him when he was wanting the attention, others are completely out of the blue.

 

[maggiedemi]

Is he kind of feral? My ex-ferals do this when they are overstimulated. They don't like to be petted for too long and only if it's their idea. Maybe try petting him for just a short time. There was an episode of My Cat From Hell where this cat had nerve pain every once in a while and when the pain would shoot through his body he would lash out and blame whoever was standing near him. He had to go on medication. Does it look like that could be happening?

 

[help_me_and_my_crazy_cat]

I wouldnt call him feral. Not sure who his parents were. But he follows us wherever we go. Walk around the neighborhood...he follows us. To the garden, he's there with us. He loves being around people. He does bite when he's over stimulated, but its just a small warning bite, not the crazy full force attack. Perhaps it could be something like the nerve pain you describe, but if so, not sure why he'd be having that pain. I dont think thats it, but I could be wrong.

 

[maggiedemi]

You said the neighbor kids were kicking him. That could cause nerve damage, especially if they kicked him in the head.

 

[help_me_and_my_crazy_cat]

You could be onto something, but i guess if that were the case I'd almost expect other weird behavior to go along with it. Like maybe sometimes he would lash out at our legs, but others he would just act crazy for a moment while he had the pain. When we get attacked, he looks perfectly normal, but just comes and gets us.

 

[maggiedemi]

My ferals will bite and scratch if you try to make them do something they don't want to do, pick them up when they don't want you to, or pet them for too long. Like if you give them a really good pet or massage, it's like you're putting all this energy into them that comes back out in biting and scratching...But they never just run out of nowhere and attack me. Maybe do an experiment for one day and just try giving him short pets on the head, not a rub down on the whole body, see if this helps?

 

[help_me_and_my_crazy_cat]

A couple of the times he's attacked us has been when we've not even seen him for a few days. Like we'll come home from being gone for 3-4 days, pet him when he greets us, and he's perfectly happy, purring, rubbing our legs. We know when he's done with the affection, because he'll just walk away - which takes about 30 seconds or so. 5 minutes later when I walked out to the car to unload it, I got attacked. Other times of increased occurrence almost seems like he's doing it because he's irritated with us. I recall a couple times when we've had a dog in the house for a few days when parents visit, so we wont let him inside during that time. Seems like the days following those visits included some bloody legs. Now that I think of it, it also seems like some of the times he's attacked me after I've petted him after he greeted me when i came home from work may have been that I had my arms full and couldnt give him a thorough petting. So its like he lashed out upset that I didnt give him enough attention. But for sure there have been plenty times when the attack has at least seemed completely random. The worse one yet, my wife was in the backyard a few days ago minding her own business. Didnt even know the cat was there, and he ran up and got her. I think he hit a vein or something because it was like monty python bad. Some of you will get that. But thats what led me to posting the original post.

 

[maggiedemi]

I'm thinking it must be something medical then. Because my Maggie is still pretty wild and feral and she never would just attack me out of nowhere if I'm not bothering her at all. That's not normal for a cat to do that unless they are unwell. Has he had a checkup lately? What is his diet like?

 

[help_me_and_my_crazy_cat]

His last checkup was maybe 4-5 months ago. We've given him a few different types of cat food from Wal-Mart. But keep in mind he's done this since before he was even officially our cat, so several years. His diet also includes mice, baby rabbits, squirrels, birds, lizards, and insects.

 

[talkingpeanut]

I do think he needs a comprehensive check up where you discuss all of these concerns with the vet. Discuss an anti-anxiety medication if the vet feels there is no physical cause.

 

[maggiedemi]

Is he up to date on all his shots? Has he been de-wormed? Is he on a monthly flea topical? Does he have ear mites? I can't help but think he doesn't feel good in some way and is lashing out to try to tell you.

 

[abbi hinshaw]

It's definitely both cases. Some are after walking away from petting him when he was wanting the attention, others are completely out of the blue.

I think your cat has PTSD, and walking away from him or just walking in general could scare him and his only defense is to attack you. Make sure he is assured that you won't leave him or kick him by using slow movements when you walk by him and then reward him for not hurting you. When you see him coming at you spray him with water. He will learn that attacking you and others is not a good thing and the more love you give him the better he will get. Hope everything is well with you guys.

 

[help_me_and_my_crazy_cat]

I kind of thought it could be something like that too (PTSD), except for the times it seems pre-meditated when he runs from far away to get us. But maybe he still has a bad association to legs.

maggiedemi, He is up to date on shots. We put Revolution on him for fleas/ticks. We havnt given him anything that I can recall for worms, but at his last appt the vet inspected him and didnt say anything about that.