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- Oct 20, 2020
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As I’ve written in a few other threads, we have recently been going through repeated reintroductions due to multiple recent vet visits. We successfully made it through the final reintroduction, or so I thought. I really believed we had made it, because the cats were eating together, fully grooming each other, playing together, sleeping near each other. This all sounds like it worked, right? Well, some strange things have been happening.
The first alarming thing is that Penny will just completely lose it with the kittens. She could have just been grooming, laying together, sleeping together, and then 20 minutes later walks by one of them and jumps them, starts hissing and runs away, crouching and growling. I separate them temporarily, and then when we bring them back together, she is absolutely normal. We’ve had three of these incidents in three days, and every one was near the diffusers. I also catch her making strange noises when she is alone near the diffusers, kind of whimpering sounds, and today her tail puffed up. The kittens weren’t around, there was nothing there.
The kittens are different too. Fizzbin is more aggressive. He has always loved to wrestle with the girls, which most of the time they don’t appreciate, and he used to back off. But recently he has become relentless. I always have to break them up now. He is also way more energetic than he used to be.
Chloe has become more energetic as well, and also more fearful. She used to go up into the rafters of the house if we had company come or some other rare incident that scares her. Now she has been up there every day and Penny has also started staying in the rafters.
The final thing is that each of the girls sprayed in the litter box that is in the room that has been closed up with one of the Feliways. This wasn’t an elevator butt, I know what that looks like because Chloe has that problem. This was the real thing, I saw them do it with my own eyes, and we’ve had them for three years and no one has ever sprayed.
Today the kittens were half playing, half fighting, near one diffuser, and they kept going over there and sniffing it, and something just clicked in my brain, could this be the problem? I immediately unplugged them and sealed them in a ziplock bag. Meanwhile, Penny was shut in the bedroom because of her incident with Fizzbin this morning. I spoke to the vet this morning about Penny, and she has a Prozac prescription waiting. But my mind is saying, what’s more logical? That Penny is just randomly descending into madness for no reason, or that something is triggering this behavior? And what could be the trigger other than the diffusers? The only other thing is the reintroduction process itself might have left everyone out of sorts, but I’ve tried so hard to keep a regular schedule of meals, play, affection.
We decided to hold off on the Prozac while we watch the situation now that the diffusers are gone. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? It’s hard to believe because our vet really pushed Feliway, whether we bought it from them or someone else. She was so convinced it would help with the reintroductions.
The first alarming thing is that Penny will just completely lose it with the kittens. She could have just been grooming, laying together, sleeping together, and then 20 minutes later walks by one of them and jumps them, starts hissing and runs away, crouching and growling. I separate them temporarily, and then when we bring them back together, she is absolutely normal. We’ve had three of these incidents in three days, and every one was near the diffusers. I also catch her making strange noises when she is alone near the diffusers, kind of whimpering sounds, and today her tail puffed up. The kittens weren’t around, there was nothing there.
The kittens are different too. Fizzbin is more aggressive. He has always loved to wrestle with the girls, which most of the time they don’t appreciate, and he used to back off. But recently he has become relentless. I always have to break them up now. He is also way more energetic than he used to be.
Chloe has become more energetic as well, and also more fearful. She used to go up into the rafters of the house if we had company come or some other rare incident that scares her. Now she has been up there every day and Penny has also started staying in the rafters.
The final thing is that each of the girls sprayed in the litter box that is in the room that has been closed up with one of the Feliways. This wasn’t an elevator butt, I know what that looks like because Chloe has that problem. This was the real thing, I saw them do it with my own eyes, and we’ve had them for three years and no one has ever sprayed.
Today the kittens were half playing, half fighting, near one diffuser, and they kept going over there and sniffing it, and something just clicked in my brain, could this be the problem? I immediately unplugged them and sealed them in a ziplock bag. Meanwhile, Penny was shut in the bedroom because of her incident with Fizzbin this morning. I spoke to the vet this morning about Penny, and she has a Prozac prescription waiting. But my mind is saying, what’s more logical? That Penny is just randomly descending into madness for no reason, or that something is triggering this behavior? And what could be the trigger other than the diffusers? The only other thing is the reintroduction process itself might have left everyone out of sorts, but I’ve tried so hard to keep a regular schedule of meals, play, affection.
We decided to hold off on the Prozac while we watch the situation now that the diffusers are gone. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? It’s hard to believe because our vet really pushed Feliway, whether we bought it from them or someone else. She was so convinced it would help with the reintroductions.
