Hello all,
Newbie here. What a GREAT site !
I will try to make this brief. My name is Pamela, I have 5 cats. About 3.5 years ago, I found a stray longhaired beautiful cat, who was pregnant. She delivered 4 kittens, 3 males, 1 female. I kept them all. They are all inside cats and all spayed and neutered. About 1.5 years ago, I noticed 2 of the males had some tension between them. Tino is a very serious cat and Ducky is a total clown. I noticed that Tino, at times didn't tolerate Ducky. But all I noticed was Ducky following Tino until Tino swatted at him. Or Tino laying somewhere and Ducky laying beneath him rolling on his back with Tino meowing and eventually walking away with Ducky most of the time following. There was some hissing and chasing and then they would play together and even sleep together. About 2 and 1/2 weeks ago, all 5 cats came running upstairs, 3 of them preceded to engage in a ferocious fight. The 2 males, Tino and Ducky and their sister, Laura. Im sure I didn't handle the situation in the best way because I had never seen this before. I panicked and was clapping my hands and screaming, , "No", they fled, under the bed continuing to fight. Tino ran out, into another room, I closed him in the room. I, very ignorantly, pulled Laura out from under the bed (with no injury to me) and put her into another closed room. I closed Ducky into the room he was in. I went downstairs to see what possibly could have provoked it, I saw Ducky's hair all over the living room.
I went to check on the 3 cats, they were extremely agitated. I called my vets office who advised me to let them back in the same room together. I could not do that and did not do that. I called the vet himself, who does home visits for me because my cats are very, very bad vet patients and asked him to please come. He did. Ducky and Laura were injured. He put them on antibiotics. He did and overall examination and had also done a thorough health check up several months ago. He said they are healthy and this obviously stemmed from territorial aggression. He advised me to keep them separated, doing small reintroduction intervals, daily.
Very quickly, within 24 hours, Laura, who is a very gentle and loving girl, had made peace with Tino and Ducky, I suspect she was somehow caught in the middle of the fight. As I researched further, I decided to do a complete separation of Ducky and Tino and have done so for a week now. We usually all sleep in the bed together, but we cannot now. As a result, I alternate with Ducky and Tino, who sleeps in the bed at night and let the other cats choose to stay in the bedroom or out of the bedroom. If Ducky comes to the door at night, Tino gets extremely upset, ears back, tail twitching, down low to the ground. If Tino comes to the door, Ducky sits by the door with his tail twitching. And at least on one occasion they have tried to fight one another under the door. For the last 2.5 weeks, I am constantly woken up, 10+ times a night, to a cat wanting inside or outside the bedroom door.
My question, has anyone had this problem before? Am I doing the right thing? When should I try to bring Tino and Ducky around one another ? I have read that sometimes this cannot be resolved. Any advise would be so greatly appreciated as all the cats are becoming extreme whiney butts, due to the separation and Im sleep deprived.
Thanks in advance,
Pamela
Newbie here. What a GREAT site !
I will try to make this brief. My name is Pamela, I have 5 cats. About 3.5 years ago, I found a stray longhaired beautiful cat, who was pregnant. She delivered 4 kittens, 3 males, 1 female. I kept them all. They are all inside cats and all spayed and neutered. About 1.5 years ago, I noticed 2 of the males had some tension between them. Tino is a very serious cat and Ducky is a total clown. I noticed that Tino, at times didn't tolerate Ducky. But all I noticed was Ducky following Tino until Tino swatted at him. Or Tino laying somewhere and Ducky laying beneath him rolling on his back with Tino meowing and eventually walking away with Ducky most of the time following. There was some hissing and chasing and then they would play together and even sleep together. About 2 and 1/2 weeks ago, all 5 cats came running upstairs, 3 of them preceded to engage in a ferocious fight. The 2 males, Tino and Ducky and their sister, Laura. Im sure I didn't handle the situation in the best way because I had never seen this before. I panicked and was clapping my hands and screaming, , "No", they fled, under the bed continuing to fight. Tino ran out, into another room, I closed him in the room. I, very ignorantly, pulled Laura out from under the bed (with no injury to me) and put her into another closed room. I closed Ducky into the room he was in. I went downstairs to see what possibly could have provoked it, I saw Ducky's hair all over the living room.
I went to check on the 3 cats, they were extremely agitated. I called my vets office who advised me to let them back in the same room together. I could not do that and did not do that. I called the vet himself, who does home visits for me because my cats are very, very bad vet patients and asked him to please come. He did. Ducky and Laura were injured. He put them on antibiotics. He did and overall examination and had also done a thorough health check up several months ago. He said they are healthy and this obviously stemmed from territorial aggression. He advised me to keep them separated, doing small reintroduction intervals, daily.
Very quickly, within 24 hours, Laura, who is a very gentle and loving girl, had made peace with Tino and Ducky, I suspect she was somehow caught in the middle of the fight. As I researched further, I decided to do a complete separation of Ducky and Tino and have done so for a week now. We usually all sleep in the bed together, but we cannot now. As a result, I alternate with Ducky and Tino, who sleeps in the bed at night and let the other cats choose to stay in the bedroom or out of the bedroom. If Ducky comes to the door at night, Tino gets extremely upset, ears back, tail twitching, down low to the ground. If Tino comes to the door, Ducky sits by the door with his tail twitching. And at least on one occasion they have tried to fight one another under the door. For the last 2.5 weeks, I am constantly woken up, 10+ times a night, to a cat wanting inside or outside the bedroom door.
My question, has anyone had this problem before? Am I doing the right thing? When should I try to bring Tino and Ducky around one another ? I have read that sometimes this cannot be resolved. Any advise would be so greatly appreciated as all the cats are becoming extreme whiney butts, due to the separation and Im sleep deprived.
Thanks in advance,
Pamela