Help please? Resident cat hunts our now 7.5mth old kitten.

[Cathyems]

Apologies for my very long post, I just want to try to give as much background as possible for your advice.
We had two house cats, a laid back 9yo male called Milo and a petite 2.5yo female called Willow. She loves Milo and is very definitely the boss and they get along well but Milo isn’t very playful whereas Willow is very active. So, while Willow is still young, we thought it was the best time to get a kitten for her to hopefully have more fun with… so along came Kaspar, a 4mth kitten. BIG mistake!! Milo is fine so long as Kaspar doesn’t jump all over him trying to play, but Willow, well, she is another story altogether!
We had a separate (safe) room set up for Kaspar and tried keeping them apart and scent swapping, etc but unfortunately almost as soon as Kaspar came home, Willow caught sight of him and immediately retreated to the top of a bookcase and began Overgrooming (we had a brief issue with Overgrooming last year, the vet checked her over and gave her a clean bill of health. So feeding on either side of the door wasn’t working as Willow isn’t food oriented and just walked off, so we started giving them treats in sight of each other but at a distance where she was more comfortable. About a 6wks in everything seemed to be going reasonably well and although Willow was still very timid and nervous around him, she would watch him play, sleep, eat but as soon as he would look directly at her, she would hiss and growl, but she was learning to relax a little. At approx 8wks in they would both play for about 5 mins in the same room but not together, all while she kept an eye on the kitten. By this stage Kaspar was just about to turn 6mths and was 5kg, 1.5Kg bigger than her, he is a really big, solid boy so we took him to be neutered as the vet wouldn’t do it before age 6mths. From he came home and in hindsight partly due to the change in scent from the vets, she hates him and actively looks for him to attack him. Here is a brief and poorly shot video of her in action Both of them can open all the doors and she will open what ever door he is behind to get to him and attack him, even to the point of swatting him on top of his head when he is sound asleep on the sofa!!
We now live with doors barricaded to keep her away from him but she has got to him a couple of times and his immediate reaction is to lay down, not move and not look at her at which point she just stands over him waiting for him to flinch so she can go at him again, hackles raised and tail fully fluffed out! We gave them a complete break from seeing each other and are once again trying the treats thing but I just feel we are not really making any progress as she is still looking for opportunities to get to him and at 7.5mths old, he just desperately wants to be friends. Willow is hyper vigilant, tensing at any noise in case it’s him, the underside of her tail and back of her front right leg are bald along with several other patches in the process from over grooming and I worry that it is now a habit as much as stress related. I feel terrible for both of them as they are both very people oriented cats and now one or other of them sometimes has to be separated from their human company. Please, please can anyone advise what I should do? Is there any hope she will even learn to tolerate this kitten or should I be calling it a day not even 4 mths after bringing him to live with us? I don’t want to give up, but if it is best for them, then I will do it.

 

[ArtNJ]

Looked like a play pounce to me. There is no hissing until she hits him and then he is the one to hiss?

 

[vince]

Doesn't look especially aggressive. I think she may have dominance issues about Kaspar, though. He is trying to comply, adopting subordinate postures.

The non-recognition aggression can go on for a while. It took my cats about four days to become fully integrated with their housemates after a spay, and they're all quite closely bonded. I have heard of it going on for much longer, though. Have you tried scent-swapping between the two? How about scent masking with vanilla extract, or a pheromone calmer like Feliway?

It's not hopeless. Ages ago my parents had a pair of cats that took over a year to fully accept each other. There are people here who have more experience with difficult, protracted introductions than I do. Perhaps some of them will weigh in.

 

[Cathyems]

Looked like a play pounce to me. There is no hissing until she hits him and then he is the one to hiss?

Initially I thought she was playing too, but then she starts to really growl and she is using her claws on him, he had a small cut on his face after that particular incident. This is mild compared to subsequent attacks where she has had his fur literally flying everywhere. I am really worried he will begin to retaliate.

 

[Cathyems]

Looked like a play pounce to me. There is no hissing until she hits him and then he is the one to hiss?

No she is the vocal one, but he is beginning to hiss and then what happens if that continues- I really don’t want it to become any worse

 

[ArtNJ]

A switch flipping and a cat deciding its time to retaliate with genuine hostility in mind is possible. In fact, I had that happen as a kitten reached one years old. However, it seems fairly rare. Mostly, if a cat is passive about things, its a disposition issue. Generally, time provides cats with an opportunity to work through things. And if the other cat does assert itself, it may be more in a "leave me alone" mode than true aggression, and this isn't necessarily a terrible thing either.

 

[Cathyems]

Doesn't look especially aggressive. I think she may have dominance issues about Kaspar, though. He is trying to comply, adopting subordinate postures.

The non-recognition aggression can go on for a while. It took my cats about four days to become fully integrated with their housemates after a spay, and they're all quite closely bonded. I have heard of it going on for much longer, though. Have you tried scent-swapping between the two? How about scent masking with vanilla extract, or a pheromone calmer like Feliway?

It's not hopeless. Ages ago my parents had a pair of cats that took over a year to fully accept each other. There are people here who have more experience with difficult, protracted introductions than I do. Perhaps some of them will weigh in.

What should we do when something like this happens again? Do we let it play out or intervene as we have been doing? We have come home a couple of times to find one or other cat has got a door open and she is standing over him in the hallway and we have no idea how long for…. but definitely not longer than 30mins. As soon as we take hold of her, poor Kaspar bolts to the other one of us for apparent comfort and sheer relief. If Willow is having dominance issues, how do we deal with that?

 

[vince]

Not sure about dominance. I know it when I see it, but I don't have any experience dealing with it. Kaspar will most certainly quiet down as he ages, but that's going to take time. I'd try the Feliway. Also, make sure Kaspar has places to hide.

That Kaspar is hissing once in a while isn't such a bad thing. He's telling Willow to back off. If she stops when he hisses and doesn't go much farther than that, that's better. It shows they're setting boundaries.

If they have an aggression session, you can put a rug, some cardboard, or other barrier between them to stop it. Don't want to put your hands on them or you risk redirected aggression toward you. The aggression generally stops as soon as the cats lose sight of each other.

 

[Cathyems]

Not sure about dominance. I know it when I see it, but I don't have any experience dealing with it. Kaspar will most certainly quiet down as he ages, but that's going to take time. I'd try the Feliway. Also, make sure Kaspar has places to hide.

That Kaspar is hissing once in a while isn't such a bad thing. He's telling Willow to back off. If she stops when he hisses and doesn't go much farther than that, that's better. It shows they're setting boundaries.

If they have an aggression session, you can put a rug, some cardboard, or other barrier between them to stop it. Don't want to put your hands on them or you risk redirected aggression toward you. The aggression generally stops as soon as the cats lose sight of each other.

We will try them together this evening when my husband and I are both home with some play and treats and I will try to get a better video at the same time.

 

[Cathyems]

Not sure about dominance. I know it when I see it, but I don't have any experience dealing with it. Kaspar will most certainly quiet down as he ages, but that's going to take time. I'd try the Feliway. Also, make sure Kaspar has places to hide.

That Kaspar is hissing once in a while isn't such a bad thing. He's telling Willow to back off. If she stops when he hisses and doesn't go much farther than that, that's better. It shows they're setting boundaries.

If they have an aggression session, you can put a rug, some cardboard, or other barrier between them to stop it. Don't want to put your hands on them or you risk redirected aggression toward you. The aggression generally stops as soon as the cats lose sight of each other.

I know I said I would try to get a video this evening, but we had a melt down and I had no opportunity. So, earlier my son brought Kaspar into the living room and sat with him laying on his knee while Willow was lying on another sofa beside me, both in full view of each other. I gave Willow lots of head scratches and talked to her to try and keep it positive. The two freely stayed that way for about 10mins with Willow completely tense but she did roll over at one point and give me her chin and belly then quickly turned around again and a few minutes after charged across the room and jumped up and hit Kaspar while he was still on my son’s knee, then sat on the floor a couple of feet away contemplating her next move, Kaspar didn’t react. We intervened and split them up, then about 30mins later I was upstairs working in the knowledge that Willow was closed in my daughter’s room, when next thing I heard some one of them jumping at the door handles followed by lots of noise accompanied by growling/yowling, so I flew down to split them up only to find Kaspar was giving as good as he was getting but he was the one with a bloody paw and Willow favouring her front left leg and plenty of Kaspar’s fur stuck under her claws. While they weren’t physically fighting when I got to them they were right in each other’s faces and no one was backing down, Kaspar was growling lots and both had all hackles and tails fully raised/fluffed. I think my entering the room interrupted things long enough to get something between them. I took Kaspar to his ‘safe’ room and he got into his bed trembling, while Willow went back on her own to my daughter’s room. What does this mean going forward? How do we ever come back from this?

 

[ArtNJ]

Well, that was a real fight for sure. As such, the universal recommendation is to back up and redo part of the introduction process. Not so much the scent swapping stuff, at this point they know the smell, but if you can get a secure gate up so they can see each other but not fight, and just leave that up until you aren't getting problematic reactions. Some pictures of improvised gate setups in here:

How To Successfully Introduce Cats: The Ultimate Guide – TheCatSite Articles

and see generally:

How To Fix An Unsuccessful Cat Introduction – TheCatSite Articles

But actually, step one is to make sure that these are scratch injuries and not bites, if that is even possible. With one favoring a paw, there is a significant chance of a bite, and bites often get infected. Since infections are expensive to treat if you leave them alone long enough for an abcess to form, if it were me I'd just take the cat to the vet unless I was able to spot scratch injuries in all spots with blood or symptoms. But how does a scratch cause the paw situation? I think that almost has to be a bite. Bites are often very hard to spot on the neck (the most common spot) because of all the fur, but you might have more "luck" actually seeing the puncture(s) on a paw/leg. You could try calling the vet and see if they will prescribe antibiotics without a visit, but I've never had any luck with that.

 

[Cathyems]

Thank you, I will have a look at the gates and see what we can put together. I feel sick at the thought this will never get better.

 

[ArtNJ]

So you are pretty sure there are no bite wounds then? Bite wounds realy are a whole different thing, because of the chance of infection.

 

[Cathyems]

I have looked the two of them over thoroughly now they have had time to calm and both are ok. I have cleaned Kaspar’s leg and paw and both are back to their normal selves