Help With Kitten Behavior

[J87]

Hello all. We were cat owners for over 16 years but sadly our two girls both passed in the last year. After a few month my wife and son convinced me it was time to extend the family. We found three kittens from a rescue (foster) and decide to adopt all three. 2 girls and 1 boy all were about 3 months old. We have had the kittens for about two weeks now and they are or were super lovable and snuggly. The strangest thing the other day the one girl was fine and then about an hour later she started hissing at us and growling. In fact she is hissing at everything. She has continued to do this but other times I see her playing and running around like nothing is wrong. Concerned she may be in pain or eaten something we took her to the vet to be checked. He said he didn’t find anything physically wrong with her. I am not convinced he did a good enough check. He said it may be here personality coming out and since she was a stray that was rescued it could be something else. He basically said some cats are crazy. I am concerned as we have the two other cats and a child. It is just weird she flipped so quick. Any advise?

 

[ArtNJ]

Ok, well first off your vet is an idiot. A possibly dangerous idiot. Or maybe he is good with the medical stuff even if he is clueless on the behavioral stuff.

My best guess is redirected aggression, which is a big cat thing. This is where *something* scares cat, and cat lashes out or hisses/growls at people or animals that are nearby but had nothing to do with the scare. This usually fades on its own within at most a couple of days unless it leads to an inter-cat fight then its the memories of the fight, not the scary thing that started it.

So what scared or is scaring kitten? Dunno, cats have very good hearing and especially smell. Could be another cat, fox, coyote or similar smell right outside. Or maybe you used the vacuum cleaner for the first time. Sometimes its a heavy thing dropping nearby. Or a person yelling because they stub their toe. Or its something we can't figure out.

A second possibility might be a scent you picked up from somewhere. Did you pet a friend's animal right before this started? I'm sure there are other possibilities that folks will chime in with.

 

[J87]

Ok, well first off your vet is an idiot. A possibly dangerous idiot. Or maybe he is good with the medical stuff even if he is clueless on the behavioral stuff.

My best guess is redirected aggression, which is a big cat thing. This is where *something* scares cat, and cat lashes out or hisses/growls at people or animals that are nearby but had nothing to do with the scare. This usually fades on its own within at most a couple of days unless it leads to an inter-cat fight then its the memories of the fight, not the scary thing that started it.

So what scared or is scaring kitten? Dunno, cats have very good hearing and especially smell. Could be another cat, fox, coyote or similar smell right outside. Or maybe you used the vacuum cleaner for the first time. Sometimes its a heavy thing dropping nearby. Or a person yelling because they stub their toe. Or its something we can't figure out.

A second possibility might be a scent you picked up from somewhere. Did you pet a friend's animal right before this started? I'm sure there are other possibilities that folks will chime in with.

Thanks for the response. As for the vet is a new place for us and I may get a second opinion. I feel (maybe because I want to) that something is wrong with her belly. She seems to be in the litter box longer than normal. Also she was lovable leading up to this.

As for your other questions and opinions. I see a few possibilities. 1. She tried to climb up my bare leg. I didn’t well at her but my reaction did fling her off. I picked her up after and she seemed fine. 2. We visited family over the weekend and they have 2 Great Danes. 3. Noises we do you the vaccine and blender just about everyday. I want to give her a chance but I also have to think when do I decide if this is a good environment for either of us.

 

[ArtNJ]

It is well known that feline health impacts behavior in a huge number of ways, so its quite possible you are correct and she is sick or hurt in some fashion that your vet missed. Cats don't often show pain/discomfort directly, they are great at hiding discomfort. It comes out in indirect ways. So very possible.

As far as the Great Danes, if you have showered and changed clothes, and maybe washed the clothes in the suitcase or whatever, I imagine she would get over it pretty quickly if that was the cause. You would probably see evidence if flinging her off caused any injury, and nothing short of that would likely cause any lingering problem.

The only thing I know for sure is that for your vet to not mention the possibility of redirected aggression shows considerable ignorance of cat behavioral issues. Its too common a thing for a vet to be ignorant of. Well, I don't know how much behavior stuff they teach in vet school. But clearly not an overall cat expert.

 

[Etarre]

I agree that at the very least you should keep an eye on her eating/litter box habits to check for changes, and it couldn't hurt to get a 2nd opinion if the behavior continues.

Remember that hissing is a defensive response, rather than a sign of aggression. She's warning you to leave her alone so that she doesn't feel compelled to scratch or bite, which is actually a good sign. Cats with really intractable behavioral problems tend to lash out without warning, which makes them much harder to deal with.

 

[Hellenww]

They are at the age where they shift from very cuddly to play-play-play when awake. Do keep and eye on her health.

If she is not viciously lashing out at you or the other kittens (they will play and wrestle very rough), I wonder if she recently learned to hiss/growl and is trying it out on everything.

 

[ArtNJ]

By "hissing at everything" do you mean starting to hiss when there is no cat, person or noise nearby? There are a some conditions that can cause that type of behavior, from flees, tail arthritis and various others. Perhaps if you are more specific we will have some additional ideas.

Also do you keep your windows open? Some cats are more reactive to outside smells than others.

 

[J87]

By "hissing at everything" do you mean starting to hiss when there is no cat, person or noise nearby? There are a some conditions that can cause that type of behavior, from flees, tail arthritis and various others. Perhaps if you are more specific we will have some additional ideas.

Also do you keep your windows open? Some cats are more reactive to outside smells than others.

Yes she was hissing at the water bowel or nothing or us or the other cats. She was also sitting under the chair by herself just growling. But then I see her playing and eating. It is so weird. We really hope she returns to haw she was the first week. We really love her already.

 

[5starcathotel]

She was also sitting under the chair by herself just growling.

This could be interesting. Who else was in the room? Was there any activity occurring? Were landscapers using their infernal leaf-blowers at a neighbors house? Or the sounds of children playing outside? Does this happen at particular times of the day? (maybe start a log of them)?

I feel like there is some environmental change, from July to now, that might account for her periods of anxiety. (hissing, hiding under stuff, and growling are all signs of anxiety).

 

[catlover73]

Where either of the other two kittens at the vet for anything right before this happened? I am asking this question because one of my cats was hospitalized for 3 days. When he came home our normally laid back cat Casey hissed at him. Casey also hissed at Apollo and us. He never attacked us or the cats and the problem went away after about 3 days on it's own. Casey never hissed at our senior female at all. He also did not hiss at our friend who is Sonny's former foster mom when she stopped by to check on Sonny.

 

[Etarre]

Do you have any bugs or moths in your house? Sometimes when Juniper appears to be chasing nothing at all, it turns out to be a tiny moth that's almost invisible to us humans.

She also likes to sit in the kitchen and stalk the oven. While I'd almost prefer to think that she's just being crazy, I suspect there's some sort of critter/bug under there that she hears or sees. She also went nuts once and started digging around under the stove. Turns out some tiny pieces of broken glass had gotten pushed under there and she saw them somehow.

So, along with previous posters who have suggested smells/noises, it seems likely to me that she's seeing/hearing/smelling something that you don't or can't.

 

[J87]

This could be interesting. Who else was in the room? Was there any activity occurring? Were landscapers using their infernal leaf-blowers at a neighbors house? Or the sounds of children playing outside? Does this happen at particular times of the day? (maybe start a log of them)?

I feel like there is some environmental change, from July to now, that might account for her periods of anxiety. (hissing, hiding under stuff, and growling are all signs of anxiety).

No we have only had the kitten so for two weeks. Everyday leading up to this she came up to us slept with us and let us pick her up. The one day she was normal after I got home then an hour later she was hissing and growling. She has continued to do this the last few days. We have left her alone. But she will now walk over smell is then hiss and growl. She is doing the same to the other two kittens. They were all fostered together.

 

[J87]

Do you have any bugs or moths in your house? Sometimes when Juniper appears to be chasing nothing at all, it turns out to be a tiny moth that's almost invisible to us humans.

She also likes to sit in the kitchen and stalk the oven. While I'd almost prefer to think that she's just being crazy, I suspect there's some sort of critter/bug under there that she hears or sees. She also went nuts once and started digging around under the stove. Turns out some tiny pieces of broken glass had gotten pushed under there and she saw them somehow.

So, along with previous posters who have suggested smells/noises, it seems likely to me that she's seeing/hearing/smelling something that you don't or can't.

No we have only had the kitten so for two weeks. Everyday leading up to this she came up to us slept with us and let us pick her up. The one day she was normal after I got home then an hour later she was hissing and growling. She has continued to do this the last few days. We have left her alone. But she will now walk over smell is then hiss and growl. She is doing the same to the other two kittens. They were all fostered together.

 

[ArtNJ]

If this continues more than another day or two, a different vet might be a good idea.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

I'm just curious if you talked to the vet about the various environmental possibilities that might be a cause of the kitten being spooked or defensive with you this week, like your visiting family recently who had two Great Danes, the vacuum/ blender going on daily, et cetera? We are learning here about all of those things, but were they also brought up to the vet at the time of the kitten's exam? Vets can only respond to the information that we give to them, in trying to help determine things which could be wrong. That includes health symptoms and issues, but also changes in the environment and things like that. I'm not sure it helps calling vets idiots unless we know for sure they were given all the info we seem to be slowly gathering here in this thread. You mentioned having a child in the house; maybe something happened during playtime with the child? Does the child play outside a lot, and is maybe bringing in some outdoor scents from other animals? I don't know. (But, who knows, maybe you did spend a lot of time going over with the vet the possible sounds or smells or sights that could be spooking the kitten? Did the vet actually say the kitten could be "crazy"?)

Also, don't forget you've only had the kittens for a few weeks and they are still getting used to the house itself and also the humans in the house. They are very young, the world is big and varied and ever-changing, and they are learning new things about it each day. You have ahead of you about 1.5-2 years of three young and rambunctious kittens. All sorts of things could spook them in those coming years, as they grow up. My cat is four and just today she got spooked when I ran my fingers on the teeth of her comb, to try to get her to come over so that I could comb her. I've not done that sort of noise before with her comb and she punched the comb when she came over, to make sure it wasn't a monster-in-hiding. She also was spooked by sudden sounds for several minutes afterwards. This is normal processing of their environment.

But if you feel the kitten is having litter box issues, or stomach issues, and you feel the vet wasn't thorough in the exam, definitely go get a second opinion. You could also have the kitten checked for any upper respiratory or eye issues, common in kittens freshly out of the environment of a rescue or shelter, as maybe the kitten's vision is a bit blurred because of a URI or even just a cat scratch from playing with the other kittens. So, it could very well be a physical or health issue but it will be hard to pin down. You'll need to keep observing her behaviors and try to figure out what might be triggering her.

 

[5starcathotel]

No we have only had the kitten so for two weeks. Everyday leading up to this she came up to us slept with us and let us pick her up. The one day she was normal after I got home then an hour later she was hissing and growling. She has continued to do this the last few days. We have left her alone. But she will now walk over smell is then hiss and growl. She is doing the same to the other two kittens. They were all fostered together.

Well that sort of otherwise inexplicable dramatic change in behavior, at least for me, would mean injury, pain, and/or illness.

So I agree with ArtNj - if this lasts through the weekend, it's time to seek a second opinion.

 

[J87]

Well she seems a bit better today. We tried to give her space. I won’t say we are out of the woods but we have been able to pet her a few times with no hiss. I was also able to hold her as all three need meds. We will continue to give it time. We also found out one or all of them have Giardia so this could be the issue. Fingers crossed.