I have 2 tabby cats (1 year old, 14 weeks old)

Monetcat33 · Jan 2, 2020

As posted in other forum, here is my classic tabby at 1 year and 14 weeks old mackerel tabby. I brought the mackerel tabby at 7 weeks home and they both adjusted a day after. Now they've been together for over a month and they wrestle, chase and play all day long. However, when I took the little one to vet for desexing and chipping, health checkup and then I brought him back, my classic tabby would get scared at the door and kept sniffing him and started hissing at the little one for rest of the day. The next day they start playing again.

Is this behavior because he has other pets scent after the vet visit and doesn't recognize him as his little friend brother? I know cats base recognition on voice and scent, but does he not recognize the visual as his little brother at all that he will be hissing at him the rest of the day?

I

ArtNJ · Jan 2, 2020

The link below will explain the issue to you - this is a common thing called non-recognition aggression that happens to maybe 50+% of cat housemates after one goes in for a significant vet procedure or full shampoo type grooming:

How To Deal With Non-recognition Aggression In Cats – Cat Articles

I just had a little bit of it myself after my 4 1/2 month girl kitten got spayed. The four year old normally plays so nicely with her, but just like your situation, there was about a day or so where he had to get used to her again and did some hissing.

abyeb · Jan 2, 2020

A ArtNJ said exactly what I was thinking. Cats rely a lot on scent, so when one cat comes back from the vet with all kinds of different smells on them, that can freak out the other cat.

susanm9006 · Jan 2, 2020

They are both beautiful. Things usually get back to normal within a couple of day’s as the scent of the vet disappears but you can try to speed things along by rubbing something with both their scents in it like a blanket onto each,