Kitten lashing out after bad experiences

lyssa366

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Aug 10, 2014
Messages
20
Purraise
6
Location
Canada
So, I'm a student in Vet assistant and animal grooming, a few weeks ago I took my kitten into class and attempted in giving him a bath and get him cleaned up. The experience was horrible and my professor was very rude about the situation, needless to say the poor guy peed himself and ended up having to be muzzled as he started lashing out at my face. i am no longer bringing him to school ever again. He was fine in the waiting area of our school but as soon as i brought him pass the doors into the hallway where the other doors to the cat and dog ward is, and he started growling and hissing and started to lash out at me again, i thought maybe he was feeling the stress of the other cats and knew it wasn't a good place to be. When I first got my kitten, trips to the actual vet clinic was amazing, he didn't care at all. Because I'm so far from home i had to consider a different vet for the time i'm living up here, the first trip there went amazing, he was a doll. the second trip, after the grooming incident, he was really bad at the vet getting his booster, again lashing out at my face. And now, for the time being my roommate is babysitting a cat from the kennels at school for a friend, and my kitten has found out as the kennel cat sits at my bedroom door all day, and now whenever i go to pickup my kitten in my room or anything, hes lashing out at me and wont let me near him. I don't know what to do, he's getting neutered in a few weeks and im worried that the neuter won't go very well with his behavior. i know he must be traumatized but i just don't know what to do.
 

itsnotpeanutbut

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Aug 13, 2014
Messages
32
Purraise
8
Why did you take your kitten into class? Cats easily get stressed out when introduced to completely new environments, and if his first experience with a completely new surrounding = annoying bathing rituals.. Well then you're just looking for trouble.

He has most likely associated you with the negative experience and figures that the moment you are involved, he'll get hurt or annoyed.

So all I can say is: start from scratch. Introduce yourself again to him, show him that you don't mean harm and make him forget the bad experiences he had with you in the past.

Start by just being in his presence without actually interacting with him all that much. If you are free feeding him: stop it and start feeding him meals at specific moments of the day (I feed my 2 menacing hairballs 2/3 in the morning and 1/3 just before bed), this will tell him that you're the one making the food appear.

Start playing with him again and giving him rewards after each play session, again to show you that your presence = fun times.

Give it time and he will learn to trust you again. Just don't take him to random places anymore. Your home and the vet should be the only 2 places he should know (and his neighborhood, of he's an outdoor cat, but he'll explore that one his own terms).
 

di and bob

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
16,584
Purraise
22,965
Location
Nebraska, USA
He IS traumatized, and 'redirecting' his anger towards you. After his terrible time at the school, now there is a strange cat invading his territory and causing him anxiety once again. Believe it or not, neutering will go a long way to calming him, that can be done anytime after he reaches 2 lbs in weight. A cat will never pee themselves unless they are extremely agitated, I feel sorry for the poor little guy going through that, but there was no way for you to know it would happen. I have had great success with the 'calming' treats I found on Amazon, I hate to 'drug' my cats but a lot of times I figure it has to be better then all the stress they will go through. Check them out, they are natural herbs and really worked with my cats for vet visits. I don't understand your professor not understanding cat behavior, what you went through has to be a common experience. (?) In the meantime, all you can do is give him lots of reassurance and love, he will come around but it's going to take a while. Remember too that he has all those tomcat hormones surging through him and is aggressive from that. Please don't give up on him, keep us posted!
 

lamiatron

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Nov 18, 2013
Messages
966
Purraise
136
Location
Queens, NYC
your kitty definitely is traumatized. taking him to your class to bathe him could have traumatized him to similar types of situations and the vets for possibly life. 

@ItsNotPeanutBut  has given you some great advice. here are some other things that could help

1) invest in some calming or composure treats for your cat. he's super stressed and traumatized, and he's associated all that trauma and stress with you. also, look into calming collars. if he's not too young, you might want to get him on a calming collar. this will keep him calm and not too stressed out for future vet visits, or just being home. but calming collars need to stay on the cat at all times, and replaced once a month

2) ask your room mate to keep the kennel cat away from your room, and maybe in their room, closed in the bedroom. clearly your cat is having a bad reaction to being around other strange animals, and having another cat so close to him (even though it is behind the door) is not good. Your cat is in constant stress at this point. all this stress will lead to an illness

3) when feeding your cat, please try to ween him off of dry (if he is on dry) and feed him wet. twice a day. while you are gone, leave him have a cup or less of dry so he can munch on it when you're away all day. Since he is still a kitten he needs to have food when ever he feels like it. Eventually as he gets older, just don't leave out the dry food anymore. When you do feed him wet, in the mornings and before bed, try to sit next to him, or behind him, and pet him, praise him. talk to him in a calm soothing voice. He will slowly learn to trust you again. Just keep in mind, do not expect results overnight. be consistent. This could take a few days, to weeks, even a couple months.

I think getting him neutered will make him stop with a lot of his aggressive behavior. Clearly he's territorial and does not like being around other animals at all. he just reacts very badly. Don't give up on him! but don't take him out either...seems like he's not a fan of that. if you handle other animals at work or school, i would change before entering your bedroom, which is also now his territory. If he smells other animals on you, that could make him feel stressed again.

Since he is most likely traumatized of baths, if you need to get him clean, consider using waterless shampoo, or pet wipes. They do a great job of cleaning kitty up.

Good luck.

edit:

looks like @Di and Bob  has posted a response while i was typing this, but also, amazing advice. cannot stress or praise enough the benefits of calming treats, and if your kitten is old enough for it, sentry calming collar (do an amazon search for SENTRY CALMING COLLAR) can really be beneficial for him as well. It won't drug him, it will just surround him with calming pheromones.
 
Last edited:
Top