LF Advice concerning some unhappy cats

[thanatos0042]

Hey everyone,

I have a number of cats, but today lets focus on 3 - Loki (a male main coon about 7), Bo (a male generic about 5) and Saffron (a female generic about 5 or 6). All of them are fixed and have been since they were kittens,

Loki does not like Saffron and will go after her and she defends herself, but she is never an aggressor.
Loki used to tolerate Bo, but no goes after him. This morning he went after him particularly viscously. He will sometimes defend himself, but he mostly runs to a safe spot. Loki doesn't come upstairs a lot, but he did last night and really got into it, I was concerned one of them might have gotten hurt, it was that violent.
Loki also sprays, everywhere.

Aside from starting to become sleep deprived, I'm not sure what to do here.

Nothing has appreciably changed in the last 2 years (when we inherited a dog). We have the scent sprays you plug into the wall outlets, but they don't seem effective anymore. We don't have a rooms we can separate anyone and lock them away from each other and it's not like they are new to each other...they've tolerate each other for years now.

So does anyone have any thoughts or ideas?

I thought maybe a calming collar for Loki, but I'm always hesitent to use scent collars on an animal...

 

[Purr-fect]

Time for Loki to be neutered?

 

[thanatos0042]

All were neutered as kittens, except saffron...she was a rescue who was a bit older than a kitten when she came to us and even she has been spayed since. So, all fixed, going on 5+ years.

 

[vince]

Perhaps Loki has become worried about "his" territory of late. Spraying is a territorial marking behavior. Is there something that could have made him insecure recently?

 

[Dana K]

Have they ever gotten along together? Was there an incident that started this behavior and/or is there a trigger that sets it off?

 

[FeebysOwner]

If Loki hasn't been thoroughly checked out very recently by a vet (CBC/Super Chem blood work & urinalysis) that is where I would start. This would be - if for no other reason - than to get a baseline for comparison with future testing since he is heading toward senior-hood. It sounds like Loki is pretty high strung, so you might ask the vet about possible calming products to try - something a bit more 'powerful' than scent plug-ins or collars. You could experiment with other OTC calming products, as not all work on all cats - just do an internet search on 'cat calming products'. If the spraying is more recent, that certainly could be a sign of urinary issues such as FIC - which seems to be common in easily stressed/high strung cats.

Although Loki has always bothered Saffron, the fact that he is now doing so with Bo could mean re-directed aggression that could be happening as a result of wildlife or other cats roaming about outside that Loki can sense. So, keep your eye out on that aspect as well.

 

[thanatos0042]

Loki has always been a bit territorial and always sprayed off and on, but it has gone through brief periods of being bad and then not being bad...but it's been bad for awhile now. I'm not sure how long, as I wasn't really paying close attention, but over 8 months I'm sure.

Nothing has specifically changed in that time frame, except of course, being stuck at home a lot more the past year.

He has never gotten along with Saffron or Bo...Most of the time he is content to leave them alone, but sometimes he gets intent on stalking and attacking them...and it seems to happen a lot at 3 or 4 am when everyone is sleeping, except him. I haven't specifically seen anything that sets it off, except when he is "hangry" ...hungry and angry about it...despite multiple feeding stations, if for some reason his favorite is too low on dry food he gets cranky.

He hasn't been checked out recently. He is an inside only cat and isn't exposed to any other cats than the ones inside and he hasn't exhibited any health issues so we haven't taken him to get a full work up done. I'll look into do that. I'm not sure I'd call him high strung. He seems chill most of the time. He is one of the few cats we have that will just lay out, on his back...spread out...near the dog ...who doesn't mess with him (even if he is a 70 lb. Husky).

Yeah, we do have feral cats out in our back yard, though he doesn't really seem to pay them any attention. Ever since the big freeze we had, they stick around more because we had shelter outside for the ferals so they didn't freeze or starve (we had weeks of freezing weather and snow is southern Texas and it caused all sorts of problems). But I do know them being around could cause him to spray more, even if he never interacts with them or doesn't usually see them.

Will definitely check with the vet on more powerful calming products.

thanks for all the suggestions and thoughts everyone....and always still open to more.

 

[Kflowers]

When you do have him checked out, go on and have a full body x-ray to look for arthritis. Our cat was rather aggressive as a kitten. We had her x-rayed and it turned out that even though she wasn't yet a year old she had arthritis on three of her vertibra, perhaps from an injury that happened before we got her at 5 weeks. We got her on over the counter joint medicine and she became and has remained a much nicer cat and hasn't attacked us since. Injuries can happen at any time. A fall from the back of the sofa, the stairs or the table could have been a minor injury at the time and you weren't aware of it. But the years may have wrapped it with arthritis.

Alternatively, if Loki checks out, it might be worth checking the other two to be sure they are all right. Sometimes the illness in another will set a cat off.

 

[thanatos0042]

Thanks, we'll have him checked out for that as well.

wow...but that is good to know and keep in mind, especially his attitude change.

Well, we know Bo has some strange issue, but Saffron has checked out okay on everything so bar, but it is something we'll keep in mind about her for sure.

Thank you.