non recognition aggression?

[jcoop24]

i took both my cats to the vet in June. they are sisters, and up until the vet visit were the best of friends. after bringing them home they started to hiss at each other.... i didn't think much about it. they continued to keep a distance from each other, and hissed occasionally, but otherwise acted pretty normal. then they started to chase and attack each other to the point that i needed to separate them because one was bleeding. i live in a 1 bedroom apartment, so i had to split the apartment with a baby gate (they don't jump over it). it has now been almost 7 months. i've tried wiping them down with non-scented wipes, feliway diffuser, and took them back to the vet who prescribed drugs to help them calm down.... so far nothing has worked. has this happened to anyone else? can anyone help me out? it's so odd because they are sisters that used to be so close!

 

[tyleete]

Not with cats, but I've had this with both birds (parakeets) & gerbils before. Had to find another home for the one bird. The gerbils? They were sisters someone dumped on us and had lived their entire lived together. Took one in to have a small tumor removed off its ear. The next day I found she'd been attacked & killed by her sister. I can't imagine what brings in this sudden change, other than they smell a difference in them that repels them. Though the sister that had gone in had had the tumor for will over a week. So it wasn't just illness that turned her like that. Might want to try a full fledged bath if you can for both? I'm glad you were able to separate them as you have to keep themfrom harming one another. Is one the aggressor and one the victim? Or do they take turns?

 

[ArtNJ]

Well, its sort of like when a human couple fights. Sometimes it doesn't matter what started the fight, if lines are crossed, its the things that are said that keep the fight going, the original reason no longer relevant. With cats, if they fight and hurt each other, that makes everything worse. So this isn't really a redirected aggression thing at this point, its a cat relationship went wrong and they had a real fight thing. So at this point, we are way past rescenting the cats. Still, usually even if things go really bad in a cat relationship that used to be good, a full slow reintroduction process can almost always fix things, and you've tried that and it doesn't seem to be working. I've read about this, but haven't had it myself.

So what happens during the day? Do they growl at the gate? How long has it been since you tried letting them mingle, and what happened?

 

[jcoop24]

sometimes they walk up to the gate and sniff each other. sometimes they swat at each other. sometimes they really try to go at each other.... sometimes i'll feed them on opposite sides of the gate, and when they're done eating they just walk away. they actually ate once together in the same room in November. when they were done one got too close to the other and there was some hissing and running away. i've tried a couple times to let them mingle, and i feel like one of the cats is just too scared. she runs under the bed and starts howling really loudly while the other one chases her.
i'm going to order a pair of harnesses and see how that goes....