One cat got fixed & now the other is hissing at her. Normal?

[Carteave007]

Hi all,
I have two cats. Ruby and Fancy. I got Ruby from a rescue place and since I lived so far away, we took her home that day despite not being spayed. I was going to set up an appointment, but it turned out she had giardia, tapeworms, URI, & chronic diarrhea. Once I got all that taken care of, the vet I had been taking her to insisted that he wait until she was 6 months old. Then I switched to a new vet. I had her for about 6 months when I decided I wanted another girl cat, so I adopted Kimi, who I renamed Fancy, who was 1.5 & spayed. At first, fancy was pretty timid with me & then got used to my room. Eventually she was curious about the rest of the house (and Ruby wanted to meet her so bad) so I let them meet. It was a bit rough at first, fancy hissed at Ruby & they tussled a lot. But they worked out their differences & tolerated each other for a year. They would play & fancy would hiss sometimes, and sometimes act a bit scared of Ruby, because Ruby is certainly more aggressive and interested in playing. I know I should’ve gotten Ruby spayed immediately, but after the 6 months, I was so in love & was scared that she would die during the procedure & so I just put off making the spay appointment. But, I thought maybe if I got her spayed she would stop being so aggressive towards fancy & I also wanted her to stop going into heat. So I set up an appointment & she got spayed. It was difficult because she wanted to be very active, but I got some sedatives from the vet & put her in a cage to keep her from jumping. It’s been 13 days, tomorrow I can let her do her normal thing. Well I decided to bring her in my room since it’s so close, and it turns out Fancy was under my bed. Fancy walks towards the door, Ruby notices her, and jumps off my bed to greet fancy. Ruby is sniffing her shoulders for probably 5 seconds and I was like “aw” I bet you guys missed each other. NOPE. Fancy hissed at Ruby very loud & so I picked up Ruby & let Fancy leave. Is that normal for her to hiss as if they were meeting again? Maybe she smells different? Should I just let them hash it out tomorrow (monitored of course)? Also do you think that Ruby will be less aggressive with fancy and they can have a better relationship now? I’m moving into a smaller apartment in 4 days and now I’m nervous help me !
here’s a pic of them before her procedure. Fancy is on top, Ruby is on the bottom

 

[Jcatbird]

This is perfectly understandable. Yes. The smells are different. Besides a possible vet office scent, there is a change in hormones which changes things. One thing I often do is scent swapping. Lots of ways to do this but the one most of my cats enjoy is rubbing them with a soft cloth and then using that cloth to go back and forth rubbing each kitty repeatedly to spread the scent around. I leave the cloth for the most offended cat to sniff and examine. A soft brush works very well too but be careful around the incision site. Give them some time and understand that small setbacks happen. It should all work out though. There are some tricks for calming cats tonline there is music specifically for calming kitties that works well for many. Feliway diffusers work for some too. You made a very good decision to spay. That keeps females from developing some specific health problems later in life as well as helping to keep them from trying to get out during heat or getting pregnant. Please do update us snd let us know how things are going. I really think this is just a temporary thing and they will adjust.

 

[Carteave007]

This is perfectly understandable. Yes. The smells are different. Besides a possible vet office scent, there is a change in hormones which changes things. One thing I often do is scent swapping. Lots of ways to do this but the one most of my cats enjoy is rubbing them with a soft cloth and then using that cloth to go back and forth rubbing each kitty repeatedly to spread the scent around. I leave the cloth for the most offended cat to sniff and examine. A soft brush works very well too but be careful around the incision site. Give them some time and understand that small setbacks happen. It should all work out though. There are some tricks for calming cats tonline there is music specifically for calming kitties that works well for many. Feliway diffusers work for some too. You made a very good decision to spay. That keeps females from developing some specific health problems later in life as well as helping to keep them from trying to get out during heat or getting pregnant. Please do update us snd let us know how things are going. I really think this is just a temporary thing and they will adjust.

I really hope so. I just want them to be best friends. I’ll do the scent swapping thing tomorrow!! And I’ll brush Ruby and let fancy sniff that since fancy gets brushed a lot. Thank you!

 

[Jcatbird]

You are very welcome and I hope it helps. I’d love to hear how it goes. I love the photo!

 

[Carteave007]

I’ll keep you updated. I also just felt her belly when she was stretching and it feels really weird. If she’s not stretched out, there’s no lump or bump or anything. If she is like stretching or trying to get away, almost like a lump comes out? It’s almost completely healed, just a small scab, but is that a sign that she wasn’t like stitched up properly or got a hernia? I don’t even know how to describe what’s happening. Almost like a little notch comes out when she flexes her belly. Is that normal? and of course my car is in the shop too