One cat suddenly turned bully against her kit

[marmite]

Howdy all,

Really need some help please.

Got two cats, mum &daughter, 6 and 7.

We live in a 2 bed flat, indoor cats, but roof access with some turf and have big window boxes.

Lots of interaction / separate litter trays / food / lots of water bowls.

Quite a few cats on the road that can be noisy.

Most importantly, cannot think of anything that has changed.

Two days ago, Marmite (Mum) started picking on Toast.

Began with just extreme hissing, moved onto chasing and corner, not allowed it to get to proper fight.

They have got on fine up and until now; Sleep together, groom each other and play chase no problem.

Only exception has been a few springs, when Marmite has got more frisky, Feliway seemed to stop it.

There is, however, one thing that has changed; me.

I became ill around March, and the general stress levels since then have been very high.

However, they are much better these days than recently.

Marmite is very sensitive, as soon as my voice raises (not towards her), she is off; but that has not happened for a number of weeks.

I have put Marmite in the bedroom as she is the aggressor.

Short trips hasn't made a difference, after being out for 5 minutes, she hunts her down and starts.

Tonight is a 24 hour break, re-intro tomorrow afternoon,before we take them both to the vet to get them checked.

Feliway is in every room, plugged in and doing its thing.

Now I was going to get her some Valium and let her have a coast for a couple of days and see the results.

However, thanks to Google I see Valium has it's problem.

I am guessing that opinion here will be to stick with the keeping them separated and go for gradual re-integration.

Just not sure how I can deal with that, given how I still am.

thanks for reading

 

[yayi]

Lets see what the vet says. Sudden changes in behavior are often a sign of health issues. 

 

[marmite]

okay, that's why they are off to The Hated Place.

 

[marmite]

Picked on cat had a very slight raised temp, so she got a anti-bact jab.

Nothing wrong with New Bully.

Suggestion is to get xrays and blood work on Bully to make sure she is okay, and to check whether Valium might be an option.

They want to charge £250 ($400) for it, which seems quite a bit, want to get a price from somewhere else, but we know this place.

 

[marmite]

Went to another vet.

He found slight back pain in The Aggressor; gave her an anti- inflam and daily meds.

I kept them apart for another 24 hours to make sure the pain had receded and she had got used to no pain.

Open a door, keeping stroking aggressor, long story short, she is still picking on the other one and the behavior is getting worse.

What seem to be strange is that its just the sight of Timid that sets her off. She has no problem sleeping on a blanket that Timid has just got off, nor eat from food bowl etc.

Just spent 15m stroking her, with the door open, every time she saw Timid she would tense up. I calmed her down, even got her to spread out and really relax.

It was like she just remembered the was another cat near by. She jumped out, found where the other one was and started, and now the other one is not backing down so if I am not quick enough its going to get bad.

I will leave them be for a few hours, then when g/f is back get each of us to hold one and bring them close as we can till they tell us enough.