Should I trust my cat? Redirected aggression

[Raxstone]

I have four cats. Two are siblings, about 8 years old - these two will greet everyone at the door and remain social with strangers. The other two were adopted together when kittens and are now about 3 years old. These two are more timid and at first will hide when strangers come in. They have gotten along great, all four can curl up together. They play and groom with each other. They have no food aggression - they do have separate food dishes and multiple water dishes around the house. They have been great together for the entire time, about 3 years. They have even been good around strange cats (sister-in-law has visited with her cat for overnight stays and they sniffed at each other, but otherwise no interaction - that was a couple years ago, and we have a roamer in the neighborhood that has been in the house a few times and hung out with my four, with only a minor hiss from our older tabby).

March 1, I had a new furnace put in. That was 8 or 9 hours of people coming in and out, banging around and drilling through the exterior wall. We kept the cats together in one bedroom, with my wife to keep them company. After they left, the cats came out acting nervous of course but they seemed to return to normal fairly quickly.

Fast forward to the following week and we had duct cleaning which took about 2 hours. Again, we kept the cats away from the work areas. Again they were a bit nervous and explored after but returned to normal.

A few days later, the older tabby suddenly full out attacked the younger girl. Unfortunately we didn't see the event that started this. We just heard the screaming and found them tangled in a ball of fury. They started in the bedroom, moved down the stairs into the living room and across that room until she was able to get under the couch and I pulled him off of her. She did not fight back, she just tried to get away but he kept going after her. We separated them at that point, putting her in the bedroom. A few hours passed and he seemed to be curious to see her again, hearing her mewing from the other side of the door, but as soon as the door opened he flew at her to attack again. So we separated them again for the rest of the day and into the next day. We put the aggressive tabby in a dog cage in the living room, with 3 sides covered by blankets. The young girl was able to jump up and sleep on the cage. They went nose to nose with no sign of aggression. So, we tried feeding them together and they seemed back to normal. He even groomed her for a bit. They slept on the couch together. Everything seemed good. Then towards the end of the day when giving her treats he snapped and flew at her again.

They have now been separated again for a few days this time. I don't know if we can ever trust him to be around her even if everything seems fine again. He is only aggressive with her. He can play fight with the other cats, but it does not become a real fight. The other younger cat has become more skittish now because of the tension. He will fluff up randomly and race around until he can settle himself. The older tabby sometimes reacts to this by hunkering down in his hunting stance, but hasn't otherwise become aggressive. He was good with all of them before, even if one came back from the vet - where previous cats I have had will treat the returning cat as a stranger for a while. The older tabby used to be calm and go straight to grooming the cat that returned.

Has anyone had something similar to this?
Should I ever be able to trust him to be around her again - how bad would this be if he became aggressive with nobody home to separate them?
Should I be concerned that, with them separated, he might redirect the aggression to one of the other cats?

 

[di and bob]

Redirected aggression is the result of fear usually. You have had a major upheaval in your house and with their routines and unfortunately, your older boy is more affected. These things take weeks to resolve, maybe even a month. You might try Feliway to see if that can help any, otherwise, just do what you are doing, and when he is let out you should supervise for at least a week or so. Cats are affected a LOT more by disruptions in their routines than they let on. Your little girl might have startled him inadvertently and he was so hyped up he attacked. Or even something else startled him and she just happened to be closest. Now he blames her. you might have her sleep on a blanket for a while and put it in with him to get him used to her scent again. The good news is that since they all got along before, it WILL happen again, these things just take time and patience.

 

[ArtNJ]

I dunno if the timing works on the rennovations being the cause here, although maybe it played some contributory role. My guess is that there was some sort of incident on the day of the fighting. At that point, once there is actual fighting, the normal timetables for little redirected aggression spats can go out the window. Its the fighting more than the original cause once one gets hurt. Even if you don't see a wound, there might have been pain involved and certainly serious stress. I'd try a week long separation with visual access, in a room blocked by double stacked baby gates or something similar.

You might also think about taking the cat for a vet exam, although since its only a problem with one of the cats a medical probem doesn't seem too likley.

 

[Raxstone]

Just following up on this. They got over the incident after being separated for a while. We still separate them when we are not home, just to prevent an incident when nobody is home to break it up. They have been fine together for quite a while, even play fighting without issue. However, the two older cats were laying on the bed together today. One of these cats had a seizure, and the other initially acted seemingly with sympathy. Then the younger cat that had previously been the target of aggression entered the room and the fighting started up all over again. So, it seems that the older cat having a seizure is the cause of the tabby's aggression. Strange that the aggression is always directed at the younger cat that was not even present when the seizure occurred. No aggression directed at the other cats.

 

[di and bob]

The cat who had the seizure is most likely disoriented and taking it out on the cat that is the least known. If it's the cat that has witnessed the seizure, he is being very protective and the seizure scared him quite badly. I'm not sure which cat is doing the attacking. Is it the tabby that is witnessing the seizure or the one having it?

 

[FeebysOwner]

If I understand the situation clearly, the older cat who did NOT have a seizure attacked one of the younger cats afterward? There is always a pecking order/hierarchy in multi-cat households. And, it would seem your girl is on the bottom of the totem pole, hence her being the one who is attacked. The older cat was disturbed by the seizure and took it out on the one at the bottom of the totem pole.

I have no ideas on how to permanently stop this, but think another separation session is in order until this cat settles down after being riled up by his companion's seizure. The good old scent exchange might help to speed up the process, but it really is a matter of letting the attacker settle down.

You might start experimenting with some calming products that you could administer to the attacker when these incidents occur just to see if you can get this cat to calm down faster. Perhaps, something like Bach Rescue Remedy, which are drops you can rub into a cat's ear to help calm them. Maybe place the drops on both the attacker and the cat that is being attacked? Helping her to keep calm can't hurt! There are other calming products to try should this one fail.

 

[Raxstone]

Yeah, I would rather avoid calming products unless I get really good feedback. I bought one of those sprays from PetSmart and all of my cats reacted like the area had been sprayed with catnip (Pet Remedy De-stress and Calming spray).

 

[noani]

You could try feliway or zylkene.
I use both and swear by it.
I've tried most other brands and they didn't work (at all, or to a lesser extent) in our specific case.
I would suggest giving it a try, it can't hurt and it might actually help lots. They have a new one (optimum) out, but the feliway friends might help too. I personally switched to optimum as I find it lasts longer than friends or classic and has a very positive impact all around.