Sisters At Odds With Each Other

[Pattio63]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Patty and I found this website this morning. I have 2 beautiful maine coon cats - Tabby (Tabitha) and Sammy (Samantha). My girls will be 2 yrs old next month. I adopted both of them at 8 weeks. They have been each others best friend. Here is the problem. Yesterday I took Tabby to the groomer. She has very long fine hair and had some matting that I could not get combed out. She received a shampoo and shave. She is adorable in her lioness cut. Unfortunately, her sister Sammy is shunning her & hissing at her and acting as if she is going to attack her. Totally out of character. I can understand that Sammy is confused by her sister's new appearance possibly even scared of her. Will this behavior subside as Tabby's hair grows back? Should I take Sammy in and have the same thing done to her? Her hair is shorter and no matting issues. Not sure what to do. I am afraid that Sammy may hurt Tabby. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[shesmylight]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Patty and I found this website this morning. I have 2 beautiful maine coon cats - Tabby (Tabitha) and Sammy (Samantha). My girls will be 2 yrs old next month. I adopted both of them at 8 weeks. They have been each others best friend. Here is the problem. Yesterday I took Tabby to the groomer. She has very long fine hair and had some matting that I could not get combed out. She received a shampoo and shave. She is adorable in her lioness cut. Unfortunately, her sister Sammy is shunning her & hissing at her and acting as if she is going to attack her. Totally out of character. I can understand that Sammy is confused by her sister's new appearance possibly even scared of her. Will this behavior subside as Tabby's hair grows back? Should I take Sammy in and have the same thing done to her? Her hair is shorter and no matting issues. Not sure what to do. I am afraid that Sammy may hurt Tabby. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi hun,
Welcome to tcs!
I have heard of these sorts of experiences happening after cats get back from the groomer/vet/other place that the scent is not familiar to the other cat. It could possibly be the fact that even though the scent of the groomer wore off on our noses, Sammy may still be able to smell that on her sister, making her nervous and anxious. At least that is my theory.
Try separating them for a little while, do the sight swapping stuff etc. maybe after a few hours it may pass and they could get along again.
Again welcome to tcs. I try to get on here when I can and I feel I have something to offer. I hope I was able to help even just through my comments!
London and Hikari

 

[Pattio63]

Yes, I definitely think the scent could be a lot of it. I do not have to separate them as Sammy is pretty much staying away as much as possible. This morning when I fed them (they always come together to eat, Sammy decided to hiss and tun Tabby off. Not nice at all. Maybe it will just take a few days - will have to wait and see.

 

[ArtNJ]

This is called non-recognition aggression, and its very common in cats. A typical example would be when one is at the vet for a while say for a surgery. It can be fixed, and there is a very nice article on this web site that should help.

How To Deal With Non-recognition Aggression In Cats

I think the big tips in there are: (1) if you can restore the old scent with a blanket the cat lies on a lot or something, do that; and (2) if need be, do a reintroduction of the cats following the steps for an introduction of cats that are new to each other.

 

[Pattio63]

I think that this article is spot on. Thank you so much for sharing this with me. They are to a point today where they are staying in the room together...at a distance albeit, but better than yesterday and Sammy is not hissing at Tabby like she was.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I have a version of this problem almost every time one of my girls goes to the vet. Even when they go together! It usually takes 3 days for Noodles to stop hissing at Mooch.