UNPREDICABLE Cat Aggression Driving Me Insane

[mashpototo]

Hi,
Everyone, before you read this I suggest you read some of my earlier threads to understand this situation. He is neutered, we found him on the streets as an adult.

I have owned this cat for two years and I have tried everything to get this cat to stop attacking me so unpredictably with no success. He does not yowl, hiss, meow, or do anything to express his frustration and how it shows up is very costly on my skin. I have developed a few keloid scars on my arms and legs to prove it and his deep chomps and scratches could be compared to a bear trap and a knife with how deep he pierces through flesh.

Today, I let him outside to play after an hour of playing with him indoors. From 11p.m. to 5 a.m. , he’s attacked me at least 3 times while I try to doze off to sleep.

To illustrate, what makes this so difficult is that he will be in the middle of kneading and purring by my head in bed, and without warning (while still kneading) he will lean over and lunge for your face with his claws and chomp your ears without a single warning peep. I have had actual small chunks of skin come off from my right ear and it is not healing well.

This night, he clawed my arm through my shirt even with his trimmed nails. For more context, my bed is situated near the floor so he would peer over the mattress and hop on. He approached it with friendly cat language tail high up, pupils at a normal level, and pointed normal. Then he sat down and sniffed the air for a couple seconds before deciding he wanted to come up. Heck, the kitty even gave me a sweet slow blink. Just as I thought he was gonna hop on the bed like he usually does, he backed up and lunged for me again. His cuts are so painful, the wound on my skin opens up slightly (like the shape of an eye) to reveal the layers of skin underneath and parts of my fat underneath my skin. Most, if not all these attacks need stitches but I can’t afford to get them.

I play with this cat daily until he pants and allow him to have some outside time a couple times a week. He is fed often and always has water available. He has his own favorite bed/mini tree that I added to the home to give him his own space. I have begun closing the window he likes to look out of in case that is the source of it months ago. I’m pulling my hair trying to figure out what is going on and I’m saving up for the vet.

After further research and some episodes I watched from Jackson Galaxy, I think I am being attacked with redirected aggression to the point where the association now is that whenever my cat is feeling unwell or even a little stressed, he will go out of his way to “vent” attacking me. He never does this with anyone else, and when he does his reason for attacking and his anger is clear as day. When people sleep over he does not do this to me and usually calms him down.
While this is something usually cat-to-cat, I think I’m an example of owner to car redirected aggression.

If anyone has had experience with this unpredictability please, please, PLEASE respond and share this.

Putting him down and giving him away to a shelter is NOT an option. If a shelter were to identify this behavior with him, it would be a death sentence.

 

[Misty_Miffy_Moon]

I have a cat who does this sometimes. What is your cats breed? Some really like to hunt and pounce and all that, so it could just be the breed.
You might pet him in a spot that makes him annoyed/REALLY happy too. I don't really think that's the case though.

Signs of agitation include: Tail swatting/twitching, skin twitching, weird meowing, or changing body position.

You might be able to find an article about redirected aggression too.
I don't know too much about it. But maybe playing with him before going to bed might help. Night is pretty much the time- no matter what - to play. So playing with your cat at night before bed could help.

Found a couple articles that could help:

Why Do Cats Attack?

Cat Acting Strangely? Here's What It Could Mean

Re-directed Aggression In Cats

Cat Aggression Toward People


Those might help, I hope your cat stops attacking you!

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
You're able to see sometimes when he's about to attack, can you take ahold of the skin at the back of his neck (don't lift without support under him) and stop him?

 

[Misty_Miffy_Moon]

Hi!
You're able to see sometimes when he's about to attack, can you take ahold of the skin at the back of his neck (don't lift without support under him) and stop him?

Thats a good idea! I've had to do that a couple times.

 

[Hellenww]

I haven't had experience with an aggressive cat. Going from loving to full on attack makes me think of an unsocialized cat. He wants to play with you but was never taught how to play nice. If it weren't for the intensity of his attacks I'd suggest a second cat. Did the friend you adopted him from have him with his other cats? If so how was he with them?

Do you have Kickeroos and big stuffed animals you can teach him to wrestle with?

Have you tried keeping him inside and discouraging strays from coming around your house. I've heard cats don't like lemon scented furniture polish. Spray some cloths and put them around. My thought is that if he doesn't see outside cats there is less chance of redirected aggression but not going out could make him more tense until he gets over it.

The time your BF picked him up while you had company, did he get kitties attention first. Even happy tension is tension and kitty may have just been surprised and went into defense mode.

 

[Jem]

How do you respond when he attacks you? Have you tried a good hiss or loud Ow! ?

I wonder if letting him outside at all is contributing. Perhaps a full transition to indoors only would help?

When he's in attack mode, can he be calmed quickly, or is he in "the zone" for some time?

I had a cat who had aggressive behaviors, dominance, re-directed and fear.
For the dominance aggression, he displayed it only with me. And a combination of ignoring or hissing was the only way I was able to get it to settle down.
For example, he had a problem with me tidying up, and would stalk me which led to attacking my hands as I tried to move things and pick things up. Every time he would go to attack me I would hiss, and he would back off (a bit). If it escalated, then I would grab him (while ignoring him) a put him in a different location and walk away.
He would also lunge and attack my head/face if I was sitting talking on the phone. So I learned to stay standing as I was on the phone. He would meow and rub against me very aggressively when out of the blue he would attack my feet if I moved. So, whenever he would start with his behavior, before it escalated, I would take a step back from him and turn away. If he followed I would do it again. Eventually, I was able to be on the phone (most of the time) with out any incidents.

As for the redirected aggression, that's a though one, but one thing that helped was to eliminate his exposure to the outdoors that were not from a "secure" area. We put vinyl "frosting" (stickers) on the bottom two feet of our patio doors so he could not see out of them, and it also "protected him" as he felt "too open" for him. He could still see outside to watch birds and such, but all his window access was from high perched or partially obscured areas.
For example, his cat tree was only half in front of the window, the other half was in front of the wall/frame so he had a "vantage/hiding point"
We also had to keep him and one of our other cats separate at all times if not supervised. The other kitty was ill and he did not like that one bit, so keeping them apart helped with his aggression.

In general he was a fearful cat due to not being socialized properly. And it took a lot of sleuthing to really try and figure out his triggers.

We also gave him calming treats if he seemed particularly agitated one day.

These were them, they seemed to help.

The other thing that I found helped a lot with Hank, was a strict routine.

If you need me to clarify anything just let me know. I hope some of this helps.

 

[mashpototo]

How do you respond when he attacks you? Have you tried a good hiss or loud Ow! ?
I wonder if letting him outside at all is contributing. Perhaps a full transition to indoors only would help?

When he's in attack mode, can he be calmed quickly, or is he in "the zone" for some time?

I had a cat who had aggressive behaviors, dominance, re-directed and fear.
For the dominance aggression, he displayed it only with me. And a combination of ignoring or hissing was the only way I was able to get it to settle down.
For example, he had a problem with me tidying up, and would stalk me which led to attacking my hands as I tried to move things and pick things up. Every time he would go to attack me I would hiss, and he would back off (a bit). If it escalated, then I would grab him (while ignoring him) a put him in a different location and walk away.
He would also lunge and attack my head/face if I was sitting talking on the phone. So I learned to stay standing as I was on the phone. He would meow and rub against me very aggressively when out of the blue he would attack my feet if I moved. So, whenever he would start with his behavior, before it escalated, I would take a step back from him and turn away. If he followed I would do it again. Eventually, I was able to be on the phone (most of the time) with out any incidents.

As for the redirected aggression, that's a though one, but one thing that helped was to eliminate his exposure to the outdoors that were not from a "secure" area. We put vinyl "frosting" (stickers) on the bottom two feet of our patio doors so he could not see out of them, and it also "protected him" as he felt "too open" for him. He could still see outside to watch birds and such, but all his window access was from high perched or partially obscured areas.
For example, his cat tree was only half in front of the window, the other half was in front of the wall/frame so he had a "vantage/hiding point"
We also had to keep him and one of our other cats separate at all times if not supervised. The other kitty was ill and he did not like that one bit, so keeping them apart helped with his aggression.

In general he was a fearful cat due to not being socialized properly. And it took a lot of sleuthing to really try and figure out his triggers.

We also gave him calming treats if he seemed particularly agitated one day.
View attachment 304052
These were them, they seemed to help.

The other thing that I found helped a lot with Hank, was a strict routine.

If you need me to clarify anything just let me know. I hope some of this helps.

When I respond in that way, saying “ow” or hissing agitates him even more and he comes back for another lunge.

He really is in “the zone” when he attacks me. Had it not been for how intensely he attacks, I would be more open to trying to grab him but I know if I did I would get some nasty wounds. Someone suggested I try CBD oil.

 

[mashpototo]

I haven't had experience with an aggressive cat. Going from loving to full on attack makes me think of an unsocialized cat. He wants to play with you but was never taught how to play nice. If it weren't for the intensity of his attacks I'd suggest a second cat. Did the friend you adopted him from have him with his other cats? If so how was he with them?

Do you have Kickeroos and big stuffed animals you can teach him to wrestle with?

Have you tried keeping him inside and discouraging strays from coming around your house. I've heard cats don't like lemon scented furniture polish. Spray some cloths and put them around. My thought is that if he doesn't see outside cats there is less chance of redirected aggression but not going out could make him more tense until he gets over it.

The time your BF picked him up while you had company, did he get kitties attention first. Even happy tension is tension and kitty may have just been surprised and went into defense mode.

I haven't had experience with an aggressive cat. Going from loving to full on attack makes me think of an unsocialized cat. He wants to play with you but was never taught how to play nice. If it weren't for the intensity of his attacks I'd suggest a second cat. Did the friend you adopted him from have him with his other cats? If so how was he with them?

Do you have Kickeroos and big stuffed animals you can teach him to wrestle with?

Have you tried keeping him inside and discouraging strays from coming around your house. I've heard cats don't like lemon scented furniture polish. Spray some cloths and put them around. My thought is that if he doesn't see outside cats there is less chance of redirected aggression but not going out could make him more tense until he gets over it.

The time your BF picked him up while you had company, did he get kitties attention first. Even happy tension is tension and kitty may have just been surprised and went into defense mode.

When my friend had him, he kept him outside only. In the week he found him on the street, he got bit a couple times from petting stimulation and told me his bites were indeed very hard. There were a couple cats in his care he was originally very territorial with, but eventually they got along (in terms of getting along, my friend would explain it as Maurice tolerating the presence of other cats) and would only play with each other by chasing them occasionally. He prefers to be alone, though.

Maurice isnt very interested in playing by himself unless a big plastic/paper bag is involved to tear apart (haha).

I don’t know how I’ll get him to be interested in larger toys. He likes things he can carry in his mouth and swat around on the kitchen tile.

I do see cats outside my area but I never see them out the window, maybe he smells them?

we tried using lemon scented cleaner on the counter and actual lemon juice on dirty plates to keep him away from licking plates on the kitchen sink but he really likes human food (haha). I think at this point lemon scented stuff won’t work

 

[mashpototo]

Hi!
You're able to see sometimes when he's about to attack, can you take ahold of the skin at the back of his neck (don't lift without support under him) and stop him?

Unfortunately I can’t predict when he attacks, and this switch happens so quickly and so suddenly that it’ll be really difficult to tell. Inching closer while he’s in this mood agitates him even more and I’m nervous if I reach his neck he’ll shred my arm or hand up!! I do do this when his nose is in the trash or if he’s doing something he’s not supposed to be doing.

 

[mashpototo]

I also forgot to mention that I think this is some form of aggression and not play, because he’ll sometimes let out a weird yowl AFTER having lunged at my head in the middle of biting me, but NEVER before.

 

[marmoset]

There could be a medical issue. The only two cats I've worked with/ owned that sound like this did have underlying medical problems. It's scary when a cat seems to attack out of nowhere. I got bit once on my head while I was sleeping and that cat in her well years was the gentlest and most people-adoring cat I'd ever known.

So my first bit of advice is get blood work and a full exam done. If nothing can be found that might be a physical reason for his behavior then they might want to try prozac or another drug. We've used it on a cat at the shelter who was unpredictably attacking viciously and it worked wonders. We've only ever used it one two cats and reserve it for those with severe aggression but we saw it work in both cases those cats have homes with people who understand their background and medical needs.

The only other thing I can think of suggesting is keeping him indoors full-time. There could be some stimulus outside that he is reacting to. You already mentioned Jackson Galaxy so you probably know all about. You could set up a night camera to see who or what is outside at night. If there is a male spraying outside that can (it certainly doesn't always) upset an indoor male cat. So setting up motion activated sprinklers would do the trick.

It's nice to know there are people that are willing to take on a challenging cat with aggression issues. I hope your story ends well too.

 

[Furballsmom]

There could be a medical issue.

I'm wondering the same thing after reading more of your posts, and marmoset has great suggestions