Expert: Dear Tabbi - 8/25/2008

Question
Dear Tabbi,

  My 5 year old tabby cat has suddenly become aggressive towards my husband.  I was eight months pregnant with our first child when this started.  Casey, our cat, would hiss and growl at my husband at random times...usually when I was not in the house.  She would do this only once in a while and be loving and playful towards him at other times.  This lasted about a week and then stopped.  After I had the baby, Casey was fine for a while.  I went away with the baby for about a week and Casey began doing it again to my husband.  Since then, about three weeks ago...she has been doing it frequently.  We are at our wits end with this.  She is only doing this to my husband.  We have had bloodwork done to check for a thyroid problem and other health problems and are awaiting the results.  We started her on buspar (spelling?) about five days ago and haven't seen a change yet...

What do you think?  any advice would be appreciated...

Answer
Denise,

When a cat suddenly becomes aggressive it can mean that it is in pain. It is good that you took the cat to the vet.

It could be jealousy or it could be that he accidently stepped on the cat and she is afraid of it happening again. I don't mean to imply that your husband was mean to the cat, but you have to explore all possibilities that could cause her behavior.

It may be that your husband 'smells' different than he used to for some reason. Cats go by smell and not by sight so she may think he is a different person.

Maybe kitty Prozac would be a better medication. It is commonly used for stressed cats and cats with emotional issues. I would speak to the vet about it.

I would wait for the medical results before treating it as a behavioral issue.

Tabbi