Expert: Ali - 10/21/2009

Question
Hi
I really hope you can help!  I have 2 cats Dempsey & Makepeace (brother & sister) who I adopted age 11 month in Apr 09 from Cats Protection League. They were together in a cat run for 7 months prior and were part of an abandoned litter.  Since then their behaviour has changed dramatically from being snuggled up together and cleaning each other to out of control fur flying fights with culminating with her not feeling like she can come in the house at all.  They were fine at first, her being more timid than her brother.  Then he took over downstairs and she took over upstairs which worked well.  Since my partner grabbed her off the bed to put in her box for the vets she now won't got upstairs or in the house without some coaxing with food and just growls at her brother or just runs away.  I really don’t want to have to take one back to the shelter but it's unfair for her to live like a ferral cat. Is there anyone who can help me in my predicament especially as Winter is drawing in and i'm so worried about her.

Kind regards
Claire  

Answer
Claire,

I have a few questions for you so that I can get a better picture of what's going on with these kids, hopefully once I've got the answers I can offer you a good course of action to help these siblings get along with each other again.

- Are these two fur kids spayed/neutered?

If they're not then that could be contributing to their aggressive behavior towards each other - cats are quite territorial by nature, especially when they've reached the age of sexual maturity, this happens around 6 months of age or so.

- Are these cats indoor only or indoor/outdoor?

If these siblings go outside they may have experienced something that you aren't aware of that's made them anxious and might be the cause of the aggressive behavior between two formerly friendly kitties.

- Have you tried any other ways of regaining the female cat's trust besides food?

Food is a good peace offering, but sometimes it's not enough.

- Do you normally have difficulty getting these kitties into their crates for visits to the vet?

Believe it or not the simplest way to avoid struggles getting a cat into a carrier for a vet visit is to leave the kennel out and open in a quiet corner of the house all of the time. Cats tend to view the cages as a safe place to hide and part of their daily territory rather than a horrible place that they get shoved into against their will every year.

- Would you be willing to try a few homeopathic remedies that just might help fix issues with jealousy, anxiety, demanding behavior and other issues?

There are some Bach Flower remedies that I think would be amazingly effective in this situation, if you're interested I can send some information along with a recommendation for a few remedies with explanations of why these remedies might be helpful in your situation.

- Did anything happen within the household that upset these cats and changed the way they interacted before?

If the aggression happened around the time of a household renovation, construction in your neighborhood, changes within your household or routines, etc then the cats may be reacting badly to the changes and taking out their frustrations on each other. There are ways to overcome this without the use of expensive psychotropic drugs which have their own set of side effects, risks and benefits.

- Have these cats been health checked to ensure that they don't have any medical issues that could cause or contribute to their behavior towards each other?

If these guys are healthy in every way then the issue is most likely behavioral and that's very different from needing to treat a medical issue like elevated or decreased thyroid issues, kidney or liver problems, etc. Some medical issues can result in dramatic behavioral changes in cats so if routine blood work hasn't been performed it might be a good place to start.

I look forward to hearing from you with the answers to the questions posed above so that I can help you get this little girl back indoors and have the two cats regain their friendship and trust in one another.