Expert: Ali - 6/22/2009

Question
In order to ask my question, I have some history to share about my 2 year old cat. I took in Nadine when she was just 8 wks old. She was rescued from a dumpster by my brother's girlfriend and very emaciated.  I took her into my home and loved her. From the beginning she was very skittish, ran under the bed when she heard doorbells, other people in the house, thunderstorms, etc. It took me a long time to get her to even trust me. About a year later, my husband returned from Iraq and it took about 6 months before she would even let my husband pick her up or come near her.  Most times she hisses at him and swats. Nadine has always been skittish and would hiss and scratch me in her scared or pissy moments. I just learned to ignore her and continue to love her.  I thought a new kitten might help. Give her a buddy and have something to love.  It's been a week now and Nadine still hisses and swats at the 4 month old boy kitten and she had started to hiss and growl and swat at me, drawing blood with every swat. I play tag team with them and when gets to roam for a few hours while the other is in a room. Then, I switch.  I am 12 wks pregnant now and husband is about to move us to a new place.  There is a lot going on in 2 months.  So far, Nadine, still comes and sleeps with me at night while the kitten is asleep in his room. But, by morning, when the other kitten is up and awake, she hisses and then swats at me when I try to feed her. What else can I do, if anything,  make my skittish cat adjust? I am fearful of her swatting at my newborn when he/she arrives and I fear I may have to give her up? What else can I do for her? I have an emotional attachment to her after 2 years and don't want to see her sit in a kennel for months because no one will adopt a non sociable, scared, cat and I definitely don't want to have some shelter have to put her down.  I am at wits end. I have cuts on my hands and bandages from where she has swat at me.

Answer
Genevieve,

It sounds like Nadine had a tough start in life. By nature cats are very territorial and they don't respond well to sudden changes. Introducing a new cat into a household where there's already one or more cats in residence needs to be done gently and gradually - it's important to have patience and understand Nadine's viewpoint. Unlike dogs cats aren't typically super social beings that will immediately accept a new cat coming into their territory and the fact that she's already a timid cat by nature is probably making the situation worse which is why the aggression has become a serious issue at this point. I think that it would be best to take a few steps back and work on introducing the new kitten into your household gradually - I suspect that a proper introduction will minimize Nadine's aggression. I normally recommend that a new cat or kitten coming into a household be placed in a room of his or her own with all of the usual kitty necessities (food/water, in order to minimize the chances of house soiling problems coming up in future, 2 litter boxes because some cats prefer to urinate in one litter box and defecate in the other, a few toys and a comfortable place to sleep# for 2-3 weeks. It's best to ensure that you keep the food and water as far away from each other as you possibly can in the kitten's room to reduce the likelihood that he'll go looking for other places to use the toilet because the food is too close to the litter box #nobody wants to eat on the toilet after all#. Isolating this new kitten isn't a matter of ignoring or neglecting the new kid, it's best for all involved if Nadine's able to get accustomed to a feline sibling gradually since that's less likely to provoke such a nasty response. Isolating the new kitten doesn't mean that you can't spend time with him playing and giving him affection, it just means that you're taking the time to respect Nadine's territory. Isolating the new kitten also serves another important purpose - it allows you time to take the newcomer to the veterinarian to rule out any viral or bacterial infections that could be passed along to Nadine and make her sick.

I do my absolute best whenever possible to help my cats and care for them while keeping things as natural as possible. My vet is a holistic vet who practices conventional medicine and she uses homeopathy when it's appropriate to treat medical and behavioral issues. I've seen some pretty amazing things happen for cats when the right remedies are given at the right time. Since you mentioned that Nadine has always been somewhat distrustful, fearful and anxious when being handled by people or dealing with visitors in your home I would suggest that you consider trying a couple of homeopathic remedies to help keep Nadine calmer.

I have routinely used Bach flower essences with cats having a variety of issues for years now and I've always found these remedies to be safe, gentle, relatively inexpensive and quite effective. The beauty of using homeopathic remedies to treat specific issues is that if you give your kitty the wrong remedy the worst that will happen is absolutely nothing which is often a direct contrast to what could happen if the wrong drug is administered in traditional Western medicine. Homeopathy works on the principle that like cures like and the improvements can be dramatic in certain situations as the kitty moves away from an unwanted behavioral issue#or in some cases medical issue# and towards a state of balance. You may be interested in seeking information about holistic care for your kitties and in recent years there are increasing numbers of veterinarians practicing conventional medicine as well as one or more alternative therapies which may include homeopathy, herbal medicine, acupuncture or massage to name a few options. You can normally find Bach flower essences in health food stores, naturopathic pharmacies, some mainstream pharmacies stock these remedies in the aisle with nutritional supplements/vitamins and as far as I know you can also purchase these remedies online.

I would recommend that you start off with a general remedy meant to help Nadine with her fear and anxiety, it's called Bach's Rescue Remedy and it's designed to help calm and reassure. I'd recommend that you add 7-10 drops of Rescue Remedy to a fresh bowl of clean water each morning. You may not see dramatic improvements immediately and that's absolutely fine since homeopathic remedies are usually meant to create a gentle progress towards balance. If the kitten is also slightly anxious then you can add 5-7 drops of Rescue Remedy to a clean bowl of fresh water each morning as well. Over the course of the next two-three weeks I would expect that Nadine will likely show some definite improvement in terms of her anxiety. anger and jealousy. Nadine may also benefit from receiving a few other remedies over the next while, but it's important that you don't use more than a couple of remedies at a time because if you are giving several remedies daily and Nadine gets better you won't know which remedy changed things. I recommend starting with Rescue Remedy, waiting several days, then adding another remedy, waiting a few days, then another remedy, etc...That will allow you to pinpoint which remedies are effective. Nadine will likely respond well to the following Bach flower essences if they're given no more than 3 at a time:

- Elm, promotes optimism
- Larch, promotes confidence
- Mimulus, calms specific fears
- Aspen, promotes vague fears and anxiety
- Holly, deals with jealousy, suspicion, envy
- Gorse, for uncertainty and hopelessness
- Heather, for an overly demanding and needy kitty

The ultimate goal with properly re-introducing the new kitten and giving Nadine some homeopathic remedies to help with some long standing anxiety, distrust and fear #along with the kitten if necessary) so that she's able to be the kitty she was meant to be. I do encourage you to seek the advice of a holistic or homeopathic veterinarian if Nadine hasn't improved at all in terms of her aggression within a few weeks. In the meantime I'd recommend feeding Nadine and her new feline sibling on either side of a closed door so that these two kitties learn to associate each other's presence and scent with something positive - food. You can also switch bedding back and forth between the two cats as this allows both kitties to get accustomed to the other's unique scent. Since questions about new cat introductions are fairly common I would encourage you to check out my previous answers on this subject in the event that you have further questions or concerns you'd like to address. If you have any concerns about this answer or you'd like me to clarify any point in this answer or any others on this topic I'd be more than happy to help you, your husband, your new kitten and Nadine to live together more harmoniously.

PS: I would strongly encourage you to start getting Nadine and the new kitten accustomed to the sound of babies crying by playing an audio track at very low volume frequently when you're there to provide treats, praise and reassurance for these guys when they react appropriately. There's nothing wrong with picking up a nearly life sized doll that looks like a human baby, swaddling the doll in a receiving blanket and sitting somewhere near the cats with your baby - this will encourage them to be curious and minimize any fear they might have which means they'll be less likely to become aggressive or take a swipe at the baby. In my experience provided that you take some time to recognize that Nadine and the kitten need some attention and affection they should be okay. In most cases cats are pretty cautious around human babies because they're noisy, they can accidentally injure a cat fairly early in life if s/he grabs a cat and gets ahold any part of his/her body. There's no reason why you can't successfully have the cats around the baby when you come home from the hospital, but I don't recommend that you allow the cats access to your little one when you aren't there to supervise. If you're patient and you're willing to take some time to teach the cats the ground rules I doubt very much you'll have a problem. If you are concerned you can certainly speak with your own vet, a holistic vet or a behaviorist if you'd like to know how to prepare the cats for the new human "kitten" that will be coming into the family.