Expert: Ali - 6/21/2009

Question
About 10 months I took in a young female. At that time it was obvious that she had been someone's pet as she was front declawed and had a spay scar. I later took her to my vet who confirmed that she was indeed spayed. After having her in my possession for two or three months and checking our local humane society I found the woman and she no longer wanted said kittie cat. When I took her in I had little knowledge of how territorial cats can be and just let her into my household. We ended up naming her Mahogany and keeping her. My first cat, Leroy didn't like this one bit. I understand that I was wrong just thinking he'd be okay with it. He attacks her, at any chance he can get. Whenever we're home we can usually stop the fight before it starts, but he will still do it when we're not home. Not often, actually it's rare that he attacks her when we're not home. They have separate food and water, they have their own love time with me. I'm pretty sure he's jealous that I even look at her. Would putting her in a separate room and trying to do as I should have done in the first place work? We will hopefully be moving into a house soon and if not we'll be moving into a different apartment, should I wait until then? He's never hurt her seriously, thankfully. I'm open to anything and everything. I know that they may never be buddy buddy and I'm fine with that, I just don't want him picking on her any longer. Thank you so much for you time and thank you ahead of time for your response. If you have any questions please e-mail me. I can usually respond in under 5 hours.

Answer
Liz,

Unfortunately since it's been some time since your newest cat came into the household I doubt that reintroducing her would help matters much. For the moment I'd recommend separating these feuding kitties to prevent anything drastic from happening. You have a few options for how to deal with this aggression issue; you could seek the advice of your own veterinarian and s/he could provide you with sedatives or anti-depressant/anxiety type drugs to administer to the cats, you could ask your own vet for a referral to a qualified behaviorist with experience working with kitty aggression problems, you could try some humane disciplinary tools and a widely available homeopathic remedy called Bach's Rescue Remedy. Using sedatives or psychotropic drugs isn't something that I recommend except as a last resort because these medications can sometimes worsen the underlying problem and their use isn't without potential risks or side effects. If you seek a referral to a behaviorist the results you might see could be varied, especially if the person has little to no experience working with intercat aggression. Another option would be to use humane disciplinary tools like a spray bottle/water pistol or a can of compressed air like those meant to clean electronics and computer keyboards along with adding Rescue Remedy to the household's water. The humane disciplinary tools only work if you're home most of the time and can catch the behaviors before they escalate and immediately address them by squirting the cats with water or sending a blast of compressed air away from the cats. Some cats won't react to being squirted with water if they're already building up to an aggressive approach, but it's worth a try provided that you can get involved before things get out of hand. Most cats immediately understand the hiss coming from a can of compressed air and in many cases that will be enough to send them back into their own corners for awhile. If you plan to use cans of compressed air it's extremely important to avoid pointing the nozzle directly at the cats, shaking the can or tilting it because the propellants inside of the can are capable of causing serious frost bite. Overall I try to keep my kitty care as natural as possible and I've found that homeopathic remedies can be a great way of dealing with certain issues with cats in a household. The beauty of homeopathic remedies is that you can add the liquid remedies to the community water dishes a couple of times per day or in the case of remedies in pellet form you can gently place the pellet into a small amount of water, wait for it to dissolve and draw the liquid into a syringe to administer it by mouth. Rescue Remedy is a blend of flower essences meant to calm and reassure, the drawback is that things may improve gradually because this remedy is very gentle and homeopathic remedies in general don't give immediate cures, it's more a case of a gradual return to a balanced state. I've used Rescue Remedy for many years with great results in a variety of situations, it's a safe, gentle remedy that won't cause any harm - if it doesn't work the worst that will happen is absolutely nothing as opposed to potentially serious problems that can happen if the wrong medication is administered. You can find Rescue Remedy at most health food stores, naturopathic pharmacies, some mainstream drug stores stock this remedy in the aisle with vitamins/nutritional supplements and as far as I know you can also purchase this remedy online. Other Bach Flower remedies you might find useful are mimulus or (meant for specific fears, holly (jealousy). If you want to use any other remedies it's best to contact a holistic/homeopathic vet or a trained homeopath experienced in caring for pets. I would recommend that you consider seeking the advice of a holistic veterinarian, these are qualified vets trained in conventional medicine as well as one or more alternative therapies which might include homeopathy, acupuncture, herbal medicine or massage to name a few options. My family vet is a holistic vet and she uses homeopathy whenever it's appropriate in her practice - I have to say I've seen some pretty amazing things happen when the right remedies are administered at the right time.