Expert: Kate Tilmouth - 7/25/2009

Question
My husband & I have 2 male sibling (spayed/neutered)cats who are just 2 years of age & we have had since 9 weeks of age.
We noticed from about the age of 9 months that Louie would run over and hit his brother Ruby for no apparent reason but I think now that it was redirected aggression. It would often be after Louie had been sitting looking out the window or because Ruby was sleeping in the cat bed by the window when I think Louie wanted  to sleep in it himself.
This carried on intermittently over the next few months so we didn't take too much notice of it but about 3 months ago Louie developed acute gingivitis and had to eventually have a tooth removed. I say eventually because it was about 6 weeks before the tooth was removed & during that time he was barely able to eat. During that time there were also several unpleasant trips to the vets with dogs violently barking in the waiting room so I think all this has had a rather traumatic effect on him.
At this time Louie started getting more & more aggressive toward Ruby with him running over & hitting/scratching him and it is now so bad that they have to be separated at night & when we go out, during the day they go outside & keep out of each others way so it doesn't seem so bad.
Ruby is a very placid cat on the other hand & never tries to fight back, he used to just lay down on his back submissively but now runs & hides when Louie starts running towards him. I have noticed  however that he is over grooming his stomach which I guess is stress related & it seems to be getting worse.
Louie will not be in the same room as him or anywhere where he can see him or he starts growling or chasing him when he does see him.
I would really appreciate some advice as to whether this can at all be resolved, I can't bear to see my cats unhappy but at the same time cannot bear the thought of having to give one up.
Have you ever heard of this happening before?
Please help!! :(

P.S. I am using the Bach Flower Remedies on Louie which I feel has helped to make him less fearful but hasn't removed any of his aggression.

Answer
Hi
well intially i think the occassional attack was normal behavior between cats,as they will often assert there authority this way from to time to time to say I am the boss and don't forget.

However since the vet vists etc I think it could be more to do with trauma and I.e fear of what has happened to him. there is a strange behavior called truama aggression which is where something happens to  one cat and they take out this fear on another animal even if they had nothing to do nwith the thing which caused the fear. Sort of deffered blame.

When this trauma aggression occurs normally the only way to try and get the cats back on some sort of friendly terms is to treat them as if they were total strangers and reintroduce them as such. The process does take some time and effort but does alow a level of confidene to be built between the two. The process is described here on my web site

http://www.our-happy-cat.com/introducing-cats.html

best wishes kate
http;//www.our-happy-cat.com