Expert: Norman Auspitz - 2/10/2010

Question
we have a 14 yr old female cat we have cared for for about 6 years, 2 aggressive 3 yr old male cats we have had since 2-3 mos old (same litter), and a stray we took in 2 yrs ago who is about 5-6 yr old male.  The males are all neutered and the female had been spayed before we took her in (after her owner died).  All was well until the young males turned 2 or so.  They challenged Lucy for alpha (all are indoor only cats) position which she clearly had; she has had some respiratory trouble since we got her that is always with her and she is without claws by the previous owner.  She is an effective biter and she has never been friendly with any of the other cats.  They used to leave her alone.  I separated them in October 2009 after one of the males injured her badly (she lost  a fist size area of fur from the wounds and the bleeding, but has since recovered.  I now keep her in one of the bedrooms with her own litter box, food and water, and a scat mat at the entrance with the door closed to keep the 2 aggressive males away from her.  So she spends most of her day in that room, with no one in there, and she misses us and we miss her,  She has about 3 hours a day with us when we lock the two aggressive males in the laundry room (where they have spent the night since they were kittens, and still do- they are comfortable in there with all they need.  I would like to know what it would take to get these guys to all get along again.  Lucy is terrified of the two males and whenever someone makes a mistake and they are all out together, she runs to get into her  "room" to get away from them, screaming all the while- blood curdling, even when they havent been close enough to touch her.  My vet suggested putting the kitty prozac on the ears of all three of them to calm them down, and I got the Rx filled but have not tried this yet.  is there any other way you can suggest to have them back together?  The newest male is neutered and clawless like she is but he gets along fine with the 2 males.  he is larger than they are and effectively fights them off when he needs to.  He also plays with one of the young males and seems to enjoy being with all of the cats.  The new male gets along fine with Lucy, it is just the 2 brothers that both taunt her and try to catch her and have in fact hurt her twice, before I separated them.  They have been separated since October 2009 and we tried a couple of times to let them visit but it turns immediately to let's hurt Lucy so we have had to stop.  I dont know what to try.  Help if you can.

Answer
Trish,

Unfortunately, cats cannot be made to "get along".  It just cannot be done.  I would try to find Lucy a new home in a household with no other cats.  You can try the prozac, but, in my experience, it probably will not help.

Rarely will cats truly hurt each other, but this is not the case here, so they have just taken a major dislike to each other. Generally, there is little that can be done to rectify the situation.

Best regards... Norm.