Expert: Norman Auspitz - 7/4/2011

Question
I have two neutered cats named Leo and Angel. Leo was neutered 3 yrs ago and Angel i got him neutered on May 17,2011. They were both fine until two days ago. All of a sudden Angel, who got neutered 2 weeks ago just jumped on Leo and started fighting. It was really crazy. I was shocked and scared. Because they did previously fought before but it was normal not like this. I couldn't separate them. They both started hissing growling and very aggressive. I tried to contact the vet if anything went wrong during neutering but he said its nothing like that. The fight was so bad that Leo got his nail injured, and i think needs vet attention.Is there any ointment I can put on Leo's injured nail? I tried to reintroduced them yesterday after reading similar situation online but its the same reaction. Angel can't stand Leo. I am really upset and super worried. I am keeping them in two separate room now. Please advised what should i do? They been living together for past 3 1/2 years all happy and cool what went wrong this time? what should i do? i really don't want to loose neither one of them.

Thank you,
Roza

Answer
Roza,

Cats do not do anything for no reason.  There might be a new cat who has come around that Angel saw and went into fight/fright/flight mode which would bring on the fighting. It often takes weeks for everything to calm back down.  I am not sure of your chronology. You said Angel was neutered May 17, the you said 2 weeks ago.  If he were neutered on May 17, all of the male hormones should be pretty much gone.  If he was neutered only two weeks ago, those hormones are still there.  You can have your vet check his nail and also the incision where he was neutered to make sure all is OK. As far as something to put on the nail, that cats saliva does a pretty good job keeping the wound clean, but you should check with the vet.

The reaction you are getting from the two is normal given the incident a couple of days ago.  As I said it can take weeks to settle down.

One thing you could try is to get a soft small dog crate with reinforced mesh sides all around, and put Leo in it. Let Angel run free.  When you feed, feed them one inside and one outside next to each other. You will get some hissing, and they may be able to work it out of their systems. I would not do this more than a few days.

Generally, cats, when they "fight", do not hurt each other. The have tough skin, so as long as no one drew blood (the hurt nail is not what I consider drawing blood). I would not worry about it. Cats can sound like world war III is going on and all you may see is some loose fur.

The most important thing to remember is that human intervention is almost always counter productive and elongates the time for them to resolve their differences. Once you put them back together running, do not separate them, do not punish either of them, just ignore the noise. I know this sounds counter intuitive and is probably not what your vet would tell you!

Please let me know how they do.

Best regards... Norm