Cat Problems

In My Humble Opinion
1

Last night my wife’s cat got outside for a few hours (he is an inside cat, and only goes outside on the porch to sun himself, but we’re always with him). It wasn’t until he started knocking on a window late at night that we even knew he was gone. It was obvious he had been in a fight, his hair (he’s a longhair) was all messed up and was wet in places from being bit, he was limping around, and very jumpy. As soon as he was brought him inside the other cat (also a male) came over and they started hissing at each other like we had never heard before. We had him sleep in our room with the door shut to separate them. In the morning both seemed to have calmed down, but as the day went on they got worse. if they are near each other all they want to do is rip each others heads off.

What happened that set off both cats? And what can we do to make them get along again?

The only thing I can think of is that the cat that got outside smells like the other cat he got in a fight with, but who knows.

2

He doesn’t smell right to cat #2 at the moment. It should blow over in a couple of days.

3

Are both neutered? At what ages?
Before the one got out and came up in the (male cat) world by having a real fight, which was dominant?
Did they share a single food bowl?

As to what to do:
Same as with any 2 cats which hate each other - keep them apart, and make sure you have both of their scents on you when you visit - you decide which to stroke first.

Whichever is attempting to attack the other should get it’s head dunked in a bucket of water - keep one near eachs door.

To pick up a hostile cat and keep your skin intact:
bring both hands straight down on them - one grabs the scruff of the neck, the other the base of the tail - use whatever force is required to keep their backs straight - they will shred your forearm with their rear claws if they can bring them to bear on the arm holding the neck - and that cute little kitty has more strength for that manuver (sp) than you would believe - that is how they kill their opponents - ESP. males, ESP ESP intact males

4

A veterinary article on redirected aggression in cats. I think that’s what’s going on because one cat is smelling the other cat (or whatever the attacked was) and the other cat is probably still wigged out about his encounter.

I hate to say it, but you might need to try to bathe the cat that was attacked both to get the smells off and to check for any injuries you might not be able to see through his fur.

Keep them separate and slowly reintroduce them. Try some Feliway.

5

They were both neutered as kittens. Cat #1 is 11 and the more dominate one (not really physically though), cat #2 is 5 years old, but he is a mainecoon and much bigger. They both share the food and water dishes.

6

snipped. this is not good advice in my opionon.

Ducking a cat into water will not make him less confrontational. Ducking the head into a bucket will just end up with a paniced cat.

I also disagree with how you pick them up. Grabbing a cat by scruff and tail will hurt adults. It would also hurt kittens if you are as rough as you say.

For everyone reading this, please don’t follow his advice.

If you are trying to pick up a paniced cat, grab the scruff, but don’t pick him up. Press his head to the floor. If needed, put your body over him, but don’t pick him up by the scruff. You could do a lot of damage that way and the struggling cat will probably do damage to you.

After you have got the cat pinned, move one hand over cat’s chest and pin his front legs. Once you have control of them, you can move the other hand to the back legs. Pin the back legs between your fingers…like how people hold a baby to change a diaper.

Now you have total control over the cat. No violence or pain involved.

7

This sometimes happens to my cats, too. They were introduced as adults (both spayed females), and they have developed an armed truce, but when a strange cat comes around and freaks them out, they get pretty testy with each other. The one cat might be all full of adrenaline from fighting, and the other cat is freaked out because the first cat smells weird now, and the first cat was outside too long AND EVERYTHING IS NOT ROUTINE! AAGH! (Cats like routine.)

8

anyone attempting to hold a cat’s rear legs/feet will quickly find out why you grab the BASE of the tail - I have been dealing with various cats off and on for several years - their rear legs are the most slippery parts - they can both bend and rotate just about every bone involved - as stated, they are the cat’s ultimate weapon - they will shred their opponent’s underside with them.
If your cat is very old and very obese, the scruff might be damaged. How on earth you think lifting a kitten by its scruff will damage it? Ever see a mama cat re-locate a kitten? And she’s using very sharp teeth!
Cats routinely stretch themselves - I do not advocate use of more force than is needed for self defense.

A wet head will re-direct pretty much any cat - we are talking about male cats which want to kill each other, not a kitten who pooped in the wrong place. Learning that lunging at the other will get its head wet will quickly discourage aggressive behavior. The “now kitties, play nice” routine comes considerably after the “don’t bare teeth and claws and try to kill each other” phase is complete.

I was assuming, by the remark of his scent’s being off, that he has been bathed since the fight.

These were best buds, now want to kill - time for different rules

9

While you are moving that hand to the rear legs, the rear legs will curl around, rotate, and shred your forearm.

Dopers!
All you cat owners!
Let’s draw a line down the middle. Everybody on one side use the “pin the ribcage, then move your hand to the rear” method,
the other the “simultaneous pinning of the scruff and base of tail”
method of picking up a cat with its ears back, teeth bared, and crouched with its hind feet immediately behind its elbows.
Lets us know how it goes with adult males who have forgotten that you’re the boss, and think you are fair game…

10

Personally I favour dropping a coat or throw over them, they have to separate to get out from under and you can then drop it back over the aggressor while you get the other one out of the way. The only time this didn’t work for me was a real grudge fight between two toms out in the garden – and there is no way I would have gotten physical with either of them. What happened btw is that they separated all right but instantly flew at each other again, becoming a rolling ball of biting battle flattening the flowerbeds and scaring the bejesus out of me.

Funniest cat fight I ever stopped was two tiny kittens who had fallen asleep together but woke all tangled up. It was all “Gerroff me!” “No! You gerroff!” until I stopped laughing long enouogh to lean in and pick one of them up.

11

I have a different take. As much as possible don’t interfere with mutterings and posturings, keep them separated as much as possible, especially when you aren’t there, and re-introduce them slowly. Get some superbly yummy food, something they very rarely get - canned food if they don’t already eat that regularly, or deli meat, warm cooked chicken (smells better than raw, they’re drawn to scent). Feed them that in each other’s presence, not too close but definitely seen. The ONLY time they get the good stuff is when they’re together. This should help change the attitudes a bit, but it may take a few weeks.

The other thing is to change their own scents, and make them similar and familiar. You can get some cat-specific wipes (like baby wipes, but safe for a cat to lick) at a pet store, and swipe each one down twice a day. You can do it with something like tuna juice on a paper towel too, they’ll like it, but you’ll have stinky cats :stuck_out_tongue: Or, if one or both of you works out, take your sweaty t-shirt and rub each cat down with it. That way they’ll smell both familiar, and comforting (assuming they are social cats who like to be with you and on you).

A third tack is to get Some Feliway spray or a diffuser. Not cheap, but it really works pretty well to calm wigged out kitties.

A combination of all three, plus time, should bring them back to peaceful co-existence.

12

Please take advice from flatlined and saje’s posts.

Please disregard whatever usedtobe has said in this thread. I haven’t encountered posts by him/her in any of the animal related threads I’ve posted in, but the cat handling methods posted in this thread are nonsensical and can cause vertebrae and/or disc separation for the cat. As a professional animal handler who has worked with thousands of cats over a decade, I would never handle any cat this way, and I would fire anyone immediately if I saw them grab a cat by the base of the tail.

Follow what flatlined mentioned, and my addition to that is to wrap the back end with a thick towel or blanket to keep the rear feet from shredding you. Around here, we call it a “kitty burrito.” But really, that’s just for handling a cat that you need to “do” something with, like give medication or trim nails, and only if the cat is being highly resistant, not aggressive - that’s a whole other topic.

For two cats posturing/fighting in the home, I like Springtime for Spacers method. Aggressive handling of the cats is not necessary and probably nonproductive as far as long term behavior modification. They will just learn to be afraid of you. Throwing a blanket over one of them will break eye contact between the cats and diffuse any posturing, and give you a chance to shoo one of them into another room with a shut door for a while. Never put yourself, hands or feet, between cats that are fighting. They’ll just shred or bite you, too. Always use a largish object, (I like a collapsed cardboard moving box) to put between them (the blanket idea is good, too), break eye contact, and push one or the other away to another room if needed.

For most housecats who are normally used to each other, a couple days should be all that’s needed. The behavior you’re experiencing is normal. If the one that got out is injured enough, he may need a couple of weeks. If you can keep them separated, it won’t hurt to do it for longer, and you can do positive reinforcement with playtime and treats around he shut door, plus swap them periodically for some territory sharing before a full re-introduction.

OP, I hope you home becomes a place of peace once again, soon! Feel free to PM me if you need specific advice, too. If I can’t immediately answer a question, I have a behaviorist on hand who I can ask first.

13

We seem to have gotten through the worst of it. Thanks for the advice. We just made sure to keep them separate when we were out of the room or sleeping. We were worried at first since the younger cat is so much bigger then cat #1 (by almost 10 lbs.), but other then a couple scuffles they seemed content just to hiss very nasty at each other.

What seemed to work was to give them wet food, which they don’t get often, next to each other a couple times. That seemed to calm them both down.

14

I used to have fun, when I was a little kid, by putting an upturned laundry basket over my cat and pretending it was in jail (which probably would piss him off if he hadn’t been so laid back, he was a cool cat). But, that seems like an ideal way to contain a cat without hurting it. Just upturn a laundry basket, set it over the cat, and push it to the designated area. They’ll be forced to keep moving in the direction you’re pushing, but it doesn’t hurt them or anything. As long as you keep your hands firmly on the plastic bottom and bend over to push it without getting your feet too close to it, you shouldn’t get scratched.

15

I’ve never done this, but it might help with the scent thing - rub one cat down with a towel. Now go rub the other cat down with the same towel, transferring some of Cat #1’s scent to him. Then repeat a couple of times with each cat, getting the scents on each other and all confused.

Apparently it helps make (your now) unfamiliar cat more familiar. Worth a shot, anyway.