Second verse same as the first? :(

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Nearly two years ago, we moved into our house. We owned three cats, Precious, Rumpleteazer and the newest acquisition, Buttercup. Then, in October of 2001, an event happened that changed everything. Rumpleteazer came into contact with a cat from outside through a screen, causing Precious (easily the most aggravat-able and domineering of the three)to go insane. Precious began to attack everyone and everything within her reach without reason. Even after being seperated from the other two (who calmed down quite quickly…within a couple of hours),Precious continued to be agressive and attack us. We took her to the vet, who could find nothing medically wrong with her and gave her some medicine that was supposed to calm her down. It didn’t calm her down…it wigged her out even more and it ended up with us putting her to sleep.

Now it’s happening all over again. Yesterday a strange cat came into the yard and Rumpleteazer saw him and got agitated, pacing along the windowsill (window closed so no direct contact like the last time),hissing,spitting and clawing at the window, every hair fluffed up, tail bottle-brushy, ears flat, eyes wide and pupils dilated to the extreme. She attacked Buttercup, who’d done nothing and was in fact lounging in the kitchen at the time, for no reason. Displaced agression I guess. We seperated them for an hour or so and then let them back together. There was an uneasy peace between them but we decided not to let them both out overnight just in case something happened. Early this morning, Rumpleteazer got up and was pacing the bed, which woke Brandon up. This agitated her so he went into the living room while I slept and laid down on the couch with her. She settled down until around 5 am when I woke up and noticed he wasn’t in bed. I heard the TV on and saw the light in the living room so I got up to see what was going on. As soon as she saw me, Rumpleteazer ran under the glass coffee table and became extremely agitated, so I left the room.
Later on, when I got up, showered and went in the living room she was more or less calmed down and even let me pet her a little bit. CG called a vet who suggested we keep Rumpleteazer in the spare bedroom while Buttercup roamed the rest of the house today. We are taking her to the vet’s office tomorrow and we assume he’ll put her on meds to calm her down. I’m hoping this is all it takes. If she doesn’t calm down enough to be around Buttercup in a few days…well…I don’t even want to think about it.

This is almost exactly what happened with Precious and I don’t know if I can go through it again, losing another cat because of behaviorial issues. It’s not that I don’t love her…far from it. It’s just that…well…it’s happening all over again and I don’t know what to do other than what I’m doing now, which is keeping them seperated. When we let Buttercup out this morning, she got all hissy and agitated but I guess that’s just from being penned up all night long. I don’t know. She’s usually the most laid-back character I’ve ever seen. I can hear Rumpleteazer in the spare bedroom, crying and clawing at the carpet, trying to dig her way out.

I am so scared that Rumpleteazer will not calm down and will have to be put to sleep, just like Preciouos was almost 2 years ago. I don’t know if I can go through that again. It tore me up, almost destroyed me the last time because I loved Precious so much. If I have to put another cat down…you might as well lock me in the loonybin because I won’t be the same. I feel that if I lose another cat to behaviorial issues like this…I’ll crack. I dunno. I’m all fucked up right now because I"ve been crying a lot, worried that it’ll be second verse, same as the first.

And I didn’t like the first verse at all. :frowning:

IDBB

2

Ugh that sucks. We had kitties on antidepressants before for behavioral issues. I don’t know what your vet gave you but they told us there were quite a few behavioral meds they could try. The one that worked best for us was amytriptaline (Not sure I spelled that right and you need to get it at the human pharmacy - fun explaining they are for my cat and please don’t try and submit anything to my insurance please)

Putting any pet to sleep is horribly hard. I still cry when I think of when we had to put our very first kitty to sleep. She was only 4 and was incredibly sick and it was very traumatic. Thankfully I had a wonderful vet.

I hope things get better.

3

My hubby’s cat did this when I moved in - I was a threat. The vet wanted to put her on “kittie valium” which didn’t really work. So, she basically lived in a spare bathroom until she was used to me. When ever she wigs now, which is infrequent when another cat gets close to the house, we lock her in the bath tub (glass doors) - she can’t hurt herself and she knows she’s being punished. Not fun but she has food and water, just can’t get out. She eventually calms down - at first it took several days. Now, only a couple of hours at most. Can’t bathe her now to save my life, she equates tub to punishment.

Good Luck - I hope your kitty is OK.

4

You know those little mushrooms that grow outside on your front lawn?

Stop feeding them to your cats!

Actually, I’ve rather sorry to hear of your difficulties. Although, I must warn you than many animals have been know to wig out just because their owners named them “Precious.” All joking aside. Did you have Precious tested for any pathogens when she was put down? Brief exposure to outside cats are a perfect chance for some bizarre kitty-virus or parasite to vector. While there was no direct contact this time around, it is still possible for you to have tracked in something from the yard (i.e., feces or vomitus) that might contain a pathogen. Is there a particular plant that is in bloom right now? Has your cat been chewing on any potentially toxic house plants, floral arrangements or other strange items? You may wish to have a work up done on Rumpleteaser.

5

sounds similiar to what i am dealing with.

i got my kitty cat grey when she was 6 weeks old. she was fairly social and at the time we had a 6 month cat and a ferret. we nuetered the male cat right after we got grey. when grey went into her first heat, she became really unsocial. we didn’t get her fixed right away. over a couple heats she started to go crazy. we got her fixed and on what would have been her heat cycle she still go crazy. she will spaz out for a few days and then return to normal. most of the time now she is a social cat until it is time for her kitty cat pms(?). it doesn’t seem to be getting worse and she seems to only really spaz out with the males of the household, the male cat, the male ferret and the male human. she does well with me.

the male human tells me it might be inbreeeding or a chem inbalence.

I_Dig_Bad_Boys: does it seem to go in cycles? is your cat fixed? how old was your cat when s/he was fixed? maybe it is related to that?

6

It’s a long, long story but the vet we took Precious to at the time only did a physical examination. He refused to do bloodwork saying if he couldn’t find anything physically wrong with a cat who’d otherwise been perfectly healthy (other than having to have an emergency spay when she was 9 mos old) for more than 3 years, bloodwork wouldn’t tell him ANYTHING. He put to plain ol’ territorial agresssion, since Precious didn’t come into contact with the other cat, Rumpleteazer did.

The only houseplant we have is a Japanese Lucky Bamboo which she doesn’t touch. It’s possible I tracked something in from the yard because I go out there in my bare feet all the time and lord knows how many cats and dogs run around loose out there. As for the strange items, I dunno. Rumpleteazer GOT her name because, like the character from the hit musical CATS, she likes to abscond with shiny things like buttons, keys, etc. But she hasn’t been acting like she ate something wierd so I don’t know about that.

Last night we tried an experiment. We put Rumpleteazer in the cat carrier, placed her in the livingroom and brought Buttercup in. Rumpleteazer barely batted an eyelash while Buttercup screamed, whacked at her with one foot and ran like hell. The vet CG talked to yesterday said to keep them seperated for at least 48 hrs (which they almost have been by now…it was Sat eve that this happened) and then try again to bring them together. Rumpleteazer has stopped attacking us and when I went to visit her a little while ago, she was desperate for attention, mewing piteously and scentmarking me by rubbing the sides of her head against me any place she could get to. Buttercup seems to be fairly back to normal, even taking advantage of Rumpleteazer’s absence to sleep in the coveted place in the bed.:slight_smile:

We’ve talked about it and although up until now I"ve been a proponet of never declawing my cats…CG says he refuses to live with them anymore if they are fully armed. He says he is tired of breaking up spats (which do frequently happen with these two)and getting scratched. I said I get scratched as much as he does and have the scars to prove it. It doesn’t matter. He wants them both front-only declawed and I guess I’m going to give in. They never go outside anyway and this is NOT about having good furniture. I don’t give a damn about having ratty furniture. I don’t. But perhaps getting them declawed will be better for the both of them. I don’t know.

But hopefully…tonight we’ll let them both out and see what happens. I can only pray things go well.

IDBB

7

UPDATE:
Well, CG attempted to re-introduce Buttercup and Rumpleteazer today with little success. In fact…it was a complete disaster. Buttercup apparently doesn’t trust Rumple any more and so when they were let out together, there was a fight. Buttercup was slightly injured (some pretty nasty scratches on her hind paw-pads, causing her to bleed and necessitate a vet visit)and Rumple went back in the Bad Room. The vet suggested that we start over at the very beginning and put them in each in a cat carrier and SLOWLY nose them together and then, when they can tolerate each other that way, let them out together. It may take a month but we’ll get there. I am NOT giving up on Rumpleteazer. No way. When we let them out (seperately) they are their fine, normal, loving selves. It’s only when they are around each other that they go ballistic and start fighting.
I am NOT giving up on her…I won’t. This can be solved. I know it can.
IDBB

8

We’ve tried putting them back together, since it’s been a week and they’ve been seperated for a week. Disasterous was the results. They fought and my husband was injured in the fight trying to seperate them.
When they are apart they are their normal loving selves. It’s only w hen they get together that they fight.

We’re going to try some drugs (maybe, if we can convince the vet to prescribe them) and see if that helps. We’re also thinking of trying Bach’s Rescue Remedy to calm them down. IF that doesn’t work…one of them is getting adopted out to another home. I can’t decide which one should get adopted out. I love them both equally, as if they were my own children and it would be like cutting off my own arm or leg to give one of them away. I’m trying really hard right now not to break down in tears over the thought of which one to give away if this doesn’t work out because I love them both so much. They both mean so much to me and I have so many fond memories of both Rumpleteazer and Buttercup.

If anyone has any suggestions, I am more than welcome to them. We go on vacation on the 20th of July and if they haven’t settled down by then, one of them is going away.:frowning: We can’t leave them with the petsitter and risk her getting injured if they accidentally get out together and start a fight.:frowning:

This is just killing me…I’m at my wit’s end.

IDBB

9

Wow. All I can do is wish you tons of luck. Had a lot of cats in my life, never went thru anything like you’re describing with any of them, so have no suggestions to offer. Hope something works.

10

I hope we can work this out too, ghostrider. I’m praying the vet will prescribe some tranks for them both to chill them out so they can learn to be around each other again. If not…one of them is going back to the Humane Society from whence they came because it says on the papers we signed when we brought them home if something occured where we could no longer keep the cats, they had to go back to the HS. I really do love both of them like my own kids and it’s hard to look into their trusting eyes and know that one of them might end up leaving the only home they’ve ever known, the only people they’ve ever loved and who have loved them deeply in return.:frowning:

IDBB

11

Update–about a week ago we installed a screen door on the pantry and while we are at home, the cats take turns spending time in the pantry. We place the other food bowl outside the door so that the cat who is not in the pantry will be forced to go near the pantry to eat or drink and thus come into contact with the other cat.

So far…so good. Well…other than Rumpleteazer was forced to take a trip in the Bad Box tm because she attempted to make an escape and swallowed some screen wire.:eek:

Other than that, it’s been going well and we expect within a couple more weeks of this sort of treatment with neither of them reacting at ALL to the other, we’ll be able to release them into the house together. YAAAAAAAAAAAY!:smiley:

I want to thank all you Dopers for the good advice, the shoulders to bitch on, and the prayers. We’ve needed it.:slight_smile:

IDBB