Advice for dealing with cat aggression needed

[muffin]

Hi all, I apologise for the long first post, but want to give as much background detail as I can.

I have a 6 year old neutered male, he has access to outside. He has been with us since a kitten with no problems. In October 2016 we found an injured female cat in our back garden, cutting the story very short, she was pregnant with broken pelvis. We decided to give her a chance, couldn't pay for £2,000 worth of surgery but used cage rest etc. She is now healed and gets around well, although hip has healed abnormally and she has some muscle wastage. We also kept the kitten that survived the pregnancy, who is now 19 weeks old. Both mum and kitten are due to be neutered next week. Both are house cats.

The problem now is mum cat has never liked our 6 year old cat, hissing at him etc, although no outright fighting (this is because he's much too dopey and never responds to her aggression). We hoped that as she got used to him and realised he wasn't a threat to her or her kitten she would improve. Unfortunately the opposite has happened, she is becoming more aggressive to him, and has begun redirecting her aggression towards us and the kitten too. She never actually bites or scratches us, but warns us off with growling and will place her teeth on us and bat us, although never leaves any marks. She has also become more unpredictable with her behaviour in general to us, even when the other cat isn't in the house. For example, she will come lie on me purring and having a fuss, then suddenly will bite me (as above, no marks left) etc.

If anyone has any ideas to help her please let me know. The house is fairly big so they aren't on top of each other and they have two litter trays in different places (6 year old boy never uses litter tray, he goes outside). They all have own food bowls in different areas and there are four water bowls around the house. Lots of climbing places, toys, scratchers etc. When we first had her they were kept apart (she was on cage rest anyway) and we used Feliway Friends. Should we try Feliway again? Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

[booktigger]

You might find an improvement after she has been neutered

[Ruth B]

My first thought agrees with Booktigger, there is a good chance things will improve once they are all neutered.

A couple of other things though, I have no idea how quickly a cat can come into heat after the previous kittens have been weaned. Could it be that she is starting to, which could explain her change of behaviour. Unfortunately I have no experience of unneutered cats so this is just guess work.

Also when you get her spayed as the vet to check the back legs and make sure that the abnormal healing hasn't left a problem that might be giving her pain, if you haven't had this checked already.

It could just be that she has had a fraught few months, broken pelvis, cage rest, pregnancy and labour, then looking after a kitten, and she is now starting to feel better and is ready to establish her position in the household. As long as no one is actually getting hurt then I wouldn't be too worried and would hope it will soon settle down. If she does have a go at you then I would suggest just walking away and leaving her be. Some cats can be really fussy, but others very much only want attention on their terms, it could be she is one of those.

Welcome to the forum and don't worry about the long post, the more information the better, keep us updated as to how things work out.

[Lilith]

Hi there and welcome

Good on you for taking in this poor girl, and I can't improve on Booktigger's and Ruth's advice; I used to breed Siamese and unspayed girls can be right little madams. Added to being at the mercy of her hormones, this girl has had a tough time of it and probably still feels she's got to rule the roost.

About possible pregnancy - a girl can get pregnant even when feeding kittens, as a friend of a friend found out just this last winter. In this case the tom got into the house and had his wicked way, so vigilance is needed. They talk about rabbits breeding - cats come a close second lol! And there's no close season. Also by now your girl is likely to have had a good few 'calls' and some unmated girls get extremely bad-tempered and aggressive - and unpredictable. It's something you just don't realise about until you've known an unspayed girl - I know I never did. And some can be very sneaky about it and don't let on that they're looking for a husband.

I feel sure that spaying will make a big change in your girl's behaviour; please let us know how she goes on and all the very best to you and her

[muffin]

Thank you so much for your replies, we were hoping that the neutering would help, good to hear that you guys think this will be the case. They are both booked in at the vets on Thursday, so fingers crossed!
She has been having regular checkups with the vet, he feels that she has healed reasonably well considering, we are expecting issues with arthritis etc as she ages and she has medication for her joints already. We know from conversations with the vet that not having the surgery will mean that she will probably need to be put to sleep due to pain at some point, but we hope that we can give her a good few years of life that she wouldn't have had otherwise. The vet didn't expect the kitten to survive after all the trauma, yet he's a lovely healthy little lad, so there's always hope.

I'll let you know in a couple of weeks if there's an improvement.