Why are my cats fighting? Part 3: Finding solutions - the 5 "R"s

If you have read part 1 and part 2 of this series, you now may have a good idea what reasons may be behind your cat's aggression and you have a list of behaviors and locations that clarify the aggression. However, what you really want is a solution, right?

Some forms of mild territorial aggression, such as conflict that occurs after the introduction of a new cat to the household, will resolve themselves over a period of 4 months. Temporary aggression issues, such as conflict after a veterinary visit or other traumatic event, may resolve in 24-48 hours.

Rub cats around the cheeks and face to transfer scents

Re-Scent: If your cats only have problems after one of them visits the veterinarian (non-recognition aggression), try to schedule vet visits at the same time, or segregate the cat that went to the vet in one room with food, water and litter, to let him regain the familiar smell of the household and de-stress before re-introducing him to your other cats. You could speed the process by rubbing the cats with the same towel around their ears and cheeks - the areas that cats use to mark their territory and rub other cats - and then across their bodies.

Re-Introduce: For troubles with a new cat in the house, or long-standing territorial issues, try re-introduction of the cats. Generally, the aggressor cat is the one that should be treated as the "new" cat and the victim should be treated as the "existing" cat. Use rewards to reinforce desired behaviors, but do not physically punish fighting. It will NEVER help the situation, and may make the situation worse. Patience is a big key to working with remodeling your cat's relationships - your goal in cases of aggression is not to make your cats into best buddies, but to give them the ability to tolerate each others' presence without fighting.

Method of exercising cats by mckibillo on Poolga

Redirect: Don't punish aggressive behavior, because that will cause stress, which may increase aggression. Don't reward aggressive behavior by trying to distract the aggressor with treats or attention, either. Instead, try to distract the aggressor before a fight occurs by redirecting his attention with an interactive wand toy, a game of fetch, or a laser pointer or flashlight and try to lure him away from the impending fight. Reward the cat when you catch him acting neutrally towards the victim.

Resource management: Increase the desirable space in your house by adding vertical territory, such as cat trees, perching shelves, or giving cats access to upper levels of existing shelving with ramps and stairs. Make sure that there are plenty of feeding and watering stations, so that essential resources can't be completely blocked, and make sure that you have at least one more litter box than the number of cats in your home, preferably at least one box on each level of your house, as well. This will help prevent inappropriate elimination related to resource blocking or stress.

Remedies:
Medications: If aggression issues are significant, your veterinarian may recommend the introduction of calming medications or anti-anxiety drugs to aid your efforts to train your cats to tolerate each other. These medications will help take the edge off the bully's attacks, or decrease the victim's reaction to aggressive posturing from the aggressor cat. Drugs are generally not the cure for the problem, but can be a useful tool to aid in implementing behavioral conditioning. Sometimes only one cat needs to be medicated, but sometimes the problem is significant enough that both cats need to receive drug therapy in addition to behavioral therapy. Medications such as fluoxetine, buspirone, alprazolam, clomipramine and elavil are prescribed based on the information that a cat owner provides about the types of aggressive incidents that occur. Because the dosages are different for humans and cats, and because the recommendation for medication is based on the behavior of the cat, it is only recommended to start behavioral drug therapy with the guidance of a veterinarian.

In addition to prescription medications, some of the other products that we often incorporate into behavioral solutions are pheromone products, wraps and treats.

Feliway

Pheromone products: Calming pheromones help decrease the stress levels in the household and lower the intensity levels of the aggressive encounters. Products such as Feliway and NurtureCalm contain pheromones associated with marking "happy places" and the chemical a mother cat produces to calm and reassure her kittens.

Wraps: The Thundershirt is a product based on information from studies of autistic children and adults indicating that pressure therapy, massage, and the use of a hugging machine can relieve anxiety. In addition, swaddling of infants has been shown to calm them. While research and controlledstudies are still in the works for this therapy, it is not harmful to employ them in an effort to calm hyper-anxious pets as a part of a behavioral plan.

Mr. B wears a Thundershirt to help him deal with all the cats in the hospital

 
Treats and Supplements: The pill Anxitane and Composure treats contain L-Theanine, (Gamma-ethylamino-L-glutamic acid) which is derived from the mushroom Boletus badius and Camellia sinensis tea leaves. L-Theanine causes a calming effect without drowsiness.

You will probably need to resign yourself to the fact that your cats will never be best friends. If aggression is a significant issue between your cats, the best you may be able to hope for is tolerance of the other cat's presence, and that can take months of baby steps forward (and a few steps back) to accomplish. However, if you are patient, and if you let the cats tell you when you can move forward, you will hopefully eventually be rewarded with a peaceful (if not amicable) household.

Why are my cats fighting? Part 1: Three reasons your cats might not get along

Why are my cats fighting? Part 2: Fighting Styles

Why are my cats fighting? Part 2: Fighting Styles

If you read last week's blog post, you know about some of the common types of aggression that you may see between cats. This week, we will discuss how to recognize aggression and conflict between cats.

There are two main styles of aggression displayed by cats:

1) Overt - This is behavior that is obviously hostile, such as hissing, growling, spitting, biting, piloerection (fluffed up fur), lashing the tail, staring at the other cat, standing over the submissive cat, flattening the ears, dilating of the pupils, and swatting. The following images can be helpful in reading the level of your cat's aggression. In general, the more aggressive cat tries to make himself larger and more intimidating, and the more submissive cat tries to make himself smaller and less threatening.

Cat facial expressions

Cat tail communication

Body postures of the cat, increasing in aggression towards the right and increasing in submission/fear towards the bottom

2) Covert - Physically blocking another cat from resources like food, water, sleeping areas and litter, either through actual contact, chasing, or by sitting in a position of power over the resources. Excessive marking of territory (either with facial pheromones or with urine and/or feces) may also occur. In addition, human contact and attention may be deprived from the victim by physical blocking or threats. The victim may end up urinating or defecating in other places than the litterbox if the aggressor is successful in completely preventing access to the box.

We had one client who had introduced a new, shy cat to her house, and her older, existing cat started urinating inappropriately. She was sure that it was because he was marking territory in the house because of the new cat. However, after consulting with one of our staff members and having a thorough physical exam and urinalysis to determine that there was no medical cause for the inappropriate urination, the owner went home and watched her two cats and discovered that when her existing cat got up and walked towards the litterbox, the new cat would run to the box, get there first, use the box, and then sit next to it and stare at the older cat. He would then turn away and go urinate by the door. There was no fighting or overt physical aggression between the two cats; in fact, they mostly ignored each other. However, the new cat was being covertly aggressive towards the existing cat by blocking his access to important resources. 

Even though these cats aren't fighting, one is acting aggressively towards the other

Determining the best way to find a solution for inter-cat aggression issues can be a complex process, but being able to identify all the ways in which your cat displays aggression can help give a lot of insight to your veterinarian. If you have a problem with aggression between cats in your home, you can provide some helpful information by doing the following:

1) Identify problem areas of the home - areas where most of the conflict takes place. You may even want to draw a map of your home, identifying areas of conflict and prime resource locations (food, water, litter, sleeping spots, favored perches, etc.). 

2) Document the aggressive interactions that you witness - who is involved? How did they behave? How did the conflict resolve?

3) What are the relationships between the humans in the house and the cats in the house? Who spends peaceful time together and when?

4) Describe your cats' personalities in detail. How does each cat feel about visitors, food, affection, and things that happen outside? Do your cats have any health issues?

If you can provide this information to your veterinarian, you will be helping him or her help you and your cat.

Why are my cats fighting? Part 1: Three reasons your cats might not get along

Why are my cats fighting? Part 3: Finding solutions - the 5 "R"s