Cat aggressive with new kitten.

Dr. Marie replied:

You sure have a houseful of cats! Almost any time we have a large number of cats in a house there will be some kind of intercat aggression. However, there are some things that you can do to help.

First of all, if any of the cats who are older than 6 months are not spayed or neutered, then it is important to get this done. Hormones can cause cats to do awful things!

You may want to look into a product called feliway. It is available at most pet stores. It is a little pricey but often works well. Your best bet is to get the kind that is available as a wall plug-in. It diffuses a substance that is similar to a feline pheromone and has been proven to help with intercat aggression and other feline behavioural problems.

Next, you could consider asking your vet for medication for the aggressor cats. I will sometimes prescribe amitriptylline or prozac for the aggressive cats. It would be a short term fix and you could probably wean them off of the medicine after a few months.

Another thing you can try is putting a bell on the aggressive cats. Sometimes this helps. Also, you should keep the cats separated as much as possible and do supervised visits when you can. Keep a big blanket handy and it looks like the older cats are going to pounce the throw the blanket on them.

Until the cats are doing better we need to offer the kitten a safe place with her own litter box.

And finally, you may want to consider talking to your vet about a consult with a veterinary behavioural specialist. These vets are amazing at advising in cases like this. They will tell you whether medication may help and give you many ideas on what you can do.

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