Agressive Cat Advice

Dear Friends:
I am very stuck!! I have a 2 year old cat that I have had since she
was a kitten. I found her behind an automotive garage when she was
three weeks. I took her to a vet and he allowed me to bottle feed her
for 4 weeks. She is healthy and has all of her vaccinations. She is
spayed and de-clawed. I work an 8-3 job and I am home on the weekends.
It is just the two of us in a 6 room apartment. She has had love and
affection since the moment she stepped into my home. I have consulted
three vets and have even put her on the "kitty antidepressants" several
times.
However, she is extremely aggressive. She bites constantly and draws
blood on almost anyone she comes in contact with. She has been doing
this since she was a kitten and the vet told me she would grow out of
it. The vet told me my only option would probably be to out her to
sleep because know one will adopt her. Do you have any ideas of what I
can do? Who I can contact for help? I don't want to put her to sleep.

You declawed the cat and now you are paying the price. Declawed cats do
bite - it's their only defense. Accept it.


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44° 15' N - Elevation 1580')

Please do not put her to sleep. I had an agressive cat, that bite me,
spent a week in hospital, he was my boy. I had him put down 18 Nov. 2005
& grieve every day for him. I know I will never get over him. His name
was Yes.

Michael Lane

" Say what you want and be who you are,
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind. "
Dr. Seuss

wrote:
Dear Friends:
I am very stuck!! I have a 2 year old cat that I have had since she
was a kitten. I found her behind an automotive garage when she was
three weeks. I took her to a vet and he allowed me to bottle feed her
for 4 weeks. She is healthy and has all of her vaccinations. She is
spayed and de-clawed. I work an 8-3 job and I am home on the weekends.
It is just the two of us in a 6 room apartment. She has had love and
affection since the moment she stepped into my home. I have consulted
three vets and have even put her on the "kitty antidepressants" several
times.
However, she is extremely aggressive. She bites constantly and draws
blood on almost anyone she comes in contact with. She has been doing
this since she was a kitten and the vet told me she would grow out of
it. The vet told me my only option would probably be to out her to
sleep because know one will adopt her. Do you have any ideas of what I
can do? Who I can contact for help? I don't want to put her to sleep.


It would have been easier to stop when she was a kitten if it had been
reinforced that this behavior was not acceptable.

It is still possible to make her come around, but it will take longer
and more patience on your part now.

When she does bit, yell loudly "ouch!" then turn and look at her and say
"NO!". You might also want to carry around a water mist bottle and give
her a spray each time she does this. Eventually, the message will get
through that this is no longer acceptable behavior. Make sure to provide
her an outlet for chewing, such as straws and other acceptable items. Do
not use your hands or fingers as play things with her, only other objects.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Dear Friends:
I am very stuck!! I have a 2 year old cat that I have had since she
was a kitten. I found her behind an automotive garage when she was
three weeks. I took her to a vet and he allowed me to bottle feed her
for 4 weeks. She is healthy and has all of her vaccinations. She is
spayed and de-clawed. I work an 8-3 job and I am home on the weekends.
It is just the two of us in a 6 room apartment. She has had love and
affection since the moment she stepped into my home. I have consulted
three vets and have even put her on the "kitty antidepressants" several
times.
However, she is extremely aggressive. She bites constantly and draws
blood on almost anyone she comes in contact with.

Can you give an example of a situation when this behavior has occured? Paint
me a picture and I might have some ideas. :c)

She has been doing
this since she was a kitten and the vet told me she would grow out of
it. The vet told me my only option would probably be to out her to
sleep because know one will adopt her. Do you have any ideas of what I
can do? Who I can contact for help? I don't want to put her to sleep.

What, if any attempts have you made to deter her from this behavior? After
she has bitten you or someone else, what is your reaction? What do you do?

Judy

wrote in message
oups.com...
Dear Friends:
I am very stuck!! I have a 2 year old cat that I have had since she
was a kitten. I found her behind an automotive garage when she was
three weeks. I took her to a vet and he allowed me to bottle feed her
for 4 weeks. She is healthy and has all of her vaccinations. She is
spayed and de-clawed. I work an 8-3 job and I am home on the weekends.
It is just the two of us in a 6 room apartment. She has had love and
affection since the moment she stepped into my home. I have consulted
three vets and have even put her on the "kitty antidepressants" several
times.
However, she is extremely aggressive. She bites constantly and draws
blood on almost anyone she comes in contact with. She has been doing
this since she was a kitten and the vet told me she would grow out of
it. The vet told me my only option would probably be to out her to
sleep because know one will adopt her. Do you have any ideas of what I
can do? Who I can contact for help? I don't want to put her to sleep.

Unfortunately, you had your cat declawed. Biting, aggression, and
inappropriate urination are all very common in declawed cats. My guess is
that your vet never bothered to educate you on what this procedure involves
(that is, pain and amputation), and that is tragic. Please take the time to
read this web site to see what declawing involves (and make the decision
*never* to put another cat through this procedure): www.stopdeclaw.com.
Since there is no way to undo what has already been done, now you need to
take action to try to help the situation (and I would change vets and never
go back to any vet who would suggest "putting a cat down" under these
circumstances).

First, get your cat to another vet and have her paws X-Rayed to make sure
there are no bone chips, regrowth, etc. It could be that the declaw has left
her with chronic pain (which is not uncommon). I have a friend who has a cat
that suffers with chronic pain, and she has been on a low dose of Medicam,
administered every other day. This has been remarkably successful - he is
like another cat. It is a well known fact that many amputees feel phantom
pain where they suffer excruciating pain even though the limb is gone.
Something similar could be occurring here.

Next, please let us know what "kitty antidepressants" you have used (and
please include a complete list of everything you have tried). Not all of
them work equally well. Some are very effective when combined with pain
medications, but there is considerable variation among the available meds.
What works for one cat may not work for another, so you may have to try
different options.

Get several Feliway plug-in diffusers. Feliway is used for behavior
modification and can be very useful in reducing stress. It is available in
plug-in diffusers (with refills available) and as a spray. I suggest using
the plug-ins so it can be working all the time. The spray version is
excellent for an occasional use, such as spraying the carrier about 20
minutes before you take your cat to the vet, but the plug-in diffuser is
better for long-term use because it releases premeasured doses. Refills can
be purchased for the dispenser. One bottle lasts a little more than a month.
Here is a link to a study by Ohio State University:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1129074611.htm

If these steps do not help, you may want to look into the Tufts University
Petfax Program (through their School of Veterinary Medicine). This is a
consulting service for pet behavioral problems. My sister used the service
at one time and had excellent results. I think the original consultation
fee is $206.00, but it includes 3 follow-ups. There is a report to fill out
first, and it is very important to include *all details*. Here are two
links -- Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine Petfax Program:
http://www.tufts.edu/vet/petfax/ About the Petfax Program:
http://www.tufts.edu/vet/petfax/about.html

I hope this helps. Please keep us updated.

MaryL

wrote:
Dear Friends:
I am very stuck!! I have a 2 year old cat that I have had since she
was a kitten. I found her behind an automotive garage when she was
three weeks. I took her to a vet and he allowed me to bottle feed her
for 4 weeks. She is healthy and has all of her vaccinations. She is
spayed and de-clawed. I work an 8-3 job and I am home on the weekends.
It is just the two of us in a 6 room apartment. She has had love and
affection since the moment she stepped into my home. I have consulted
three vets and have even put her on the "kitty antidepressants" several
times.
However, she is extremely aggressive. She bites constantly and draws
blood on almost anyone she comes in contact with.

That's because you declawed her.

She has been doing
this since she was a kitten and the vet told me she would grow out of
it. The vet told me my only option would probably be to out her to
sleep because know one will adopt her. Do you have any ideas of what I
can do? Who I can contact for help? I don't want to put her to sleep.

Give the cat to someone who understands cat behavior. And don't ever
declaw another cat again.

-L.

Keywords: declaw declawing biting behavior agression aggressiveness

Jenn,

I think you have been given some very good advice by other people here,
though I do not join with the few who say the problem is entirely due to
the declawing - although, like them, I too believe that declawing is
very wrong.

Firstly, to get the declawing issue out of the way, if you trim a cat's
nails every 9 days or so, it will not be able to tear or damage
furnishings or flesh or be able to prey so easily on bird's nests in
trees, etc. Trim a cat's nails from kittenhood and they will sit
placidly while you do it, just as they will sit placidly while you clean
their teeth. Remember this for any future cat that comes into your
care.

However, the declawing issue could be pertinent to your cat's aggression
because, as someone has suggested, it is possible that your cat may feel
pain in its paws. So get them checked out by a GOOD vet quickly. I
suggest you go to a vet who KNOWS that declawing is wrong. That vet
will take care to really see if there is anything wrong in the paws.

Even if the paws turn out to be medically sound, your cat still has the
instinctual impulse to pull on its (non-existent) claws . . . and
because there aren't any there, this may cause it frustration . . . and,
hence, aggression. Somehow you need to take responsibility to REPLACE
the cat's pleasure in flexing it's claws with some other delight. You
have a lot of reparatory work to do, Jenn! You do owe your cat a lot
for what you have done to its claws.

Secondly, your cat is alone in an apartment for seven hours - and in
daylight when a cat is alive to stimulation. Your cat however is
getting little, if any stimulation. Since you have six rooms, I think
you owe it to your cat to find it a playmate, a source of interest.
However, introducing the two of them WILL be tricky since your cat has
become so aggressive. You clearly need to select a newcomer which will
be able to stand its own ground. However, once they have had their
dramas and got used to each other and begin tearing around the apartment
in chase and games, you should find that a lot of your cat's very
natural aggression is channelled. REMEMBER, a healthy cat IS an
aggressive cat at certain times each and every day. A cat is a
predator, a hunter: it HAS to be aggressive to hunt successfully. If
you disallow a cat a wild natural garden environment and cage it in an
interior, then you have a responsibility to go to considerable lengths
to ensure that the cat's natural aggression is exercised and channelled.
YOU have to play with it a great deal, make all sorts of toys and
climbing trees etc (bright feather-ball attached to a long rod by means
of elastic string will provide much "hunting/catching" exercise, as will
chasing a torch-beam in dark conditions, and so on). But, in addition,
to such measures, a second cat, I would say, is VITAL in your
circumstances.

Thirdly, as others have suggested, you are going to have to become
something of a specialist in negative and positive affirmation, chiefly
by reinforcing good behaviour whenever it occurs, so that the bad
behaviour naturally diminishes. I would not alienate your cat or waste
your energy on punishing your cat or shouting "No!" etc, but rather,
carry biscuits in your pocket at all times, and give these with
affection WITHOUT FAIL each and every time you CATCH YOUR CAT DOING
SOMETHING GOOD or just BEING GOOD.

Finally, if you can't do any of the above or if you fail in doing them,
then get in touch with a cat charity or a cat shelter, be honest with
them, tell them the whole story, give them the true history, and ask
them to find your cat a better environment in which to live.

Even the most difficult cat CAN be turned around. It just takes will,
patience, effort, and, most of all, love and devotion. Do this and
your cat will reward you greatly.

Good luck.

Ellie.

Do you have any toys that you can play with her with. Stuff like a feather
on the end of a string you, can find all kinds of stuff at the pet store. I
would start by trying to get rid of some of that energy and play with her.
One of my cats favorite toys is a laser pointer. My calico will chase it
around till she'd drop from exhaustion if I left her.

Are you sure some of this aggression isn't part play to her. Alot of
kittens bite and scratch when they play and even though she's older it
sounds like she hasn't learned when to stop.

Joe gives you good advide also a water bottle is a must.

As for the declawing & biting, I'm probably going to get hell here but not
all cats that are declawed become biters and not all of them have urination
problems. While I prefer to never declaw a cat I have had to do so because
some cats no matter what you provide for scratching will destroy your
furniture. Growing up we had cats and none of them were ever declawed and
furniture destruction was never an issue but with my current three it's a
big issue. I would have absolutely no furniture left if I hadn't had it
done. Not one of my cats bite, none of them are aggressive and I have never
had any issues with anyone going outside the litter box.

Celeste





wrote in message
oups.com...
Dear Friends:
I am very stuck!! I have a 2 year old cat that I have had since she
was a kitten. I found her behind an automotive garage when she was
three weeks. I took her to a vet and he allowed me to bottle feed her
for 4 weeks. She is healthy and has all of her vaccinations. She is
spayed and de-clawed. I work an 8-3 job and I am home on the weekends.
It is just the two of us in a 6 room apartment. She has had love and
affection since the moment she stepped into my home. I have consulted
three vets and have even put her on the "kitty antidepressants" several
times.
However, she is extremely aggressive. She bites constantly and draws
blood on almost anyone she comes in contact with. She has been doing
this since she was a kitten and the vet told me she would grow out of
it. The vet told me my only option would probably be to out her to
sleep because know one will adopt her. Do you have any ideas of what I
can do? Who I can contact for help? I don't want to put her to sleep.

"Spot" wrote in message
news:To37g.92$U25.13@trndny09...

snip
As for the declawing & biting, I'm probably going to get hell here but
not all cats that are declawed become biters and not all of them have
urination problems.
Celeste

That is quite correct. However, there is a *significantly higher* incidence
of biting, inappropriate urination, aggression, and health problems such as
early-onset arthritis in cats that have been declawed (about 1/3 of declawed
cats exhibit inappropriate urination, for example). This procedure is
amputation, and it is unnecessary cruelty. I *do* realize that many people
have had the procedure performed before they knew what it entails. My big
complaint is with those people who go ahead with it even *after* they have
learned about the actual process.

I have never had a cat that I could not train to use a scratching post. If
that is a problem, though, then you should look into a product called "soft
claws." There are a number of people on this newsgroup who have had success
with that product.

MaryL

Photos of Duffy and Holly: 'o'
Duffy: http://tinyurl.com/cslwf
Holly: http://tinyurl.com/9t68o
Duffy and Holly together: http://tinyurl.com/8b47e
Recent pics: http://tinyurl.com/clal7