advice please

so i have had cats all of my life. i currently have three, all rescued as kittens, all around 4 years old (note related), all spayed/nuetered. we have had them since they were 3 months old- no problems.

out of nowhere, the youngest (female) attacked the oldest (female). our middle "child" (male) was not involved. i mean ATTACKEd. to the point we had to take her to the emergency vet, she needed stitches, sutures, a drain, a cone, antibiotics, pain killers, and an overnight vet stay.

what do i do? im torn between trying to rehome her and taking my chances. she really is the sweetest, i have no idea what provoked her, but she was definitely out to hurt the other one :(

Re: advice please

Honestly I have had cats my whole life growing up. I dont have cats now, only dogs (DH is allergic to cats).

I hate to say this but sometimes this happens. Right now, my female dog occasionally will really go ballistic on my male if he tries to take her food, bed, etc. It just depends on her mood. When she was reallly stressed out, when I was in the hospital having DD, when I came home she attacked my male for stealing her scrambled eggs (and she had NEVER done anything like that before, is NOT food possessive, etc). She also bit me when I brushed her face, which she had NEVER done. I hurt her and she bit me. I realized this was not like her and that she was clearly stressed out about something. My cats growing up were the same way, although I have to be honest, there was never a fight as viscious as what you describe.

I feel terrible for your older cat to have to have gone through that. Have they always gotten along, been indifferent, and do all of your cats have claws? Did the older one try to defend himself/herself?

If this is an isolated incident, I would try to figure out what triggered it (stress in the house, one animal sick and in pain, etc) and def not rehome at this point. However, I have heard, not sure if its true, that sometimes animals like to pick on the weaker ones in the bunch. Not sure if this is true, but it comes to mind in this case if there are NO other factors here that may have provoked this or brought this on (again, stress, change, illness, pain, etc).

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What did your vet say? This is so sad.. I have no advice .. I have only had 1 outdoor cat who lives alone in my yard. I am thinking if cats are like dogs in this case ? Like a pack leader thing? were you in the house when this happened? I am so sorry

Re: advice please

we just rescued a second kitty and researched whether to get a boy or girl before getting her, and i found some articles that said that it's better to have boy/girl or boy/boy "siblings" because two girls occassionally get into "cat fights," much like human sisters. i would take the youngest to the vet and explain what happened and have them check her out and see if they find any signs of stress or sickness, because those things can set them off for no reason (other than not feeling great). you can also get one of those plug in things that keep cats calm and see if that helps. since it's only one incident over the course of 4 years, i don't think you need to think about rehoming. it's more likely that something just set her off rather than an issue with her never getting along with the oldest girl again. good luck!!

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thanks all.

we werent able to take ella to our vet because her office was closed so we took her to another office that ours recommended, but i did speak to our vet.

they both pretty much said that same thing- stress related aggression, and that its probably like a one time thing considering it hasnt happened in the last three years. they usually ignore each other except at meals when they typically share bowls.

we will be taking both girls in for full blood work ups/physicals in two weeks when ella gets her stitches out to see if either/both or sick.

eta: they all have their claws. ella didnt even have a chance to defend herself, and it isnt in her nature anyway. she was desperately trying to get away when we caught them. this is how we woke up sunday morning- screaming cats :(

Message edited 10/5/2011 6:38:53 PM.

Re: advice please