# Cats suddenly lashing out, HELP!!



## Solja (Nov 18, 2011)

Hi

First off let me tell this situation from start to end cause not only did it just happen over night, there are possible reasons as to why it's suddnely happening now.

6wks ago i had 3 cats, Suschi, Shelly and Heidi. Suschi was the oldest and soft as muck and sooooo docile but she was queen. One night she went out and we didn't find her til a day and half later. For her to suddenly dissapear was weird and not right...sure enough something happened. Wherever it was a car or a person i'll never know but her insides was a complete mess, i don't wanne go into details cause it pains me to say all these awful injuries she suffered. We took her vets and a day later were told they couldn't do anything and the best thing for her now was to put her to rest and so we did. Worse day of my life. About 4wks later me and my family adopted a new cat called Evie...yes i know i rushed into it and part of me wishes i hadn't done it yet, but the other is glad i did cause we have adopted a lovely affectionate cat. So now i have Shelly, Heidi and Evie. Shelly is about 8yrs old, Heidi is about 5 and Evie is 2. All females, all been neutered. Though Evie has recently been done cause she still has that shaved patch. 

Now before Suschi and Shelly were best of friends...always close by to one another. Heidi was her own cat who wanted to do her own things....alone. None of the cats were agressive although Heidi can have the odd tortie mood swing lol. Otherwise all got on great, but Shelly and Suschi adored eachother and Heidi wasn't one to go face to face to them. So after Suschi was put to rest...in came Evie. Very playful girl. Now Shelly is a cat that has shown no signs of agression, nor has she hissed or growled for the last 5yrs or so. She has mellowed and is so soft. Introducing the cats wasn't a problem..yes there were growls and hisses in the first 3 days or so...but all coming from Evie. It slowly wore off till there was nothing of the sort. Shelly and Evie seemed cool with each other..but Heidi was well...being Heidi she ignored Evie, didn't seem bothered she was there but she did do a few growling moves. Otherwise all went perfect and the 3 seem ok. Now.....if it starts off this way...then it's clear that in the future the cats will be perfecty cool with eachother...and it's meant to get better...not worse. Suddenly things went downhill Wednesday. Before that..on Tuesday Shelly was sleeping on top of the radiator when somehonw she got her claw stuck and she was really fighting to get it unattached..whilst i tried to help she began to really grown and howl in pain...i finally got her claw off and she seemed ok shortly afterwards. It was like she turned wild, reason im saying this is im not sure if this has something to do with what happened the next day. 

Come Wednesday Shelly and Evie were hooked into a staring match, when Evie slowly began to creep around her...suddenly she swipes and Shelly returns the favour. This has happened several times with the two actually coming to a boxing match. It hasn't got really bad where we've had to seperate them..but they simply have had a few spats with like one paw. Evie seems to follow Shelly everywhere and when Shelly catches on she watches Evie and begins to hiss and growl and Evie is creeping extremely slowly around Shelly...and i mean slow...like it was all happening slow-motion. This goes on for about 5mins before they go seperate ways but then they meet again and it all starts again. I've NEVER seen Shelly growl or hiss like that in ages. She would fight off intruders in her younger years but it's like she doesn't wanna fight anymore and will just be calm...now she is hissing at Evie and growling which ends up in the two having a spat.

I got no idea why suddenly now these two are fighting...there were no signs before and Shelly was the first to approach her when we brought Evie home. she would smell her bum and go nose to nose with her. So why now the fight begins??? Before when it was just Suschi and Shelly...we brought Heidi home..Shelly was cool with it...she excepted the new cat fine and it seems she was doing so with Evie, but Wednesday it all changed. 

Nothing has changed in the household and im struggling to find out why after these two getting on well, getting better everyday to suddenly fight, growl and hiss. Do you think it's to do with Suschi or Shelly getting caught in the radiator???? Also Evie is soooo playful and was trying to play with Shelly in the early days but Shelly wasn't interested, has that anything to do with it??

I can't imagine whats happened for these two to suddenly not see eye to eye. Any help or advice....


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## broccoli (Jul 1, 2011)

2 weeks is still early in introducing cats - have you tried feliway? its a pheromone diffuser that reduces stress.

and so sorry for your loss.


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## Solja (Nov 18, 2011)

Thanks. Suschi was my little girl.

I suggested Feliway to my mum, and i looked it up. But apparently it takes 2weeks for it to really sink into the house and work. By that time they may have sorted it themselves...?? Where can you buy this Feliway?


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## spid (Nov 4, 2008)

and they might not - for some cats it can take months - the Feliway starts to work within a couple of days even though the full effects aren't until 2 weeks - definitely worth. Have a look on line for it or [email protected] sell it.

It sounds like Shelley might be in pain - she may have boken her toe when her claw was caught - and cats in pain do lash out. I think a vets visit is in order.


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## Solja (Nov 18, 2011)

Yeh, ive heard that when cats are in pain they do tend to outta the blue, begin to lash out at other cats in the household. When she was stuck...it wasn't her toe or leg...it was simply her nail kinda clawed around the small bars at top of our radiator. Shelly does have a 'lame' leg, when i say lame i don't mean that she can't use it. It's her right back leg and she walks a tad wonky, it doesn't affect her running and jumping cause she still does that it's just that she doesn't do it as much as she did. And when she's been sleeping and wakes up..it's like that leg has gone to sleep and takes about 15secs to fully wake up again. Vets can't do much about this and she's not in pain what so ever. I checked her the leg that got stuck and it was the right one that is 'lame' and there's nothing there to suggest injury cause i touched it, prodded it and she didn't do a thing...no meow or howling in pain. If she recieves a knock or that leg gets stuck then of course since it's the lame leg it's gonna hurt for a few days. She's got stuck several times in the radiator cause she's so relaxed that her and doesn't noticed that her claw has gotten stuck. 

Having said all of that, today i went vets and she is perfectly fine, no broken toe/paw. What i ahev noticed with Evie and Shelly is that the agression only happens in the morning or early afternoon, there after nothing, mainly cause by this time they dissapear to there spots and today Shelly allowed Evie to walk right up to her so they are nose to nose and nothing....Shelly didn't do a thing. There have been a few growls and hisses but i ain't seen a paw fight in the last 24hrs. What i think is happening is cause Evie is still a young adult she wants to play and Shelly just doesn't want to and it's started to annoy Shelly.


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