My cat is a thug

[HiddenGemmas]

I have a cat and a dog who get on great. We moved house about 6 months ago and ever since my cat has been coming home with injuries from fighting. It’s costing so much in long acting antibiotics and I hate to see him get hurt. He is neutered so the vet said there is not much we can do, so I’ve tried keeping him in at night, that didn’t solve anything. Neither does keeping him in during the day. Then recently I’ve tried keeping him inside all the time, but he is miserable and the dog constantly tries to eat the cat litter. Does anyone have any ideas of things we could try?

Cats are territorial and of other cats have seen there is a new kitty on the block they will go for him.
Ours used to pick fights and not finish them so he would end up worse off.

Poor lad. Are the fights and bites getting more infrequent? I used to have one that was a fighter and we moved twice. He'd spend a short while asserting his authority half murdering the other local DCats if they fairer to stand up to him and then the fights would stop.

That was 20 years ago and vet bills were relatively so much cheaper. I dread to think what kind of bills he would have racked up now

Poor boy, he sounds really bad at being a thug too if he keeps losing!

We got my boys at 1.5 years (thug) and 2.5 years (softie) together. Thugcat had many fights in the first 6-9 months and often came home limping, bedraggled and then lying upstairs distraught for 24 hours after losing a battle. I don’t know if he has won the war or given it up but he definitely is not fighting anywhere near like he used to, rarely over summer and that was premium fight club time for him last year. He now spends his time murdering winged or long tailed small animals but that’s another story 🙄

I don’t think it’s hard to guess from the photo which is the thug and which is the softie.

Can you cat proof your garden so he has outdoor access but he can't leave and can't get beaten up?