Cats suddenly attacking each other! - Help!

[Solo2]

Our lovely, affectionate, half-brother cats have been with us for a year now and lived in harmony and peace. They're pedigree shorthairs, with the same father but different mothers. Like a complete idiot,(blush) I haven't managed to find time since we got them to get them neutered. They're currently house cats anyway and they've been absolutely no problem, fully litter trained and have a large house with plenty of rooms to roam around in.

They've never attacked each other before and as there has been no need to rush into neutering (and my DCs were afraid they'd 'die' under anaesthetic), I've delayed the trip to the vets.

Catastrophe has struck! One of them in the last 48 hrs has begun to snarl and spit at the other, who cowers in fear. The scared one has now poo-ed in a room where he's never done this before. To be honest, I also remember that one of them has recently sprayed/ wee-ed in one of DCs bedrooms, which is also a first.

Presumably, this is because they're now a year old, full of hormones and suddenly territorial? They sleep in the utility room at night and have been fine but tonight I'm concerned that one will attack the other. this is also where their litter tray is.

I don't know what to do tonight and the next few days, although I realise I need to book them into the vets for neutering asap. But in the meantime, what can I do to prevent one cat harming the other?

If I suddenly separate them and shut them in different parts of the house, with an extra litter tray, won't this confuse them and make them start to wee and poo all over the house?

Has anyone experienced this almost overnight behavioural change in cats before and is there anything else I can do over tonight and the next few days to help the situation? I've tried to set up different bed areas in the utility room and hope that the sacred one will feel safer inside a cosy 'den' but I can tell he's pretty traumatised.

DCs are in tears and I feel an idiot for not getting the cats neutered before now....

Also, will neutering solve the problem - or not?

Bumping my own thread

One of my mums cats started attacking the other one lately. the attacker is female and the mother of the victim (male). My Dad thinks this has started happening because the tom is going out looking for Queens and coming back smelling of strange cat. The vet seems to agree. The tom is now booked for neutering.

We were convinced he was gay after him having only ever brought home another Tom and never going out tomming, we now think he was just a very late developer.

In the meantime the victim cat of my mums is allowed upstairs to hide. The attacker is not and they are not locked in the same room on a night.

Could you get a crate/box for one of them to seperate them when you aren't there to supervise?

Neutering will help, but not as much (imo) as if they had been done at 6 months, and it will take a little while for them to settle down.

It might also help for them to start going out once they are neutered so that they can be territorial out in the wide world and run some energy off.

FWIW, our cats spat amongst themselves (1 boy, two girls, all neutered), and they sort it out eventually. Cat2 tends to milk it for all it's worth and pretend she is traumatised - then jumps on cat1, hissing

Thanks for these replies. I've now phoned the vets and have an appointment tonight and, all being well, will get them neutered tomorrow. I feel so stupid that I didn't get them done earlier and hope it's not now going to destroy their previously good relationship, as my DCs were distraught last night about their 'teddy bear' cats turning wild.

The smaller one is the aggressor but hasn't actually done any physical harm. However, the larger one poo-ed himself in fear, whilst cowering and I worry that this might now become habitual. This is so sudden a behavioural change too, as they've play-fought a bit in the past but with nothing like the real aggression and yowling and fear, in the last 48 hrs.

We will let them out, after recovery from neutering - but I'll have to manage the DCs worries and hope that both cats will be OK. There are a lot of local cats and two next door who do come around and glare through windows and freak out our cats and I think this may have exacerbated things with my own cats. They can probably smell the local cats through draughts/ slightly opened windows.

I'm slightly worried because these neighbours actually complained that our cats were coming through their cat flap and frightening their cats, the other week, when our cats never ever go out (so far) - so mistook some other local cat for ours!

If our cats DO then start going out and invade the neighbours (who are tricky at the best of times) - then this could lead to more difficulties....In fact, it's the neighbours' cats that stare through our windows and poo in our garden - not that I'd ever complain or worry about this natural behaviour to them!!

Meanwhile, is there really nothing more I can do with ou cats, given I'm neutering them so late? Has anyone had a late-neutered tom cat who settled down back into cuddly/ 'teddy bear' mode again?

My cat was neutered v late. He was approx 2 I think. He is very, very cuddly. And patient. I have never heard him growl or hiss once. He puts up with anything the dds do to him with out scratching or hissing. He is the best cat I have ever met.

Our cats do this from time to time.

They are siblings from the same little, we had they neutered as young as possible. When they were kittens they slept in a shoebox together and then all of a sudden they decided that they hated each other.

One would bully the other, chase it out of rooms etc.

It comes in phases though. At the moment, they are asleep on the bed together, next week they might be fighting again.

We went to the vets last night and got a plug in pheremone/ Mummy cat hormone thing to calm the cats down. Anyone else heard of this?

Been back to vets today and left our beautiful toms to be castrated...Hope they're OK.

After full recovery and another vaccination, we'll start to let them out gradually during the day and hope they don't get run over/ attacked/ lost.

Given their recent reaction to each other, I'm now wondering how they'll manage the introuduction of a puppy into our family, probably sometime next year? How do other people manage this and what should we be thinking about now, to plan ahead for this and ensure our cats are OK?