Urgent advice please. Female kitten growling at male kitten who was neutered today.

[EweHaveGoatToBeKiddin]

My normally quiet, cute, sweet-as-pie, affectionate female kitten has been really off with her brother since i brought him home from the vets earlier.

The nurse did warn me that my female might be a bit suspicious of him because he will smell like the other cats from the surgery today.

Her advice was to keep him in his pet carrier for five minutes, and allow the female kitten to come up and sniff him until she recognised him.

But the female just kept running away, and the poor male was crying to get out of his carrier. So i let him out after a few minutes.

Since then, the female has been keeping a distance from him. Just now in the bathroom, the male was sitting by the bathroom door and the female was by the sink, growling at her brother. I've never heard her make this sound before.

They normally follow each other around the house, lick each other, cuddle each other, play wrestle - but since the op, she's gone off him.

The vets are now closed so i thought I'd ask here for advice instead. Is this just a temp thing? Will everything be back to normal tomorrow?

I'm quite scared to go to bed tonight in case she ends up tearing him to pieces while I'm asleep. She's so tiny as well!

They're only 5 1/2 months.

dont worry its because he will smell of the vets and the anesthetic, by the time hes washedhimself a couple of times he will smell like himself again and should solve the problem, when i had my border collie and cairn terrorist every time i had the cairn clipped and shampooed the collie used to growl at him as he didnt smell right to her next day normal friends was resumed

Oh no.

My poor boy is trying to follow his sister, but she ends up just staring at him and growling.

They're now in the living room. Male is on the carpet looking up at his sis. Female is on the arm of the couch, giving him the death stare and growling.

Thanks, Issey. That's a relief. I just can't believe the noises my little female kitten is making. I've never heard her sound so evil! dd is terrified and wants to go to bed early to get away from her (so not all bad then). Oh dear, now she's hissing and lifting two claws... (the kitten - not dd).

i wouldnt worry too much my old ginger girl used to terrorise my jack russell he would walk along the wall to avoid walking past her things should be back to normal soon, i have just taken on two foster kits for a rescue and the boys have been fine but madam jo jo splatted one of them smack on top of his head, growled at him the first day, 4 days later she just ignores them and today he was sat right next to her as if hes always been there lol

I agree with Issey. When one of my Siamese cats came back from the vet her (usually devoted) sister hissed, spat and fluffed up her tail at her, growled etc. It was quite dramatic, and lasted longer than I thought it would, but then they were best of friends again. No actual physical contact, but close! Give it some time and they'll be fine.

The sweet little cat curled up next to me spent three days growling and hissing at his brother because his brother had the temerity to be wearing a bandage on one leg. Bandage came off, all was well again!

They also had a falling out when they were eight months old and just started going out - that lasted a week and was both of them. They were horrid, I have a photo of sweet boy looking like a wild animal snarling at his brother, awful while it lasted, so I do sympathise. We never figured out what it was all about either!

Thanks for the replies. Good to know it's common and shouldn't last too long.

Poor little boy is just looking clueless. He's chasing a ball right now, and his sister is watching him intently, growling and hissing.

I never thought she was capable of such noises! She's so tiny and innocent-looking.

I dread to see how he reacts in a few months' time when it's his sister's turn to get neutered/dressed...

Have you got any cat treats around? They can sometimes ease a situation.

No

I feel rotten as i had planned to buy some yesterday as a treat for after the operation. Just boring normal cat food right now.

They're now chasing each other around the house, playfully. Although the girl will still hiss every now and then. I think maybe she's just in a bad mood. For the past 30 mins she's been making an occasional choking/hacking sound. She's breathing and drinking and running okay though, so I think it might be her first ever hairball on its way up.

I don't think I'll be getting to sleep tonight for worrying about these two!

Sounds like progress - maybe things will be fine when they wake up and are back to normal. Remember that although he looks quite OK, he's had a GA - and his behaviour (as well as his smell) might be just off enough for another cat to notice. A night's sleep should sort that out.

Sounds like things are calming down but in future you could rub a towel or cloth all over the girl kitten and then rub it over him or use your pillow case/something that smells strongly of you/your home to rub him to help speed up the process.

Oh - and any time now, he should just conk out and go to sleep for the rest of the night. That will remove him as a source of annoyance to her and you can give her some extra love all on her own.

How are they this morning?

Hmmm, I'm not sure to be honest.

They're still not 'normal' with each other.

I woke up to find them licking each other this morning on my bedroom rug and i thought, "Yey! Best friends again."

But an hour or so later, the girl started hissing and growling at him again.

He looks so sad. He tried to go up to her 30 minutes ago and she battered him across the head and hissed.

I found that both times mine fell out (the inexplicable time and the bandage time) it took a fair while for them to be friendly again (though tbh they're not THAT friendly anyway - I have an only child but get my 'kids beating each other up' experience via the cats). Each time they'd start to tolerate each other, then one (the same one, the one who was pissed off with the bandage) you could practically see him thinking "Oh! Hang on, we're fighting!" and start hissing. Eventually he completely forgot to do it, and they were back to normal (such as 'normal' is for cats).

If it happens again I'm doing the blueemerald thing with a towel or a cloth - even if it doesn't work it should be HILARIOUS.