Post vet aggression

[CatastrophicMess]

I’m really hoping for some reassurance/advice/positivity!

I have four cats but it’s never been particularly smooth sailing. One of the boys (Comet) started spraying after a neighbour cat started harassing mine through the catio, this has been happening for over a year now and we have tried absolutely everything (including a behaviourist, anti depressants and even moving house) and it hasn’t stopped him. That’s a bit of background/context.

My other male cat (Zephyr) and Comet have always been best buds. Zeph had to go to the emergency vet on late Tuesday evening and since then Comet is hissing at him when he gets near. I’m finding it really hard to cope, they have had a solid bond for over two years and it’s making me incredibly anxious to see this happening and worrying that it will not resolve itself. To top this off, Zephyr has now started spraying. Comet had a clear urine sample in the last month (nothing has ever been clinically wrong with him) and Zephyr was given the all clear on his urine sample yesterday, so neither of them are unwell.

Does anyone have any positive stories of resolved post vet aggression (and/or resolving long term spraying!)?

He smells different. That's why he's bidding at him. It'll settle down.

I agree it's because of smell .

Thank you. I know it’s because of the smell but we are doing scent swapping and brushing and it’s not making much difference.

Yesterday I thought we had a breakthrough, normal play fighting initiated by the aggressor, ending in licking and all fine. Then 10 minutes later he was angry and hissy again! It’s so confusing

Do you play with them? You could try a joint play session, e.g. using a hands distance dangle and chase toy, end with a high value treat. Then, their focus and positive association with each other is on a good time followed by a reward :-)

I do play with them but unfortunately have never been able to get the vet cat to play, we’ve tried everything. On occasion he will but he’s not confident when the other cats are around. We’re still doing treats when near by and they’re fine with that, just still hissing when vet cat gets too boisterous - he’s never hissed again him in the past though and they are evenly matched in play fighting. Starting to lose hope

It takes a few days for them to re-adjust after a vet visit, especially one that involves surgery - you really need to be patient.

However it doesn't sound like it's a particularly harmonious multi-cat household in general - do the other two cats get along with the boys and with each other? Have you tried plug-ins like Feliway to help settle all the cats?

Cats that spray indoors generally do so through stress - long-term you may need to look into rehoming one (or more) cats as they don't all enjoy living with other cats, especially unrelated ones.

I say this as someone who has three unrelated cats living together indoors. We have play fights but it's never escalated beyond the odd hiss - we've never had growling, biting or proper fighting. That's not normal behaviour for happy cats.

The girls are fine with the two boys unless they are being are being too boisterous which happens on occasion, and the boys will get a smack. We’ve never had a proper fight. And the girls get on well together and always have.

We’ve tried both types of feliway for around 4 months each for the spraying and unfortunately it didn’t help - as I said that was brought on by a neighbour cat fussing around the catio. The behaviourist said that the cats showed no signs of stress (aside the spraying as that’s what she was there for) so I’m pretty confident it’s not a multi-cat household issue. The cats have always had plenty of resources, beds, scratching posts, cat shelves, play, human attention and everything else we can possibly do to ensure a calm household.