Angry cat

[Speechdelaymamma]

Evening everyone

I am in desperate need of help with my cat. She is 2 years old and 4 months ago we moved house. Since we moved, her whole personality has changed and now I am terrified of her.

She used to love to go outside and since moving here she hates it. I understand; new smells, new cats, doesn’t know where she is. I’ve set up a litter tray for her inside and only let her in the garden when she asks to go out. But when she comes back in, she will hiss at me for no reason and act very aggressively.

Even if she’s not been out for days, she is aggressive. She will purr and rub against my legs one minute and the next take a chunk out of my skin. This morning, she sat on the sink next to me while I was on the toilet, was rubbing her face against mine nicely and then aggressively bit me. She’s hissing at my mum when she visits who she used to love. The only saving grace is that she hasn’t attacked my young son yet.

I’m really trying to be understanding of the move but I’m quite terrified of her now. Even as I write this, she’s sat beside me and I reached for the remote and she tried to bite me. I’ve bought a feliway plug in and while I felt it worked for a couple days, it’s back to normal now. I’m sick of being torn to shreds by her and I feel anxious walking around her. Any advice? Next step is the vet to check she’s ok internally etc.

Does your vet or vet plan offer animal behaviour counselling? We had a cat like that years ago — he was either angry, or overeating, or both. Years later it became clear he had developed severe arthritis, and was probably in a lot of pain for a long time but we couldn’t tell. The bad temper and overeating were probably attempts to self-soothe, but animal behaviourists weren’t in fashion then, so we had no way of knowing why he was behaving like that.

So I would make a vet trip first of all, and ask for a checkup and a referral to an animal behaviour specialist if available.

Have you tried Zylkene? It worked very well for my cat when she was overgrooming. You can get it from your vet but it is much cheaper on Amazon.

Have you watched Jackson Galaxy/My Cat from Hell. He has loads of advice about dealing with aggressive cats, you might pick something up or he might even answer if you contact him. I’ve picked up lots of useful things, (plus love him)

Safe to say your cat is upset or scared by the move. Figure out if there is a room or place in the house for your cat to retreat to (home base). It’s better for them to have less space when dealing with a new environment. Your cat can, and will, get better.